Scottie Scheffler will participate in the American Express Championship at the end of January, marking his 2026 season debut.
Scottie Scheffler will compete for the first time in 2026 at the PGA Tour’s American Express Championship, the tournament organizers confirmed on Wednesday. The event will take place from January 22 to 25 in La Quinta, California, with a total purse of $9,200,000. Last year, Austrian Sepp Straka won the tournament.
Scheffler Faces a Challenging Task in California
The American Express Championship is one of the few tournaments missing from Scheffler’s list of victories. After a third-place finish in 2020, he placed in the top 25 in subsequent years but missed the 2025 event due to hand surgery. The competition this year is strong, with players like last year’s winner Sepp Straka, Ben Griffin, and Robert MacIntyre among those who could challenge the world number one.
This tournament is the second PGA Tour event of the year following next week’s Sony Open in Hawaii. The usual season opener, The Sentry, was canceled in October due to course conditions caused by drought at Kapalua.
Will Scottie Scheffler Deliver Another Outstanding Season?
At the American Express Championship, Scheffler aims to start the new season strongly and build on his previous successes. In 20 tournaments, he won six times, including the PGA Championship and the Open Championship. Additionally, he finished in the top 10 in 17 out of 20 events and never outside the top 25. These achievements earned him the PGA Tour Player of the Year award for the fourth consecutive time.
With two major titles in 2025, Scheffler now has a clear goal for 2026. After his Masters wins in 2022 and 2024, the American needs only the U.S. Open to complete his career Grand Slam. He will compete for that title from June 18 to 21.