The tournament hasn’t even begun yet, and it’s already in hot water. The PGA Tour’s third event of the season kicked off at Torrey Pines today. But even before the Farmers Insurance Open began, it faced its first obstacle. Set to tee off at 2:00 P.M. (EST), Aaron Rai had to withdraw from the event just before tee off.

As reported by the PGA Tour Communications, “Aaron Rai is a WD prior to the first round of the Farmers Insurance Open and is replaced by Frankie Capan III.”

Thankfully, Frankie Capan III was available to replace the Englishman. He will join the field alongside Davis Riley and Steven Fisk in the 2:00 P.M. tee time group.

At first, Capan III was the eighth alternate in the field. However, Brooks Koepka‘s inclusion in the event extended the field size to 147 players. That made him the sixth alternate. And as there were already quite a few withdrawals from the event, he got the opportunity to join the field at the very last minute.

But the field has already seen a lot of withdrawals. And Rai’s exit was announced after the play had already begun. That didn’t bode well with the fans.

Everyone in the community was left furious with the PGA Tour’s decision to make the announcement so late. Especially those who had bet on Rai to perform well in the round.

Netizens were furious with the PGA Tour’s late Aaron Rai withdrawal announcement

As mentioned, the Farmers Insurance Open 2026 has seen a lot of withdrawals already. But getting the last-minute update of Aaron Rai’s exit didn’t please the fans.

Some of them were furious because he was a part of their DraftKings picks.

As one of them stated, “Sick. Rai is in my only DK entry this week. I love that @DraftKings doesn’t let you switch out a player that has withdrawn. Please take my money!” Another also said, “Had him in draftkings. Fantastic.”

With Rai not playing the tournament, they have essentially lost money by picking him for the event. It’s understandable why the supporter is so furious about the PGA Tour’s late announcement.

Another questioned DraftKings for not allowing them to make the changes. They said, “@DraftKings when are you ever going to do the right thing and fix this? Sticking people with zeros because a guy WD’s after lock is such bullshit.”

They suggested that the draft game portal should have a feature to change the pick if someone withdraws from the event at the last minute. They can also offer the option to have Bench and Substitute picks automatically replace someone who isn’t playing. Fantasy Football and the EFL use such a feature efficiently to help their users.

Interestingly, another user agreed with the substitutes model as they said, “When will @DraftKings learn they should allow late subs to lineups when this shit happens post lock (bit pre said player teeing off) At the very least let us put the replacing player in our lineups.”

Lastly, a fan was just frustrated with the post-tee update shared by the PGA Tour. They wrote, “The PGA Tour is a joke. I wish someone would investigate them for shit like this.”

LIV Golf and Fox Sports received a lot of heat recently for the errors they made in their advertising. It was the perfect opportunity for the PGA Tour to capitalize and show why they are the superior product. However,  their failure to update the fans about the field changes means that they will find it difficult to earn back their trust.