Scottie Scheffler will participate in the American Express Championship at the end of January, making his 2026 debut.
Scottie Scheffler will start 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 $9.2 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 a third-place finish in 2020 and several top-25 placements in recent years, he 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 posing challenges to the world number one.
This tournament is the second PGA Tour event of the new year following the Sony Open in Hawaii next week. The usual season opener, The Sentry, was canceled in October due to course conditions at drought-stricken Kapalua.
Will Scottie Scheffler Continue His Outstanding Season?
At the American Express Championship, Scheffler aims for a strong start to the new season to continue his successes from last year. In 20 tournaments, he won six times, including two major titles at the PGA Championship and The Open Championship. Additionally, he finished in the top 10 in 17 out of 20 events and did not finish worse than 25th in any tournament. These performances earned him the PGA Tour Player of the Year title for the fourth consecutive time.
With his two major wins in 2025, Scheffler now has a clear goal for 2026: after winning the Masters in 2022 and 2024, the US Open is the only major left for him to complete his Career Grand Slam. He will compete for the title there from June 18 to 21.