THIS week’s tournament might be the first of the year to make Jon Rahm have mixed emotions about his decision to quit the PGA Tour and join LIV Golf. True, he’s a former winner of two of 2024’s first three tournaments, but his attachment to Torrey Pines GC, the host venue of the Farmers Insurance Open, goes much deeper than a sensational record there.

That course logbook really is magnificent, by the way. He won this tournament on debut in 2017, landed his first major championship there in the 2021 US Open and has finished top seven in seven of his eight starts (even in the exception, when defending that first title, he was second at halfway).

He has always insisted, however, that his comfort level on the Californian cliff tops overlooking the Pacific Ocean was because he and his wife visited the area when students, and fell in love with it as deeply as they were with each other. He even proposed to her there.

This Wednesday, instead of teeing it up in the first round (yes, beware that there’s an early start), he will be at home preparing for his LIV bow in next week’s visit to El Camaleon in Mayakoba, Mexico. His presence will up the interest in the rebel league and it is undoubtedly one of the great intrigues ahead of his defence of the green jacket at Augusta National in April – just how will a golfer at the peak of his powers, and completely committed to winning more majors, be affected by playing LIV?

Of course, Brooks Koepka has already won the PGA Championship while playing LIV and Cameron Smith made the move while he was the reigning Open champion, but Rahm is a subtly and distinctly different prospect. It’s easy for some to poo-poo his preparations but he never hid his frustration at the PGA Tour itinerary forced on him last summer in the aftermath of his Masters victory. He wouldn’t have played The Heritage a week later, or the Travelers Championship in June, unless given little option and you suspect he considers that the scheduling negatively impacted his performance in the other majors. Comparing and contrasting that with this year will not be a straightforward exercise, but it will be worth examining.

Meanwhile, it’s been a curious start to the punting year. On the DP World Tour second favourite Tommy Fleetwood lifted the Dubai Invitational before short-priced favourite Rory McIlroy landed the Dubai Desert Classic. In contrasting fashion, on the PGA Tour, 100/1 Chris Kirk won The Sentry, 250/1 Grayson Murray pinched the Sony Open and then amateur star Nick Dunlap stunned the golf world with victory in The American Express having started the week priced 350/1.

Here are three players who can join that quintet in the winner’s circle this week.

Max Homa

The quartet at the top of the market is to be admired and respected, and I just wonder if Max Homa ought to be the outsider of them. Xander Schauffele is a San Diego native who has got to grips with Torrey Pines in recent times but he still doesn’t win as often as he should, Patrick Cantlay is yet to take to Torrey Pines and, while Collin Morikawa has done (and he won again at the end of last year), he is not quite the winning machine of his early years as a professional.

Homa is the defending champion which will be a distraction, but since the start of 2020 he has been superb when playing in his home state of California on Poa Annua greens. In that time he has made 14 starts, landing 12 top 20s, 10 of them top 10s, with four victories. He was also a winner at the back end of 2023 in South Africa.

Sahith Theegala 

The 26-year-old from Orange County is another golfer who has been happy in his home state of California. His first start on the PGA Tour was there, so was his first top 20 and then, last September, his first victory in the Fortinet Championship. That breakthrough was a fourth top six finish in California on Poa Annua in a row and he can maintain that run this week.

On tournament debut two years ago he sat inside the top 10 through 36 holes before finishing T25th and last year he was in the top five all week on the way to fourth place. He opened 2023 with a runner-up finish in The Sentry and that near-miss contributed to a slow first round a week later in the Sony Open. He nearly made the cut with a Friday 67 but instead went home. He can get back in contention on the other side of the Pacific.

Harris English

Harris English has made a solid start to the year, finishing T14th in The Sentry and T10th in the Sony Open, recording 64s in both of them. Back in California, where he contended for the US Open at LA Country Club last June, he can push on a challenge at the top end of the leaderboard. He was also third in his national championship at Torrey Pines and he’s also finished second, eighth and T14th in this tournament.

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