Livescore
Each time The American Express golf tournament is played in the Coachella Valley, new questions arise along with the arrival of some of the best players in the world. That’s no different this week when the tournament is played for the 66th time on three different desert courses.
Here are five storylines to keep an eye on when the tournament starts Thursday:
Sophomore jinx?
It’s been a year and two PGA Tour victories since Nick Dunlap was still an unknown on the PGA Tour. Dunlap’s stunning victory at The American Express launched a year that saw him win the tour’s Rookie of the Year award. How does Dunlap, just 21, follow up his remarkable 2024? The realities of a professional career were all part of his last 12 months, so he may be ready to attack the tour on its own terms now. By the way, the only golfer to win The American Express in consecutive years was Johnny Miller in 1975 and 1976.
Event sees top 2 golfers drop out
The Official World Golf Ranking didn’t start until 1986, but since then the American Express had never had the No. 1 and No. 2 players in the world in its field. That was going to happen this year before No. 1 Scottie Scheffler had to withdraw with a hand injury last week, followed by No. 2 Xander Schauffele’s withdrawal this week. Still, eight of the players entered in the field are among the top 25 players in the world. Other top-25 players include No. 7 Wyndham Clark, No. 12 Patrick Cantlay and No. 16 Billy Horschel. Throw in two-time PGA Championship winner Justin Thomas along with major winners Jason Day and Zach Johnson and it’s one of the better fields on the West Coast Swing.
More: The American Express 2024 champ Nick Dunlap returns to site of his life-changing moment
A tougher host course
Over the 2024 summer, PGA West and its ground crew renovated all 18 green complexes of the Pete Dye Stadium Course, scraping decades of built-up organic material from the greens, enlarging the greens to original size and flattening greenside bunkers the way Pete Dye wanted them when he designed the course in 1986. The result should be firm greens with perhaps some new pin placements and a greater degree of difficulty getting out of greenside bunkers. There will still be low scores on the course from the best players in the world, just perhaps not quite as many.
Blades Brown
Can you do for us what Nick Dunlap did? Blades Brown and Dunlap each played roles in the 2023 U.S. Amateur with Blades sharing the medalist honors at just 16 years old and Dunlap winning the national championship. Dunlap made his splash in The American Express last year, and now Brown, turning pro at just 17 years old, will play on a sponsor’s exemption as Dunlap did in 2024. Expect all eyes on Brown in the first few rounds.
Scoring records
One thing people have forgotten about Nick Dunlap’s win in 2024 is that his 29-under 259 score was the record for the event since it moved to a 72-hole format in 2016. That broke the mark of Patrick Reed in 2014 of 28 under. With scoring on the PGA Tour trending downward and with The American Express one of the places where scoring can be the lowest, perhaps 30 under or lower for 72 holes is a possibility this year. In addition, remember two players have shot 59 in The American Express — David Duval in 1999 and Adam Hadwin in 2017. The possibility of a third 59 in tournament history is real this week.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: American Express storylines: Wyndham Clark, Nick Dunlap, Blades Brown
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