Torrey, over 80% of the locals choose the North course

Imo, they just made the south course too hard by catering to the PGA to the detriment of the city residents. Phil Mickelson even dislikes the South course and the way it repeals even good shots towards trouble.

A renovation of the North course is planned to start this spring 2015, the course will be shut down until the fall 2015.  (I'm playing there this Friday).  I think Phil is on the right track with the design of the north, still friendly enough for the residents while also better for the PGA.

http://www.golfchannel.com/news/golftalkcentral/mickelson-opposite-feelings-north-south-courses/

I was lucky enough to play the South course about a year ago. I didn't find it to be unfair or overly punitive. If anything, I found it to be the opposite. Good shots left me scoring opportunities, bad shots left me with brutal recoveries and/or approaches. Most of the difficulty was in the length (6,800 from the white tees, if I recall), but the course itself was extremely fair and the golf was enjoyable. If I were a San Diego resident, I'd play there as often as I could.

That said, I have never played the North, so I don't have a basis for comparison between the two.

I've played both and they're both great.  The south is harder in large part because it's 8 million yards long.  The white tees on the south are 6,628/73.1/133, whereas the white tees of the north are 6,325/70.8/125.

I would also imagine that the difficulty of the south has very little to do with the 80% number.  It's more likely just that tee times on the north are very easy for locals to get because all any tourist wants to do is play the famous south course.

Amen, Brother! I agree that the re-do of the south ruined a really special course.

Got peer pressured into playing the south again two weeks ago, it was wet, long, tough, slow and the rough was prob 4 inches. Played white tees (max handicap 15 per scorecard) with two 15 handicap buddies, they didn't break 100 (one came close though). And we were keeping up with the group ahead, but they were really struggling too. I shot 87 and felt like I played over my head, having multiple 460 yard par 4s is no fun when you carry 210 off the tee and get no roll. Just a deathmarch.

Not a coincidence that single digit handicappers didn't think it was too hard. I'd guess that unless you are single digit handicap and can carry your driver at least 230 and straight, this course is too much. And from the blue tees its too much for anyone, although it looked like a bunch of high handicappers were playing from back there (out of towners who want the "full" experience I assume). The card says you gotta be a max 5 handicap to play from back there but the starter didn't police it, at least not with the types who teed off in front of us from the blue tees, they were pretty obviously not 5 handicappers.

Not for me. I hope Phil keeps the playability for all handicappers that the north currently has.

Why can't designers design courses that are a challenge for all handicap levels instead of designing them so that only a 5 handicapper can hit the shots required?

End of rant

Maybe I'm remembering this wrong and you guys can help me, but ... how different is it really since the re-do for us non-pros?  It was always the longer and harder of the two courses.  All I remember is that they pushed the 3rd and 14th greens closer to the cliffs and they added a bunch of further back tees for the pros to make the championship tees even longer.  But those further back tees never get used for the whites, so that shouldn't matter.

@mvmac and @Clambake ... help me out here.  Was it really more playable and easier before 2000??

I played the South Course after the first redo in about 2006. As long as you play from the correct tees it's not a bear. You can play the Gold tees at under 6100 yards with a men's slope of 129. There are not a ton of traps and I doubt the rough is normally 4" tall. It's a flat course. Really nothing special IMO.

I played Torrey North today with a 1:37 tee time.  Played 9, walked, course is in good condition.  The most difficult aspect for me was the greens which were fast and they have a lot of slope at least compared to what I'm use to.  Putts that I thought my go pass the hole by a foot would go 5, 10 and in one case 15 feet.  I had 5 3 putts out of the 9 holes.

It was a bit chilly for San Diego, started at about 62* ended at about 55*, with some wind.  It was beautiful.  This is the nicest course I play as I only play public courses.