– This week, the American Express tournament, part of the PGA Tour with a Pro-Am format, takes place in La Quinta, California, across three different courses: the Pete Dye Stadium course at PGA West, the Nicklaus Tournament course, and La Quinta Country Club. The first of these, the Pete Dye Stadium course, hosts the final and decisive round after all players have rotated through the three venues in the first three days and the cut has been made.
– The tournament features 27 of the world’s top fifty players and half of the world’s top ten, including the World Number One, Scottie Scheffler, whose return to competition is undoubtedly the biggest attraction (the other top ten: Russell Henley, Robert MacIntyre, Ben Griffin, and Justin Rose).
– After the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas, which served as a warm-up for Scheffler and where he could ‘only’ finish fourth, there is almost impatience to see how the Texan performs at this event. To start with, an interesting fact: Scottie has never won this tournament, and not only that, in five appearances, he has only achieved one top ten. Regardless, his status as the favourite is indisputable. Despite the World Number One’s disappointment at the Ryder, it is impossible not to consider him the top contender for victory on the American circuit, where he has been dominant for four years now.
– There’s no other way: after winning seven PGA Tour tournaments in 2024 and six in 2025, it’s almost just a matter of when he will start the count in 2026… By the way, he could become the first player since Tiger to achieve twenty victories on the PGA Tour before turning thirty (he turns thirty in June and has 19 wins). His legend as the World Number One grows day by day, as he has already spent 175 weeks at the top of the rankings, which is more than half of Greg Norman’s (331) and more than a quarter of Tiger’s (683), the only two players ahead of him. Granted, he still has a long way to go to even come close to Woods and Norman, but the solid foundation is more than established.
