Rahm (68) playing the best golf of his young career

SAN DIEGO – Nearly 24 hours after winning last week’s CareerBuilder Challenge in a playoff, Jon Rahm was still riding high on the emotion of the victory.

By the time he reached Torrey Pines, where he is the defending champion following his PGA Tour breakthrough last year, he was still so excited that he had to take a moment to calm things down.

“On Tuesday, I had this day planned, and my manager realized that I was a little too active, a little too amped up, and they told me, ‘Listen, you still have the adrenaline way too high. You need to focus on this week,’” said Rahm, who can overtake Dustin Johnson atop the Official World Golf Ranking with a victory this week. “We changed the press conference, played nine holes and got off the golf course as soon as possible to relax. Yesterday, just watched a movie, flipped the switch and got at it again.”

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It turned out to be exactly what the energetic Spaniard needed. After a relatively quiet start to his day, which included two bogeys and three birdies through his first 12 holes, Rahm birdied three of his next four holes for a 4-under 68 on the South Course and a share of fourth place at the Farmers Insurance Open.

For Rahm, it’s an impressively familiar result from a game that might be the most consistent in golf at the moment. In his last three starts, dating back to the season finale on the European Tour in November, he’s finished first, second. and first.

Even he would tell you he is playing the best golf of his young career.

“I mean I just won, and I shot 4 under today, so yeah, I’m playing really good,” he said. “Last week, it was some of the best golf I’ve ever played tee to green and this week is still really high quality.”