After its two-week stay in Hawaii, the PGA Tour is back on the mainland this week to begin its West Coast swing at The American Express, which tees off Thursday in La Quinta, Calif.
The field will play one round apiece at three different courses — the PGA West Pete Dye Stadium Course, the Nicklaus Tournament Course and La Quinta Country Club, all par 72s. After a 54-hole cut, the remaining players return to the Stadium Course for Sunday’s final round.
“I think it’s a really relaxed event,” World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler said. “I think the crowds are actually pretty good size for being spread around three courses. It’s a fun event to play for that reason.”
Scheffler, who has 18 top-10 finishes at official events since the start of the 2022-23 season, is almost guaranteed to be a factor in any tournament these days. But the 27-year-old isn’t about to assume high finishes.
“Wherever I sit at in the world rankings doesn’t really affect how I’m going to play this week,” he said. “Still going out and trying to play good and win the tournament. I feel like I harp on preparation a lot, and so when I show up to tournaments I want to be as prepared as possible. Then, when I step up on the first tee, I have a little conversation with myself, that I did everything that I could do to play good this week, I’m prepared, I’m going to have a good attitude, and then I’m just going to go out there and have fun and compete.”
Justin Thomas will make his season debut. The two-time major champion narrowly missed the FedEx Cup playoffs last summer and is looking forward to a fresh start.
He said at the PNC Championship exhibition event in December that “things are never as bad as people make them out to be.”
“At times I was just a couple putts, shots, swings here and there away from at least having a chance of making a run in the playoffs,” Thomas said. “But it’s a fine line out here.”
The field features plenty of other recognizable names, including Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffele, Tony Finau, Rickie Fowler, Wyndham Clark and Australia’s Jason Day. Irishman Shane Lowry is also making his PGA Tour season debut.
Daniel Berger, once ranked as high as No. 12 in the world, is back from an extended absence. Berger took time off to rehab a lower back injury and has not played since the 2022 U.S. Open.
Meanwhile, the tournament will not include its defending champion, Jon Rahm. The Spaniard left the PGA Tour for LIV Golf last month. Past champions Si Woo Kim of South Korea (2021) and Andrew Landry (2020) are among those in the field.
Many players who graduated from the Korn Ferry Tour last season will be making their PGA Tour debuts, most notably Tom Whitney. A native of La Quinta, Whitney is an Air Force veteran who plays for the memory of his older brother Bob, who died by suicide four years ago. Tom Whitney uses his brother’s Air Force dog tag as a ball marker.
“I think the timing is perfect,” the 34-year-old said of his PGA Tour debut. “God’s got me right where I’m supposed to be. Yeah, just looking forward to entering my prime.”
Adam Hadwin of Canada is a two-time runner-up at the event and shot a 59 at La Quinta Country Club in 2017.
While rain is expected in nearby Los Angeles on Saturday and Sunday, there is only an 11 percent chance it will reach the desert by the end of the final round, according to The Weather Channel.
–Field Level Media