The American Express is set to tee off the 2026 PGA Tour season on Thursday, January 22 at the scenic PGA WEST in La Quinta, California. The circuit’s season-opener, played across three courses in the rotation – the Pete Dye Stadium Course, Nicklaus Tournament Course and La Quinta Country Club, will feature a stacked field headlined by Scottie Scheffler.
The world No.1 golfer will make his new season PGA Tour debut after making his final appearance at the unofficial Hero World Challenge in December. The ace golfer, who finished tied for fourth in The Bahamas, will start off the new season in California. The three-time consecutive Jack Nicklaus Award for player of the year winner will compete against notable names including the likes of Justin Rose, Matt Fitzpatrick, Rickie Fowler and Adam Scott for the winner’s paycheck from the $9,300,000 purse.
Wyndham Clark, Brian Harman, Sam Burns, Ludvig Aberg, Patrick Cantlay and Jordan Spieth are among other big names in competition. Notably, the event’s reigning champion Sepp Straka, who celebrated a 2-shot victory over Justin Thomas, returns next weekend to defend his title.
Interestingly, LIV Golf speculated Si Woo Kim will begin his Tour season as well at the event. However, PGA reinstated Brooks Koepka sits the event out. He is expected to make his second debut on the circuit at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines.
The American Express 2026 field
Listed below is the complete breakdown of The American Express field starting at La Quinta (Based on qualifications criteria):
Winner of THE PLAYERS Championship (five-year exemption)
- Scottie Scheffler
Winner of U.S. Open Championship (five-year exemption)
- Wyndham Clark
- Matt Fitzpatrick
Winner of The Open Championship (five-year exemption)
- Brian Harman
Winner of a World Golf Championship event (three-year exemption)
- Sam Burns
Winners of the Arnold Palmer Invitational, the Memorial Tournament, or The Genesis Invitational (three-year exemption)
- Russell Henley
- Kurt Kitayama
- Ludvig Aberg
Winner of the FedExCup (five-year exemption)
- Patrick Cantlay
Member of last named U.S. Ryder Cup team
- Harris English
- Ben Griffin
Member of last named European Ryder Cup team
- Rasmus Højgaard
- Robert MacIntyre
- Justin Rose
- Sepp Straka
Member of last named U.S. Presidents Cup team
- Tony Finau
- Max Homa
- Sahith Theegala
Member of last named International Presidents Cup team
- Christiaan Bezuidenhout
- Jason Day
- Mackenzie Hughes
- Si Woo Kim
- Tom Kim
- Min Woo Lee
- Taylor Pendrith
- Adam Scott
Past champion of The American Express
- Jason Dufner
- Nick Dunlap
- Andrew Landry
- Adam Long
PGA Section Champion
- Michael Block
Tournament winners in the past two seasons
- Akshay Bhatia
- Michael Brennan
- Brian Campbell
- Rafael Campos
- Cameron Davis
- Nicolás Echavarría
- Austin Eckroat
- Steven Fisk
- Ryan Gerard
- Harry Hall
- Joe Highsmith
- Stephan Jaeger
- Chris Kirk
- Matt McCarty
- William Mouw
- Andrew Novak
- J.T. Poston
- Aldrich Potgieter
- Davis Riley
- Adam Schenk
- Nick Taylor
- Davis Thompson
- Sami Välimäki
- Jhonattan Vegas
- Karl Vilips
- Kevin Yu
- Brice Garnett
- Billy Horschel
- Patton Kizzire
- Peter Malnati
- Matthieu Pavon
Top 70 on prior season’s FedExCup Points List
- Jacob Bridgeman
- Sam Stevens
- Daniel Berger
- Denny McCarthy
- Michael Kim
- Bud Cauley
- Tom Hoge
- Rickie Fowler
- Max Greyserman
- Patrick Rodgers
- Matti Schmid
- Emiliano Grillo
- Erik van Rooyen
Top 100 on prior season’s FedExCup Fall Points List
- Rico Hoey
- Max McGreevy
- Michael Thorbjornsen
- Alex Smalley
- Vince Whaley
- Eric Cole
- Keith Mitchell
- Mac Meissner
- Gary Woodland
- Kevin Roy
- Mark Hubbard
- Chad Ramey
- Chandler Phillips
- Ryo Hisatsune
- Danny Walker
- Takumi Kanaya
Leading 10 players (not otherwise exempt) on the DP World Tour
- Adrien Saddier
- Alex Noren
- John Parry
- Haotong Li
- Keita Nakajima
- Jordan Smith
- Dan Brown
Top 20 on prior season’s Korn Ferry Tour Points List
- Johnny Keefer
- Chandler Blanchet
- Austin Smotherman
- Neal Shipley
- Emilio González
- Hank Lebioda
- Adrien Dumont de Chassart
- S.H. Kim
- Christo Lamprecht
- Davis Chatfield
- Zach Bauchou
- Pierceson Coody
- S.T. Lee
- Jeffrey Kang
- Kensei Hirata
- John VanDerLaan
- Zecheng Dou
- Sudarshan Yellamaraju
- Pontus Nyholm
Top five from PGA TOUR Q-School
- A.J. Ewart
- Alejandro Tosti
- Adam Svensson
- Marcelo Rozo
- Dylan Wu
PGA TOUR University
- Luke Clanton
- Gordon Sargent
- David Ford
Nos. 101–110 on prior season’s FedExCup Fall Points List
- Lee Hodges
- Ricky Castillo
- Matthew Wallace
- Beau Hossler
- Isaiah Salinda
- David Lipsky
- Patrick Fishburn
Major medical extension
- Will Zalatoris
- Charley Hoffman
- Kevin Streelman
- Jimmy Stanger
Nos. 111–125 on prior season’s FedExCup Fall Points List
- Jesper Svensson
- Doug Ghim
- Andrew Putnam
- Kris Ventura
- Seamus Power
- Matt Kuchar
- Justin Lower
- Taylor Moore
- Joel Dahmen
- Sam Ryder
- Jackson Suber
- Lanto Griffin
Nos. 125–150 on prior season’s FedExCup Fall Points List
- Brandt Snedeker
- Frankie Capan III
- Carson Young
- Chan Kim
More details on The American Express 2026 will be updated soon.
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