Aaron Rai A Last-Minute Withdrawal From Farmers Insurance Open
Englishman Aaron Rai withdrew from the Farmers Insurance Open just before the first round, with Franke Capan III taking his place
There was a late withdrawal from the field at the Farmers Insurance Open as Aaron Rai pulled out just before Thursday's opening round.
The 30-year-old was due to play at Torrey Pines on Thursday for his second PGA Tour appearance of the year, but withdrew on the morning of the first round.
Rai was due to tee it up with Joe Highsmith and Michael Brennan in the first round of the Farmers Insurance Open, with his place in the field taken up by Frankie Capan III.
Capan shot a three-over 75 on the North Course at Torrey Pines to finish well down the field.
Highsmith and Capan will head off in round two on the South Course at Torrey Pines in a two-ball after Brennan was disqualified after the first round.
Rai returned to PGA Tour action at the Sony Open, where he finished T50 after finishing on four under in Hawaii.
He missed the cut at Torrey Pines last year but the Englishman did manage a T6 finish at the Farmers in 2022.
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Rai has risen to World No.25 after a strong finish to 2025 on the DP World Tour - finishing T3 at the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth before beating Tommy Fleetwood in a playoff to win the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.
On the PGA Tour, Rai finished just outside the top 50 last season so did not gain entry to all the Signature Events for the year, but was in the final Aon Next 10 so has a place in the upcoming AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and Genesis Invitational.
No reason was given for his withdrawal from Torrey Pines though, so his participation at Pebble Beach will remain in doubt.
Paul Higham is a sports journalist with over 20 years of experience in covering most major sporting events for both Sky Sports and BBC Sport. He is currently freelance and covers the golf majors on the BBC Sport website. Highlights over the years include covering that epic Monday finish in the Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor and watching Rory McIlroy produce one of the most dominant Major wins at the 2011 US Open at Congressional. He also writes betting previews and still feels strangely proud of backing Danny Willett when he won the Masters in 2016 - Willett also praised his putting stroke during a media event before the Open at Hoylake. Favourite interviews he's conducted have been with McIlroy, Paul McGinley, Thomas Bjorn, Rickie Fowler and the enigma that is Victor Dubuisson. A big fan of watching any golf from any tour, sadly he spends more time writing about golf than playing these days with two young children, and as a big fair weather golfer claims playing in shorts is worth at least five shots. Being from Liverpool he loves the likes of Hoylake, Birkdale and the stretch of tracks along England's Golf Coast, but would say his favourite courses played are Kingsbarns and Portrush.
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