Scottie Scheffler starts a new
season looking like nothing has changed. He wins his PGA Tour opener
[January 26, 2026]
By DOUG FERGUSON
LA QUINTA, Calif. (AP) — New year, same Scottie Scheffler.
The world's No. 1 player loves coming to the California desert early
in the season to take stock of his game and get into tournament
shape. There's wasn't much wrong Sunday in The American Express.
Scheffler made birdie on half of his holes, going from a two-shot
deficit early to a lead that stretched to six shots late before he
closed with a 6-under 66 for a four-shot victory.
“There's always a certain amount of rust when it comes to playing
competitive golf,” Scheffler said. “You can simulate as best you can
at home, but you can only get into the heat of the moment when
you’re posting a score and you’re in contention when you’re at a
tournament. So it’s nice to see some of the stuff that I’ve been
being practicing and working on has paid off.”
He had four birdies in a six-hole stretch on the front nine to blow
past 18-year-old Blades Brown and everyone and the rest of the
field.
Scheffler won for the 20th time on the PGA Tour — all in the last
four years — to earn a lifetime membership. More indicative of his
dominance in the game is winning nine of those 20 tournaments by
four shots or more.
He also joined Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods as the only players to
have 20 PGA Tour titles and four majors before turning 30.
“Pretty wild,” Scheffler said. “It's been a great start to my
career. It's been special. I try not to think about that stuff too
much. I was just trying to do the things I needed to do to be
prepared.”
The world's No. 1 player briefly shared the stage with Brown, who
finished high school two weeks ago and tied for 17th in a Korn Ferry
Tour event in the Bahamas that finished Wednesday. He's the first
player to play eight straight days of PGA Tour-sanctioned
competition.
Whether the fatigue caught up with him or simply the moment — he was
trying to become the youngest PGA Tour winner in 95 years — it ended
quickly.
Brown was one shot behind 54-hole leader Si Woo Kim and one shot
ahead of Scheffler heading to the tee at the par-3 fourth on the
Stadium Course at PGA West. Five holes later, Brown and Kim both
were five shots behind and Scheffler was putting it into overdrive.
“Eight rounds I know sounds like a lot, but I was having a lot of
fun,” he said. “You’re telling me I get to play in a PGA Tour event
and to play with Scottie Scheffler and see him win it, that was
insane.
“I got some things I got to sharpen up, and hopefully we see if we
can do what Scottie’s doing.”
It all looked so routine at the end. Scheffler rapped in a par putt
to finish at 27-under 261, stuffed the golf ball in his pocket and
smiled. It all looks so routine.
“It seems like he never wants to relax,” said Jason Day, one of four
players who won the B flight by finishing second. “He always does
his work, needs to do whatever he needs to do to be able to prepare,
and he’s always around the lead. And that’s a very, very difficult
thing to do with how much distractions there can be, especially at
No. 1.”
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Scottie Scheffler hits his tee shot at the fifth hole during the
final round of the American Express golf event on the Pete Dye
Stadium Course at PGA West Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026, in La Quinta,
Calif. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Scheffler seized control quickly after a
birdie-bogey start. He hit 8-iron to 2 feet on the par-3 fourth
hole, played the par-5 fifth smartly with a shot away from the water
and a pitch-and-run he nearly holed from across the green for
birdie. Wedges led to two more birdies to close out the front, two
more early on the back to lead by four.
Brown's chances seemed to end on one hole. He took
an aggressive line and pulled his tee shot into the water on the
par-5 fifth. He had to drop in front of the tee boxes — he chose to
drop in the dormant Bermuda rough instead of the teeing ground — and
then hit a poor wedge when he got back into position that led to
double bogey.
Brown went 11 holes without a birdie and had to late bogeys that led
to a 74. He fell from a tie for second to a tie for 18th, costing
him a spot at Torrey Pines next week.
But it was a good lesson alongside a great teacher.
“I would say one of the coolest things that I learned today was how
underrated Scottie Scheffler’s short game is,” Brown said. “To see
it in person and just to look at kind of the trajectory and the
spin, and just the control that he has with his wedges and short
game. Obviously, his putting is insane, too. It was really cool to
watch. So I’m definitely going to go work on that.”
Day closed with a 64 that moved him up 18 spots to a runner-up
finish, along with Ryan Gerard (65), Matt McCarty (68) and Andrew
Putnam (68).
Kim, who plays often with Scheffler at Royal Oaks in Dallas, also
lost his way on one hole. He was two shots behind on the par-5
eighth when he took two shots to get out of a greenside bunker,
chipped strong and made double bogey. He missed a 3-foot par putt on
the next hole. Kim rallied with three birdies on the back nine to
salvage a 72 and tie for sixth.
Scheffler's only big blunder was when it didn't matter, a tee shot
into the water on the par-3 17th known as “Alcatraz,” and by then he
had plenty of get-of-jail-free cards. His double bogey only kept the
margin from being greater against the strongest field The American
Express has had in decades.
Scheffler now takes a week off before ending the West Coast with
three straight events, starting with the Phoenix Open where this
amazing run began four years ago. He won his first PGA Tour title in
a playoff. It hasn't been that close lately.
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