SAN DIEGO — Among the prizes afforded the Farmers Insurance Open champion is a cool trophy that features a Torrey pine, an even cooler check for $1.5 million and a surfboard with a coolness factor somewhere between the trophy and check.
Xander Schauffele, born and raised in San Diego, is well acquainted with the beach and the waves here, although more from the distant bluffs overlooking Torrey Pines State Beach.
Asked if he surfs, Shauffele said, "I wish."
"I got really good at golf kind of later in my career here," added the 29-year-old Scripps Ranch High School and San Diego State graduate, "and I think it's because I wasn't surfing earlier in my career. ... Maybe when I stop playing so much golf, I'll try and pick up surfing because it just seems like something I'd enjoy doing."
Don't expect Schauffele to be checking surf reports anytime in the near future.
He's among the favorites to be standing on the 18th green — posing for pictures with the surfboard as the Farmers champion — on Saturday as afternoon becomes evening.
"Being from here and getting like a homemade prize and being able to put it in my own car and drive away with it 20 minutes from my house would be amazing," said Schauffele, a Las Vegas resident now who recently purchased a home in North County. "I'm not going to let my brain travel too far to that point, but it would be, obviously, just a cherry on top."
Sunshine is in the forecast this week at Torrey Pines for the tournament that follows a Wednesday through Saturday schedule for the second straight year.
Defending champion Luke List is among 156 players participating in an event that will spread around $8.7 million in prize money.
Jon Rahm, No. 3 in the world rankings, is the 4-to-1 favorite coming into the tournament.
It's no wonder. The Spaniard has won back-to-back starts this year — last week's The American Express and season-opening Sentry Tournament of Champions.
A victory at Torrey Pines would make Rahm the first golfer to win three straight starts since Dustin Johnson five years ago.
Rahm has two victories at Torrey Pines. He won the 2021 U.S. Open here, four years after claiming his first PGA Tour victory at the 2017 Farmers.
Rahm said the surfboard from that victory is sitting up against a wall in his home office, and it isn't going anywhere.
"I don't think it's ever going to touch water," Rahm said. "Yeah, no, that's not going to happen."
Back to Schauffele, who is ranked No. 6 and finished two strokes behind Rahm on Sunday at The American Express in La Quinta. He appears primed to challenge for a championship where he has seen mixed results.
Shauffele finished tied for 34th last year, eight strokes behind the winner. His best finish in seven appearances came in 2021, when Schauffele tied for second.
A back issue that forced Schauffele to withdraw three weeks ago from the Tournament of Champions appears to be behind him.
"You start playing more golf, you start walking around, you start swinging more, you'll get in the swing of things," said Schauffele, who called the issue "muscular."
"It was just a tight spot there. My team was really quick to diagnose it, assess the scans and MRIs, get the right eyes on it."
He was confident there will be no additional swing thoughts when he finds himself in Torrey's (in)famous rough.
"I already took my fair share of whacks out of the rough the last two days, so I'm beyond fine," Schauffele said.
The tournament begins on the 10th tee of the North Course for Schauffele, who is paired the first two rounds with J.J. Spaun, another SDSU alum, and Japan's Hideki Matsuyama.
The golfers will play both the North and South courses before the field is trimmed for the final two rounds.
Schauffele and Spaun are among a handful of San Diegans in the field, along with veteran Charley Hoffman, El Cajon's Joey Vrzich and USD senior Harrison Kingsley.
Vrzich joined PGA Tour Canada last summer after graduating from Pepperdine. He received a sponsors exemption to make his first PGA Tour appearance.
Kingsley, one of three amateurs in the field, earned a spot in Monday's qualifier.
The locals have the additional incentive of etching their name alongside the six local golfers who have won the Farmers: Phil Mickelson (2001, 2000, 1993), Scott Simpson (1998), Craig Stadler (1994), Greg Twiggs (1989), Billy Casper (1966) and Gene Littler (1954).
"It would be a tremendous honor," Schauffele said. "It's just cool. Everyone wants to win in their hometown.
"It makes it harder to win in your hometown because of that. It's just a fun challenge for us."
