Featured Groups: Farmers Insurance Open

It’s a big week for the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, where the defending champion, Jon Rahm, comes in hot on the heels of his second PGA TOUR victory at last week’s CareerBuilder Challenge, and seemingly everyone is talking about the 647th ranked player in the world. TEE TIMES: Farmers Insurance Open, Rounds 1 and 2 | Watch PGA TOUR LIVE Tiger Woods will make his first official TOUR start in one year when he tees it up at Torrey on Thursday. The anticipation is high any time he competes, but especially so at Torrey, where he has won the Farmers seven times and has five other top-10 finishes in 16 starts. Add his 2008 U.S. Open win, and his 1991 Junior World victory, both at Torrey, and you begin to see why there are few courses on the planet where Woods feels more comfortable. He’s hardly the only one, though, who circles this week on the schedule. Defending champion Jon Rahm is on a major roll, and Rickie Fowler, Hideki Matsuyama and Justin Rose give the Farmers four of the top 10 players in the world, and 11 of the top 25. Brandt Snedeker is a two-time winner at the Farmers and shot one of the all-time great rounds in the history of the TOUR in his victory in 2016, beating the field average by 10 strokes. Xander Schauffele, officially awarded Rookie of the Year honors Tuesday, is a San Diego State product who should feel comfortable playing in his hometown tournament. And former No. 1 Jason Day, the 2015 champion at the Farmers, is looking to get back to his winning ways. Players will alternate on the (slightly easier) North Course and the South Course on Thursday and Friday, then switch to the South exclusively on the weekend. PGA TOUR Live will have coverage Thursday and Friday starting at 11:45 a.m. ET, and PGA TOUR Radio and Golf Channel will have coverage all four days. Here’s a look at this week’s Featured Groups (current FedExCup rankings in parentheses). Rickie Fowler (15), Xander Schauffele (36), Patrick Cantlay (9) Fowler tries to keep it going after his impressive victory at the unofficial Hero World Challenge last month. San Diego product Schauffele is coming off a season in which he won twice, including his surprising victory at the TOUR Championship, and should feel right at home at Torrey. And Patrick Cantlay, one of the biggest movers from last season, is already a winner this season after his breakthrough at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. North Course tee time: Thursday, Rd. 1, 12:30 p.m. (9:30 a.m. local) off the 10th tee; South Course tee time: Friday, Rd. 2, 1:30 p.m. off the first tee. Justin Rose (10), Hideki Matsuyama (38), Phil Mickelson (45) Rose is one of the hottest players anywhere after reeling off back-to-back wins in Europe to end last season. Matsuyama aims to rediscover the magic he found at the Presidents Cup (singles win over Justin Thomas) and World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational last season. And Mickelson, another San Diegan, tries to rebound from a missed cut at last week’s CareerBuilder. North Course tee time: Thursday, Rd. 1, 12:40 p.m. off the 10th tee. South Course tee time: Friday, Rd. 2, 1:40 p.m. off the first tee. Jon Rahm (2), Jason Day (76), Brandt Snedeker (167) Easily the hottest player in golf, Rahm, 23, is not only this week’s defending champion, he is coming off a playoff victory at the CareerBuilder Challenge, which vaulted him to second in the FedExCup standings. Day, the 2015 Farmers champion, is trying to get back into the winner’s circle after a sub-standard 2017. And Snedeker is a two-time Farmers champion who is eager to make up for lost time after missing much of last season with a rib injury. South Course tee time: Thursday, Rd. 1, 1:30 p.m. off the first tee; North Course tee time: Friday, Rd. 2, 12:20 p.m. off the 10th tee. Patrick Reed (71), Charley Hoffman (48), Tiger Woods (NA) Reed is coming off a rare winless season, but one in which he and his wife, Justine, welcomed their second child. It surely hasn’t escaped his notice that this is a Ryder Cup year. San Diego product Hoffman knows Torrey Pines well, and just made his first Presidents Cup team at age 40. And Woods, coming off back fusion surgery last April, is making his first official TOUR start since exactly a year ago. South Course tee time: Thursday, Rd. 1, 1:40 p.m. off the first tee; North Course tee time: Friday, Rd. 2, 12:30 p.m. off the 10th tee.

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