Rahm Claws Back, Ryder Breaks Away at Farmers Insurance Open

Torrey Pines bore a few more of its teeth on Thursday, but that didn’t hold back Sam Ryder, who continued to separate himself from the Farmers Insurance Open field.

Ryder not only posted a 4-under 68 in the gusty La Jolla conditions, but he did it on the South Course—the more challenging of the two tracks at Torrey Pines. The round was the best of the day over at the South. Max Homa’s 2-under 66 was the only other score that came close to Ryder’s, and it propelled him to a tie for fourth place heading into the third round. 

Ryder, ranked No. 283 in the world, may look comfortable with the 36-hole lead right now, but it’s not a place he finds himself in often. A win this week would be Ryder’s first on the PGA Tour since earning his card in 2018.  

“The thing I've been kind of telling myself is to just try and embrace it,” Ryder said. “It's not a position that I've been in a lot, you know, so just trying to enjoy it. It's kind of why we play, so just trying to look around and enjoy the moment.“

Brendan Steele, who happened to be paired with Ryder for Wednesday and Thursday’s rounds, sits three shots back of the lead at 9 under par for the tournament. 

Steele and Ryder’s positions at the top of the leaderboard may not be so coincidental though—the two could not stop chatting both days, making the longer Torrey Pines rounds easier to get through.

“Our sense of humor is very childish and immature so we're kind of going with that the whole day for two days and that made it nice and made it seem like it wasn't as difficult out there as far as like the waiting and sitting around,” Steele said. 

The initial Farmers Insurance favorite, Jon Rahm, wasn’t in his best form during Round 1, but he shot up the leaderboard on Thursday with a 5-under 67 on the North Course. 

Rahm again got off to a shaky start, posting an even-par 36 on his front nine. But the world No. 3 picked up the pace in a major way with five holes to play: starting with an eagle on the par-5 5th (his 14th hole), which he followed with three consecutive birdies. 

“There's no difference between those holes or any other five, four holes you can pick throughout the round, it's just kind of guessed with the wind right in all of them,” Rahm said. “I think maybe I was a little more aggressive after that second shot on 6 and got in the mentality of making birdies instead of being a little tentative, which is easy to do when it's blowing as hard as it was blowing today.”

The run helped skyrocket Rahm past the cut line, and ultimately saved him from breaking his streak of 21 made cuts. But at no point during his round was Rahm bothered with keeping up that statistic. 

“The goal is to win,” Rahm said. “I was playing with the mindset of catching up to the leaders as much as possible, that’s it.”