‘Life’s coming at us really quick': Distracted Justin Lower opens with 63 at Farmers

SAN DIEGO – Most PGA Tour players try to keep their emotions locked away, both on and off the course. Justin Lower is not that player.

After missing the cut at last year’s RSM Classic, he lamented a year filled with missed opportunities and his position on the season-long points standings, which would limit his status in 2026.

“I’m human, I don’t know what else to do, but God, I am just so mad right now. Like, if I could just have somehow turned it around this year, but I obviously couldn’t,” Lower said at Sea Island [Ga.] Resort. “This game is just really hard. I don’t know what to do, I don’t know what to say. I need to figure out how to get better.”

On Thursday at the Farmers Insurance Open, Lower’s second consecutive start, there were more emotions, but this time it was following a 9-under 63 on the North Course that lifted him into second place.

“Honestly, if I’m being really truthful with everyone, my mind’s not really here. My wife [Janise] is 34 weeks pregnant with twins and I’m just trying to get home on Monday, honestly, to try to help everything out as much as I can,” Lower said. “Luckily, we have family close and everything. Yeah, she’s going through it right now. Life’s about to get real, if it wasn’t real already.”

Lower had two eagles and six birdies Thursday and trails Justin Rose by a shot. After finishing outside the top 100 last year, he has limited status this season (he missed the cut last week at the American Express). A solid week at Torrey Pines would improve that status, but he admitted his focus is understandably on his family and what promises to be an eventful few months.

“It’s just a lot. We have a 3-year-old right now as well. Life’s coming at us really quick,” he said. “Then obviously, like on my side, first year in a while without full status. I would say, a little uncertainty there. Yeah, it’s just kind of the way it is. Just trying to take it one day at a time.”