Scottie Scheffler will participate in the American Express Championship at the end of January, marking his 2026 debut.
Scottie Scheffler will make his first appearance of 2026 at the PGA Tour’s American Express Championship, tournament organizers confirmed Wednesday. The event will take place from January 22 to 25 in La Quinta, California, with a total purse of $9.2 million. Last year, Austrian Sepp Straka won the tournament.
Scheffler Faces Tough Challenge in California
The American Express Championship is one of the few tournaments missing from Scheffler’s list of victories. After finishing third in 2020, he placed in the top 25 in subsequent years, before missing the 2025 event due to hand surgery. This year, competition is fierce, with players like defending champion Sepp Straka, Ben Griffen, and Robert MacIntyre contending against 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-opening event, The Sentry, was canceled in October due to course conditions caused by drought in Kapalua.
Will Scottie Scheffler Continue His Outstanding Form?
Scheffler aims to start the new season strong at the American Express Championship to build on last year’s success. He won six times in 20 events, including major victories at the PGA Championship and The Open Championship. In 17 of those 20 tournaments, he finished in the top 10, never placing outside the top 25. These performances 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 winning the Masters in 2022 and 2024, the American now aims to complete the Career Grand Slam by capturing the U.S. Open title, which will be held from June 18 to 21.