With Jason Day defending and Ryan Ruffels making his Professional debut, the PGA TOUR’s Farmers Insurance Open will have a heavy Australian focus this week in California.

The pair are part of a 14 strong Australian contingent and while Day, in particular, will be under the spotlight Marc Leishman might be the Australian to surprise this week.

Day’s thrilling play-off victory last year was the continuation of a string of high finishes at Torrey Pines but Leishman, too, has proved somewhat a specialist on the Southern California layout.

In seven appearances he has missed the cut only once but has two runners-up finishes and another top-10 on his resume as well.

He missed the cut by a stroke at last week’s Careerbuilder tournament despite being 8-under for the three rounds played and in his seven rounds so far in 2016 has shot worse than 70 just once, indicating his game is in good shape.

The full list of Australians playing this week is: Robert Allenby, Stuart Appleby, Aaron Baddeley, Jason Day, Rhein Gibson, Matt Jones, Marc Leishman, Jarrod Lyle, Geoff Ogilvy, Rod Pampling, Cameron Percy, Ryan Ruffels, John Senden and Cameron Smith.

Every week on Tour is an important one but particularly so this week for Jarrod Lyle, Rhein Gibson and Ruffels though all for different reasons.

Lyle’s quest to get back his PGA TOUR card continues but with the clock ticking after a missed cut last week the pressure continues to mount.

Lyle needs to amass $209,111 to earn back his status but now has only seven tournaments left to achieve that goal.

He played decent golf at last week’s Careerbuilder tournament but with the cut coming at 9-under after three rounds it was a tough school where you needed to be better than decent to play all four days.

His previous form at Torrey Pines offers little encouragement with a best of T42 in five appearances but he will be highly motivated this week and after a five birdie back nine to shoot 66 in the third round last week he is clearly hitting the ball well enough to score.

For Gibson the week is an important one as he is yet to play his best since graduating from the Web.com Tour in 2015.

In six starts he has made just one cut and with a reshuffle of priority rankings looming at the end of February he needs to move up the list to have some security for the rest of the year.

Gibson is currently 37th on the priority list which dictates tournament eligibility and needs some good performances in the next three weeks to move higher in the standings.

Having not played the tournament previously, Gibson begins the week with a clean slate though would like to make some good memories by Sunday.

While the rest of this week’s Australian contingent are well into their careers for 17-year-old Ryan Ruffels the first tee Thursday morning represents a huge moment.

The teen announced a fortnight ago that he had left the amateur ranks and despite his tender years he understands what an enormous opportunity it is to make his Professional debut at one of the biggest events on the world’s biggest Tour.

Expectations are high for Ruffels’ future and he will feel the pressure at Torrey Pines but he is in somewhat familiar surrounds having won a World Junior tournament here in 2014.

It will be different conditions and vastly different circumstances that greet him this week but it’s an exciting way to launch what many believe will be a long and successful career.