LA JOLLA, Calif. — The windbreakers are on with zippers up to the chin. Caddies have double hoodies over their heads. Camera lenses are being wiped so the audience can even see. The shot of the day included the third-ranked player in the world hitting into rough so deep he carried a teddy-bear-sized chunk of muddy turf attached to the head of his wedge into the air. Rory McIlroy lifted it out of the muck yet somehow controlled the 88-yard shot so well the ball caught the back of the green and spun back to 6 inches from the pin. The shot was so impressive that the not-easily impressed Northern Irishman earnestly laughed in amazement with his caddie.

And as he made his way out of the disgusting San Diego rain and into the clubhouse, he turned in his scorecard for an impressive round of … even par. Eighteen of the top 20 players in the world are in the field this week at the Genesis Invitational. Just two of them played the first round under par. It felt like an ugly, gritty U.S. Open.

Torrey Pines South and the atmospheric river surrounding it won the day Thursday.

The man who hit that shot? He’s had a lot of thoughts lately — about presidents, money and the future of golf. But he also has thoughts on venues. Speaking two weeks ago at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am — which he won — McIlroy provided some deserved praise for that iconic venue, talking about what it meant to contend at Pebble and how good of a course it is. But McIlroy also rarely says anything without intention. So his next comment was no accident.

“I always feel like the golf course is a big part of the storyline heading into Thursday,” he said. “Sometimes on the PGA Tour that isn’t the case because whether you play a run-of-the-mill TPC or whatever it is, it just isn’t that interesting.”

Run-of-the-mill TPC or whatever it is. McIlroy was throwing a dig toward at least a dozen courses that occupy yearly spots on the tour schedule.

But as the tour returns to Torrey Pines for the second time in four weeks — because the Genesis Invitational moved from Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles due to fires in the nearby Palisades — it is the perfect time to revisit the conversation. Because venues do matter, and few courses carry a more polarizing, complicated relationship in the golf world than Torrey Pines.

It is one of the most famous public golf courses in the United States but does not sit all that high on most golf magazine lists. It is a place that all-time greats such as Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Jon Rahm consider one of their most beloved, and yet the Farmers Insurance Open has been relegated to a second-tier PGA Tour stop over the last few years. It is one of the prettiest stops in golf with gorgeous views along the San Diego coast with paragliders floating through the sky, and many architectural minds consider it a boring, straightforward misuse of incredible property.

So what actually makes a great tournament venue?

Almost no courses, save Augusta National, check all four. Only the absolute best check even three. But the consensus seems to be that if a course can provide at least one of these tenets, it can create a watchable tournament. If there were to be a fifth tenet it would be weather, but that is not predictable or consistent, and in reality, every course needs wind to play as intended.

The absolute best major championship venues check most boxes. St. Andrews Old Course hits at least three. Great American venues such as Oakmont, Pinehurst No. 2 and Shinnecock likely hit three.

But let’s look at Pebble Beach. There was a lengthy stretch where, aside from when it hosted U.S. Opens, Pebble became an afterthought on tour. Once considered one of golf’s toughest tests, golf’s distance and equipment revolution started to render it obsolete. Winners often shoot at least 20-under-par. But score relative to par is not the entire story.

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler broke it down as well as anyone.

He said, yes, the ocean views along Carmel Bay’s cliffs make Pebble Beach iconic. Even during years when it lost some status, everyone wanted to watch Pebble on TV. But it’s the way it makes the best players think that takes it to another level. Low scoring does not mean low thought.

“You look at a hole like No. 3 where there’s a cypress tree there that I’m sure when they originally designed the golf course wasn’t supposed to grow to be part of the hitting area because the hole was originally designed for you to hit it out there on the right side and hit a longer shot into the green,” Scheffler said, “but the way technology is now, we can hit the ball a lot further, guys are more athletic, we do more stuff in the gym, the hole has changed.

“But the charm of that hole is there’s a tree off the tee that you have to curve your ball around. Now with the technology, it’s hard to draw a driver, so it’s hard to hit that hook shot around it.” He kept using the word charm, but he was referring to wrinkles. He said many architects would have tried to take out that tree, but the tree is what makes him think.

“When you play Pebble Beach, you have to play shots,” Scheffler said. “You can’t just hit it as hard as you can every time.”

But other players place more emphasis on the drama a course creates. Max Homa lives in Scottsdale, Ariz., and can play TPC Scottsdale, the host for the WM Phoenix Open, whenever he wants, but he acknowledged he rarely does outside of one week a year. Because without the buildouts and fans, he said, it’s not exactly a course to write home about architecturally. He plays nearby Whisper Rock for that. But he considers TPC Scottsdale one of the best all year as a tournament course.

“I look at it kind of like a movie where it like peaks at the right time,” Homa said.

It has iconic holes. It has a six-hole finishing stretch with boom-or-bust opportunities where golfers can come from behind or blow a lead. All golf fans know the chaotic stadium par-3 16th with thousands of fans taunting players, or the short par 4 No. 17 with water along the left. In turn, we get incredible finishes. “I know there’s probably better venues in the world that we go to or in the city that we go to each week,” Homa said, “but I think that there could be thought to like tournament-based golf courses, set them up so that it has like this climactic finish, and I think last week was a really good example of that.”

Valhalla Golf Club is often torched as a weak major venue because it can’t challenge the world’s best and it’s straightforward, but even its biggest detractors will acknowledge it creates thrilling finishes. Two of the four PGA Championships at Valhalla went to a playoff (including the iconic 2000 playoff between Tiger Woods and Bob May) and the others were decided by one shot on the final hole.

The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass is a tough, daunting course that makes players think and has a famous, dramatic final stretch that rivals even Augusta as far as endings go. Sawgrass checks at least two boxes and more likely three.

It and Riviera are often described as the two best PGA Tour stops. Riviera does not have that iconic finish or drama, but it might be the best actual architectural course on tour and tends to reward the actual best golfer.

So what is Torrey?

This is when we must remember not everyone views golf courses the same. Though Scheffler and McIlroy might prefer to think their way through 18 holes, Shane Lowry brushed that off. At one point he said he liked Torrey Pines because it’s not a thinking man’s course. “I look for winning score,” the 2019 Open champion said. “I like a course where you come in with a 3 or 4 under and feel really proud.”

Lowry specifically likes that Torrey is right in front of you but that it still challenges players. It automatically gains appreciation from many fans for the fact it’s a beautiful course on the water that’s also completely open to the public — only $88 on the weekends for locals. That’s one box checked. But it does play close to par, because you need to be accurate and you need to be able to hit challenging shots out of evil, thick rough to succeed. You cannot go pin hunting at Torrey. Tiger and Rocco Mediate went to a playoff at 1-under in the 2008 U.S. Open. Jon Rahm won the 2021 U.S. Open at 6-under.

But that is also why many golf nerds hate it. Most holes look exactly the same, straightforward with skinny fairways and thick rough. It is difficult, but it lacks nuance. Critics also point to the way the stunning property is used, with the ocean not coming into play enough and the large canyon only really being used on one hole.

Torrey Pines will always rank as a respectable tournament course to many viewers simply because of its history and the scenery around it.

That’s what it brings to the table, even if it’s not for everyone.