The PGA TOUR is back on the mainland this week after opening the 2026 series with a one-week trip to Honolulu. After Chris Gotterup claimed the Sony Open in Hawaii, The American Express will be held this week from January 22 to 25 in La Quinta, California.
This week provides a star-studded field and features season debuts for many of the biggest names in the sport. DraftKings Network will have a variety of coverage leading up to Thursday’s tee times.
Let’s start the week with a look at the history of the tournament and the courses it will be played on this week.
The History of The American Express
The American Express began in 1960 and has gone by a long list of names due to sponsorship reasons. This will be the seventh straight year with this name after going by the Desert Classic, CareerBuilder Challenge, Palm Springs Golf Classic, the Bob Hope Desert Classic, the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, and the Humana Challenge over its history.
It’s typically held in the early part of the season and utilizes multiple courses throughout the Coachella Valley around La Quinta, California. After featuring five rounds (90 holes) for part of its run, the event switched to the standard four-round (72-hole) format in 2012.
To still have a full-field event with limited daylight hours, the players will play three rounds on three different courses before the cut. The top 65 professionals (and ties) make the cut and will play the final round on PGA WEST’s Pete Dye Stadium Course.
Last year, Sepp Straka beat Justin Thomas by two strokes to claim the victory. He went on to enjoy an impressive 2025 season, also picking up a victory at the Truist Championship in May and finishing with 13 top-25 finishes in 22 events.
This year, Scottie Scheffler will make his 2026 debut to headline one of the strongest fields the event has hosted in recent memory. With the PGA TOUR expected to make major adjustments to the season schedule for next year, the future of the event is uncertain, but drawing such a great field this week should definitely help its case. Five of the top 10 players and 12 of the top 25 in the Official World Golf Ranking are teeing it up this week, which should lead to a strong leaderboard and — hopefully — an exciting finish.
Check out the full field and opening odds on DraftKings Sportsbook.
The total purse for this event is $9.2 million, with the winner claiming a $1.65 million payday. Along with the standard two-year exemption on the PGA Tour and an exemption into the Masters, the PGA Championship, and THE PLAYERS, the winner will also claim 500 FedEx Cup points and 51 Official World Golf Ranking points, since the event has such a strong field.
A Closer Look at the Courses
This week’s event uses a unique three-course rotation for the first three rounds of play, with each golfer playing one round on each of the Pete Dye Stadium Course at PGA WEST, Nicklaus Tournament Course at PGA WEST, and La Quinta Country Club. After the third round, the players who make the cut will play the final round on Sunday at the Pete Dye Stadium Course.
After many changes early in its history, the current course rotation has been fairly stable over the last 10 years, giving us decent course history and stats to consider.
While the Stadium Course is the most important to focus on from a data perspective, the other two courses are also very important to understand. Both the Nicklaus Course and LQCC typically play very easy relative to par, allowing low scores for the week, even though the main PGA WEST course has been adjusted to play more difficult in recent years.
All three layouts are par 72s that feature four scoreable par 5s and check in under 7,250 yards. All three also have Poa trivialis greens and ryegrass fairways. The desert courses typically provide calm winds and great scoring chances, leading to very low scores.
Check out this flyover of the courses from last year to remind yourself of some of the holes.
The Stadium Course played much tougher last year after a restoration of its greens and bunkers. It played to just 0.65 strokes under par per round last year, after averaging -2.07 strokes per round from 2021 to 2024.
The original intent of Pete Dye was to build an extremely difficult golf course, inspired by his famous TPC Sawgrass. He definitely succeeded, but the course was so challenging that the tour pros hated it, and it was removed from the rotation until 2016. It played much easier on its return, but last year’s renovation returned it to its difficult roots.
The most iconic hole on the course is No. 17, which is known as “Alcatraz,” featuring a signature island green that is one of the many risk-reward holes that have a wide range of possible outcomes. Just before Alcatraz is the infamous “San Andreas Fault” hole, which has a massive bunker over 20 feet deep that runs at least 50 yards up the left side of the green. Last year on No. 16, rookie William Mouw recorded an octuple-bogey 13. While he missed the cut, the 25-year-old went on to win the ISCO Championship and finish No. 89 in the FedExCup Fall standings. He’s back in the field and ready for more this year.
A wide range of statistical profiles have had success at this event in the past. The winner is usually whoever catches fire with their flat stick, but since putting trends can be extremely volatile, it makes sense to chase after players who give themselves lots of birdie chances and can go low in birdie-fests. Birdie or Better % and Strokes Gained (Approach), along with Par 5 scoring, are the stats to keep a close eye on this week as you build your lineups and betting cards for The American Express.
Be sure to stay locked in to DK Network all week for more picks, best bets, and analysis of what to expect this week in La Quinta, along with which players have a strong chance to be in the mix on Sunday to claim the first PGA TOUR win of the season on the U.S. mainland.
