Scottie Scheffler will participate in the American Express Championship at the end of January, marking his 2026 season debut.
Scottie Scheffler will take part for the first time in 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, offering a total purse of $9,200,000. 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 victory catalog. After finishing third in 2020, he placed in the top 25 in the following years but missed the 2025 event due to hand surgery. The competition is strong this year, with players like last year’s winner Sepp Straka, Ben Griffin, and Robert MacIntyre also competing, making it a challenge for the world number one.
This tournament is the PGA Tour’s second 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 in drought-affected Kapalua.
Will Scottie Scheffler Continue His Outstanding Season?
Scheffler aims to get off to a strong start at the American Express Championship to build on last year’s successes. He won six times in 20 tournaments, including the PGA Championship and The Open Championship. Additionally, he finished in the top 10 in 17 of those events and never ended outside the top 25. These achievements earned him PGA Tour Player of the Year honors for the fourth consecutive time.
With his two major titles in 2025, Scheffler now has a clear goal for 2026. After winning the Masters in 2022 and 2024, the American is only missing the US Open to complete his career Grand Slam. He will compete for that title from June 18 to 21.