la quinta golf tour

JANUARY 13-19, 2025

A new round in the desert, exceptional golf, unforgettable fan experiences, show stopping entertainment, all nestled in the warmth and sunshine of the coachella valley..

PGA WEST – LA QUINTA COUNTRY CLUB

La quinta, ca, 2024 champion.

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At the heart of the game is community.

The American Express™ organization, Impact Through Golf strives to provide funding to organizations that support health and wellness, youth sports, family support, education and homelessness. Since the tournament’s inception in 1960, our event has generated more than $65 Million for non-profit organizations in the Coachella Valley.

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Swing into Action

Long-time host city for the PGA Tour’s American Express Golf Tournament (formerly the Desert Classic and Bob Hope Classic), La Quinta has been called the golf capital of the world and boasts a variety of spectacular courses open to the public.

La Quinta’s SilverRock Resort—featuring the Arnold Palmer Classic Course—has won accolades as one of the top tour and municipal courses to play and was one of the host courses of the Bob Hope Classic 2008–2010. If you want to try your golf swing at other courses, tee off at any of La Quinta’s public courses.

Wherever you play, the gorgeous mountain views will always surround you, making golfing in La Quinta beautiful.

PGA WEST – Pete Dye Dunes Course

The visual drama of the landscape and the sheer beauty of the desert showcase the Dunes Course which is situated at the foot of the Santa Rosa Mountains. Pete Dye added a twist to the traditional Scottish approach for this links-style course. It favors accuracy from the tee and rewards…

SilverRock Resort

Owned by the City of La Quinta and managed by Landmark Golf Management, SilverRock Resort’s Arnold Palmer Classic Course is a challenging 7,239 yards, sprawling over 200 acres with massive native bunkers and stunning water features. Set against the backdrop and natural beauty of the Santa Rosa Mountains, SilverRock is…

PGA WEST – Jack Nicklaus Tournament Course

Challenge, beauty and drama permeate every Jack Nicklaus-designed course, and this masterful design is no exception. Around every corner you will find a new challenge, including the rare feature of two island greens. At 7,204 yards long, the Nicklaus Tournament Course has a stroke rating of 75.3 and a slope…

PGA WEST – Greg Norman Course

The only Greg Norman-designed golf course in the Coachella Valley is aptly described as being very “challenging but fair.” Sporting only 68 acres of lush manicured turf, 102 white crushed marble bunkers and shark blue water coming into play on 9 holes, this 7,200-yard course offers a truly “Outback” experience…

PGA WEST – Pete Dye Mountain Course

The Mountain Course, nestled at the base of the picturesque Santa Rosa Mountains, is famed for its Pete Dye design, playability, and stunning visuals. This ultra-challenging course features pot bunkers, rock formations, elevations of tee boxes and well-bunkered greens.

The American Express

Pete Dye Stadium Course (SC)

La Quinta Country Club (LQ)

Nicklaus Tournament Course (NT)

La Quinta, California • USA

Jan 19 - 22, 2023

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Golf | PGA Tour returns to La Quinta for The American…

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Golf | PGA Tour returns to La Quinta for The American Express

Some of the world's best golfers will take aim at pga west, knowing aggressive play will be vital.

LA QUINTA — The PGA Tour is back on the mainland in the Palm Springs area, where the mandate is always to go low.

Three relatively straightforward desert courses greet the field each year at The American Express, where tidy scores abound and shot-making mettle gets another early season after similar standards in Hawaii. The weather forecast is looking ideal at PGA West La Quinta, with little wind and no rain predicted to get in the way of birdies and eagles by the bunch.

An increasingly large chunk of the world’s top players are making their way to the event in recent years, unintimidated by the high standards necessary for contention and eager to get aggressive.

“I feel like the easier courses on tour, you can’t really get behind, just because it’s so much harder to catch up,” top-ranked Scottie Scheffler said Wednesday. “If you look at a U.S. Open golf course … if the average scores are low 70s, you can still get those crazy-low numbers every now and then, so there’s hope. Here, you can’t get caught too far behind. You’ve got to hit the ground running and start making birdies early.”

Relative simplicity is the new standard at the 65th edition of The American Express, a tournament once known for its complexity — at least between shots.

The former Bob Hope Desert Classic spent a half-century as a five-round pro-am affair in which golf stars mingled with politicians, millionaires and Hollywood royalty for long, languorous rounds. That style of tournament fell out of favor as pro golf generally got more serious in the 21st century – Tiger Woods stayed away, for instance – and the pro-am format was dropped in 2012.

The tournament still has some distinct features, including the three-course rotation before the 54-hole cut. Aggressive play also remains vital.

Patrick Cantlay knows all about what to do: He set the Stadium Course scoring record with a 61 in the final round in 2021, only to lose by one stroke to Si Woo Kim.

“It’s important really to be patient around these tracks,” said Cantlay, who was born in Long Beach and played at UCLA. “You can make two, three, four, five birdies in a row out here, but when you’re making pars, you’re feeling like you’re falling behind. Sometimes you just have to wait for your stretch of holes. They’re courses where you feel like you’ve got to shoot 3, 4 under a side. I know that, but at the same time, play my normal golf and stay patient.”

FAMOUS FACES

The field is impressive at the top, with Scheffler flanked by Southern Californians Cantlay and Xander Schauffele, who returns to the desert after a five-year absence. Defending champion and Kapalua winner Jon Rahm isn’t here after joining LIV Golf, but Justin Thomas is making his 2024 debut with his first trip to the event since 2015.

HOMETOWN GUY

All 30 players who earned their cards on the Korn Ferry Tour are here, but the most prominent is Tom Whitney, the 34-year-old Air Force veteran who attended La Quinta High School. Whitney, who made his first PGA Tour cut at this event in 2018, is starting his first full year on tour.

“There was more pressure coming here in 2018 on a sponsor’s invite,” Whitney said. “Now, I was chatting with my caddie earlier today, and it feels like I belong out here. I’ve earned my way to hold this card.”

MIN WOO’S TURN

Among the other high-profile rookies making their 2024 debuts is 25-year-old Min Woo Lee, who won two international tournaments down the stretch last year and earned his first full season on the PGA Tour. The social media-savvy Aussie finished tied for fifth at the U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club last summer, and he’s living in Las Vegas this year when he isn’t out chasing a breakthrough season.

“I know the scores will be low, but you’ve still got to play really well,” Lee said of The American Express. “Like Jon Rahm said, it’s a putting contest, and if you get it on the green, hopefully you make some putts.”

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The American Express PGA Tour Returns to La Quinta, California!

Presented by City of La Quinta What’s This? December 20, 2023

The American Express PGA Tour Golf Tournament Returns for its 65th Year in La Quinta, California

More than 150 of the world’s top-ranked professional golfers will soon assemble in La Quinta to tee off for the American Express PGA Tour Golf Tournament, the tournament’s 65th year in the desert. The American Express is January 18–21 at La Quinta Country Club and PGA West. Following golf on Friday and Saturday nights are concerts featuring country/pop star Keith Urban and pop/rock band Train.

Tickets can be purchased online at www.theamex.com . General admission tickets are $60 for Thursday, $85 for Friday and Saturday, which include the concerts those two nights, and $75 for Sunday’s final round. American Express card holders receive a 20% discount on tickets.

Among the golfers who have committed to play in the tournament are past American Express champion Scottie Scheffler, who is ranked first in the world, Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele, ranked third and sixth in the world, respectively, Tony Finau and Tom Kim. The 2024 tournament marks more than six decades of the golf event that began in Rancho Mirage at Thunderbird Country Club in 1960 as the Desert Classic.

From its start, the tournament has been played on some of the Coachella Valley’s best golf courses in Rancho Mirage, Indian Wells, and La Quinta, with La Quinta Country Club, PGA West’s Stadium, and Nicklaus Tournament the only courses used by the event since 2016.

The PGA tournament has been played only on La Quinta courses since about 2010, including SilverRock Golf Course, which was part of the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic from 2008 to 2011. The La Quinta Country Club has the longest history in the tournament, with 2024 being its 53rd.

Giving back to the Community

Since American Express signed on as the title sponsor, the tournament has drawn larger crowds of multiple generations, especially on Friday and Saturday nights when some of today’s most popular musicians take the stage—usually a country singer one night and a pop/rock star the other night.

Since 2020, Stevie Nicks, Luke Bryan, Maroon 5, Brad Paisley, Darius Rucker, and Gwen Stefani have performed at The American Express, with concerts included in the general admission price for a day of golf. This year’s performers are each multi-Grammy winners with record sales in the millions.

Keith Urban is a four-time Grammy Award winner and two-time Country Music Association (CMA) Entertainer of the Year recipient who has also won 15 American Country Music Awards (ACM), 13 CMA awards, and three American Music Awards. A 2023 Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee, Urban headlined Stagecoach in 2018. Some of his hits include “Blue Ain’t Your Color,” “Somebody Like You,” “Never Coming Down,” and “One Too Many,” a duet with Pink.

Since its formation in 1994, Train has sold more than 10 million albums and 30 million tracks worldwide. The rock/pop band has had 14 songs on Billboard’s Hot 100, 13 albums on the Billboard 200 chart, and has earned multiple gold, platinum, and diamond-certified records, as well as three Grammys, two Billboard Music Awards, and dozens of other honors. The band’s list of hits includes “Hey, Soul Sister,” “Drops of Jupiter,” “Drive By,” “50 Ways to Say Goodbye,” and “Marry Me.”

Throughout its history, the tournament has contributed millions of dollars to local charities. First, through Desert Charities, then the Mikelson Foundation when Phil Mikelson became tournament host in partnership with American Express. When Mikelson dropped out in 2022, the giving continued through The American Express’s charitable foundation, Impact Through Golf.

The tournament has donated more than $65 million to local nonprofits over the past six decades, including the $1 million donated among 16 charitable entities following the 2023 tournament.

Jon Rahm’s strong start to season continues with win at La Quinta

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While Jon Rahm had plenty of chances to pump his right first after nice shots on Sunday, the look of relief on his face after holding off rookie Davis Thompson put into perspective his victory at The American Express.

The Spanish star took advantage of mistakes by Thompson over the adventuresome final three holes and closed with a four-under 68 to win by one stroke, his second PGA Tour win in as many starts this year.

“I’m, in a weird way, glad that today went the way it went,” Rahm said. “I’ve enjoyed some runaway victories, I’ve enjoyed some comebacks, but today was certainly a struggle. Out of the five birdies I made, what is it, one, two, three of them were tap-ins and the other two were basically 6-footers. So that tells you the story.”

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Rahm pumped his fist a final time after tapping in for a two-putt par on No. 18 at PGA West’s Stadium Course.

Rahm and Thompson were tied with three holes to play when Thompson, who led through 36 holes and shared the lead with Rahm going into Sunday, pulled his drive into a deep fairway bunker on the par-5 16th and wound up with par. Rahm made birdie to take the lead.

On the par-three 17th, Thompson chose to leave the pin in for his 50-foot birdie putt on the island green, and the ball squarely hit the pin and rolled away. The 23-year-old from Georgia dropped his putter and put his hands to his face. As he walked to the 18th tee after tapping in for par, he pulled his shirt up over his mouth in frustration.

“I usually always leave the stick in from a long distance,” Thompson said. “I feel like it helps me with my speed. I’ll probably play the ‘what if’ game in my head for a long time, unfortunately. I had a great read. I probably hit it too firm. If it had great speed it would have just hit the flag and dropped. But we’ll never know. I’m proud of myself for this week.”

Rahm hit his tee shot into a bunker on 18 but recovered nicely with a shot to 15 feet and pumped his fist. Thompson’s drive found the fairway but his approach bounced on the green and ran down the slope behind it. The rookie hit a bold flop shop that settled a foot to the right of the hole. He shot 69.

“I had a great week,” said Thompson, who made five eagles through the first two rounds, tying the PGA Tour record for eagles in a 72-hole event. “Competing against the best in the world is my dream and I did that today and proved that I can hang with ‘em. It was a lot of fun. A lot of nerves and I hit a lot of quality golf shots under pressure, which was really cool.”

Rahm finished 27-under 261 and won for the ninth time on the PGA Tour. He moves up one spot to No. 3 in the world. He is playing next week at Torrey Pines, while world No. 1 Rory McIlroy makes his 2023 debut in Dubai on the European tour.

“Heck of a start,” said Rahm, who won the Sentry Tournament of Champions two weeks ago at Kapalua. “Obviously Sentry and this one are very, very different golf courses and very different golf. You still have to go low in both of them. So luckily the mentality is the same.

“Body’s been feeling great. My swing’s been feeling really, really good. And it shows, right?“ he added. “Even when I’m saying I may not be as comfortable as I would like, I’m shooting 64s because everything is just firing when it needs to.”

Rahm opened with two birdies to take the lead, but Thompson eventually caught up to him when Rahm’s par putt lipped out on No. 13.

Rahm got his share of breaks. From the middle of the fairway on the 16th, Rahm had his hands on his hips as he watched his second shot head toward the deep bunker down the left side. It hit in the dormant rough and stayed in the fairway. That left a pitch to just inside 10 feet, and his birdie putt for the lead swirled into the cup.

Rahm now has won four of his last six starts — he won twice on the European tour at end of last year. This was his seventh straight top 10 worldwide, a streak that began after the Tour Championship in late August.

Xander Schauffele, two weeks after he withdrew because of back pain, closed with a 62 and finished two behind with Chris Kirk (64).

Taylor Montgomery was challenging Rahm and Thompson until he put his tee shot into the water on the 17th. He closed with a 66 and finished fifth.

Scottie Scheffler closed with a 67 and tied for 11th. He narrowly missed a birdie putt on the final hole that would have allowed him to return to No. 1 by a fraction of a point over McIlroy. Scheffler is not playing next week.

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The American Express Golf Tournament Begins Thursday in La Quinta

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• Danny Willett
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(CNS) – The $8 million American Express PGA tournament begins Thursday at three courses in La Quinta, with the strongest field this century, topped by Scottie Scheffler, second in the Official World Golf Ranking.

The 156-player field includes five of the top 10 players in the Official World Golf Ranking, the most at the tournament on record, which dates back to 2000.

Spaniard Jon Rahm, who is fourth on the Official World Golf Ranking, is the 6-1 pre-tournament favorite according to BetMGM, an official betting operator of the PGA Tour. Scheffler is the second choice at 10-1.

Rahm was the tournament champion in 2018 when it was known as CareerBuilder Challenge. He will be making his first start since winning the Sentry Tournament of Champions, which concluded Jan. 8 in Kapalua, Hawaii.

Scheffler had top 10 finishes in each of his last three starts, tying for third in the World Wide Technology Championship, tying for ninth in the Houston Open, both in November, and tying for seventh in Sentry Tournament of Champions.

Rahm, the 2021 U.S. Open champion, and Scheffler, the 2022 Masters winner, are among the 10 major champions in the field, along with Jimmy Walker, Danny Willett, Zach Johnson, Jason Day, Justin Rose, Jason Dufner, Lucas Glover and Stewart Cink.

Rahm and Dufner are among the tournament’s eight past champions in the field, along with Si Woo Kim, Andrew Landry, Adam Long, Bill Haas, Jhonattan Vegas and Charley Hoffman.

The tournament will be without its defending champion Hudson Swafford, who left the PGA Tour to play on the rival LIV Golf tour. Swafford’s absence will extend the streak of no player having won the tournament in back- to-back years since Johnny Miller won in 1975 and 1976.

Former tournament host Phil Mickelson also left the PGA Tour for LIV Golf.

Rahm and Scheffler will begin the tournament at the La Quinta Country Club, play at the Nicklaus Tournament Course at PGA West Friday and the Stadium Course at PGA West Saturday.

The field will be reduced to the low 70 and ties following the conclusion of the third round.  Sunday’s final round will be played at the Stadium Course. The winner will receive $1.44 million.

Since The American Express became a 72-hole event in 2012, the winner’s margin of victory has not been more than two strokes in any year.

The tournament will be televised daily through Sunday from noon-4 p.m. on Golf Channel. Additional coverage will be streamed on the ESPN+ streaming service from 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m. daily through Sunday.

Grammy-winning pop singer Gwen Stefani will perform a concert on the PGA West Stadium Course driving range following conclusion of play Friday. Grammy-winning singer Darius Rucker will perform a concert at the same site following conclusion of play Saturday.

All Friday and Saturday tournament tickets include admission to the concerts. There are no concert-only tickets.

The concert area on the Pete Dye Stadium Course driving range will open to spectators at 4 p.m., with the concerts expected to start at approximately 5:30 p.m. Chairs and blankets will only be allowed in designated areas.

All tickets are digital and are available at http://www.theamexgolf.com .

There will be two new fan amenities set up between the first tee and ninth green of the PGA West Stadium Course — Patriots Outpost, overlooking the ninth green and open to active duty and retired U.S. military, and “The Turn,” a fan gathering area and meeting place featuring concessions and activities and views of the first and ninth holes.

Nine Coachella Valley businesses will provide food for on-course concession stations at PGA West — Cheeky’s; Tutu’s Tortilla Chips; Chef Tanya’s Kitchen; Shields Date Farm; Tiffany’s Sweet Spot; Brandini Toffee; On the Mark Fine Foods; Fresh Juice Bar; and TKB Bakery & Deli.

General parking is in the P Lot  and the entrance is on the southbound side of Jefferson Street, across from The Hideaway Golf Club between Avenue 52 and Avenue 54. Daily parking is $20. Shuttles will take fans from the parking lot to the tournament entrance.

Gates will open at 7:30 a.m. daily with play beginning at approximately 8:30 a.m.

Checking the weather forecast before going to the tournament is recommended. Cool mornings and sunny afternoons are expected, so dressing in layers is the best idea.

Tournament organizers call sunscreen, a hat, comfortable shoes and binoculars as “must-have items.”

Copyright 2023, City News Service, Inc.

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Long Beach State University

The Big West Championship (First Round)

LBSU Heads To The Big West Men’s Golf Championship As The No. 1 Seed

4/27/2024 12:26:00 PM | Men's Golf

The top-seeded Beach are set to compete for The Big West Title April 28-30 at the La Quinta Country Club

By: Lindy Zamora, Associate Athletic Communications Director

For 50 years, La Quinta Country Club has been a staple of The American Express

Charlie Sifford made a lot of history on the PGA Tour, but Sifford also made at least a little history in the desert’s PGA Tour event, The American Express.

On Jan. 29, 1964, a new course debuted in the tournament, known then as the Palm Springs Golf Classic. La Quinta Country Club was considered to be perhaps the toughest of the courses in the five-day, four-course format of the tournament that was still a year away from adding Bob Hope’s name to the title.

La Quinta’s tight fairways and small greens might have been difficult, but it wasn’t too daunting that day for Sifford, who had joined the PGA Tour in 1961 as the first African-American golfer on tour after the all-Caucasian clause for tour membership had been discarded. In the first round of the 1964 tournament, Sifford fired a 6-under 66, setting the course competitive record and tying for first place after 18 holes with Tommy Jacobs, who had played at Bermuda Dunes Country Club that day.

Sifford eventually finished tied for seventh in the tournament – Jacobs won in a playoff at host Eldorado Country Club – but his place in tournament history was secure. As La Quinta Country Club celebrates its 50th playing in The American Express this year, it may have evolved from one of the toughest golf courses in the tournament to one of the easiest courses on tour. But its history in the event is equally as secure.

More: American Express golf tournament 2022: Tickets, parking, schedule and more

More: Count on low scoring for American Express, but just how low will golfers go?

The 50th playing of The American Express at La Quinta sets a record for most years played in the event, snapping a tie with Bermuda Dunes Country Club. That record could have been set in 2021, but La Quinta was dropped from the field for a year as part of COVID-19 pandemic protocols.

La Quinta Country Club hasn’t hosted the tournament since 1983, and for a few years it was in a rotation with Tamarisk Country Club. But with 50 years in the tournament, La Quinta has been surpassed in years played on the PGA Tour by only a handful of courses with names like Augusta National and Pebble Beach.

“I always enjoy playing La Quinta Country Club because it's such a great course and fun to play on this rotation,” tournament host and two-time American Express winner Phil Mickelson said last year over the prospect of the course not being in the 2021 event.

“We're going to miss La Quinta Country Club,” Kevin Na said at the time. “It's a great golf course, fantastic greens there every year. We're going to miss that.”

Mickelson and Na show the reason La Quinta is still in the event for a 50th time. The PGA Tour players enjoy the old-school nature of the course, which opened in 1959. The layout, designed by Lawrence Hughes and capable of playing just over 7,000 yards for the tournament, has not changed much since its 1964 tournament debut, even with a renovation in the late 1990s.

The course still sports narrow fairways, reachable par 5s, demanding par 3s and homes and palm trees left and right of most holes in a throwback feel to golf’s burgeoning days in the desert in the 1950s. The course offers a pair of scorable par 5s on the fifth and sixth holes, but danger on demanding par 4s like the tricky 14th, one of the toughest holes in the tournament.

Being in the tournament is still important to the club and its membership, even if it takes the course away from members for a week to 10 days in January, said the course’s head pro.

“On the flip side of that, the new members who have joined since I have been here, say the last three to seven years, it’s important to them that that tournament was here,” said Chris Gilley. “You walk down our hallways, it is our club, what was the Bob Hope and is now The America Express. It’s our history. It’s our tradition. It is part of what separates us from similar valley clubs.”

Still part of the event

Still being in the tournament is equally as important, Gilley said. While other 1950s courses have left The American Express rotation, courses like Indian Wells, Tamarisk, Thunderbird and Eldorado country clubs, La Quinta had been part of the event for 11 consecutive years before stepping aside because of the pandemic last year.

"‘Still’ is a key word when we sell our club to our guests or perspective members. We are still host to The American Express, formerly the Bob Hope. That resonates with people as they walk through our doors,” Gilley said.

While La Quinta has only hosted The American Express four times, meaning it was played during the four-day pro-am and then the pros-only Sunday round, the course has a history of eclectic winners.

In 1967, the first year the course hosted the tournament, a part-time touring pro and full-time club pro named Tom Nieporte edged Doug Sanders by a shot for the victory. In 1970, Bruce Devlin surged in the final round to beat Larry Ziegler by four shots. Rik Massengale set a tournament record of 23-under par in winning at La Quinta in 1977, and Keith Fergus edged Rex Caldwell in a playoff in 1983, the last year La Quinta hosted the event.

La Quinta's other claim to tournament history came in 2017, when Adam Hadwin fired a 13-under 59 on the course in the third round, matching the low round in the tournament shot by David Duval in 1999 at the Palmer Course at PGA West. Hadwin went on to finish second in 2017 to Hudson Swafford. 

Returning to La Quinta Country Club this week means The American Express is again paying honor to not just La Quinta but the courses that helped to make the desert famous. And La Quinta gets to show again it can stand up to the best players in the world.

Course leader

Courses played in The American Express tournament since 1960:

50:  La Quinta Country Club

49:  Bermuda Dunes Country Club

45:  Indian Wells Country Club

24:  Palmer Course, PGA West

19:  Eldorado Country Club

18:  Tamarisk Country Club

9:  Stadium Course, PGA West

8:  Nicklaus Tournament Course, PGA West

6:  Nicklaus Private Course, PGA West

4:  SilverRock Resort

3: Classic Club; Indian Ridge Country Club; Thunderbird Country Club

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La Quinta Country Club Is Back on Tour and Ready for a Fabulous 50th

• Author: Dan O'Neill

Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun

The desert layout that hosted Dean Martin, Bob Hope and Ike joins rare company this week when it hosts the PGA Tour's American Express.

After a couple of weeks of temperatures in the high 70s, scorecards in the low 60s and Tiny Bubbles wafting in the tropical breeze, the PGA Tour comes to the mainland this week, home to one of its most endearing haunts.

To explain, what does La Quinta Country Club have in common with, oh, Augusta National and Pebble Beach? The answer is almost nothing, and almost everything.

To explain, when the American Express Championship kicks off this week under the desert sun, in Coachella Valley between Indian Wells and Indio, La Quinta will be back in the rotation of courses to be played.

The veritable club grounds, introduced in 1959, were off the grid during the pandemic last year, when Soo Wi Kim captured the title. But La Quinta is back for this edition, which represents its 50th appearance in this traditional PGA Tour test. And 50 puts the Lawrence Hughes design in rare company.

That is, only distinct playing fields like the aforementioned have been part of the Tour scene more often. If Bob Hope were around, he might break into a little Thanks for the Memory. And that would be most appropriate. Because, while American Express came on as title sponsor in 2020, Hope’s name was attached to this rodeo for more than 45 years.

Those were the days, when the proceedings lasted five days and included a 54-hole cut, when the festivities included “Classic Girls” and a “Classic Queen,” like Debbie Reynolds, Jill St. John or Barbara Eden, when the celebrity pro-am featured giants like Bing Crosby, Burt Lancaster or Kirk Douglas, when presidents like Dwight Eisenhower and Gerald Ford played along.

The days when Charlie Sifford set a course record (1964) and when Arnold Palmer (1960, ’62, ’68, ’71, ’73) was always the returning champion, or so it seemed. La Quinta isn’t just another stop on the PGA Tour trail, it’s a shiny bauble in the treasure chest, a glitzy sports jacket in the closet. It’s the luminous launch of the PGA Tour’s mainland season, the western swing with the Hollywood ballyhoo … the glaring omission from last year’s rotation.

“I always enjoy playing La Quinta Country Club because it’s a great and fun course to play on this rotation,” Phil Mickelson said of last year, when the course was not part of the 2021 event.

Now, La Quinta is back, and so is Mickelson, who is the host of this year’s American Express. This 50th appearance of La Quinta in this 63-year old championship snaps a tie with Bermuda Dunes Country Club for the most years of inclusion. To be clear, with its skinny fairways and tiny greens, La Quinta hasn’t been a solo act.

The championship has included other facilities and is now played across three platforms, which include the host PGA West’s Stadium Course and Nicklaus Tournament Course. The La Quinta course proper is more like a celebrated sidekick, like Dean Martin to Jerry Lewis … and by the way, “Dino” was a Hope regular in those glory days. 

This season’s American Express will have its share of heavyweights. The field will include OWGR No. 1 Jon Rahm and No. 4 Patrick Cantlay . Eight of the top 30 will tee it up, and 13 major champions will be involved, including last year’s PGA Championship surprise, Mickelson.

Kim is the reigning champ but Cantlay produced last year’s fireworks. He had four wins on the PGA Tour in ’21, and came within a desert grain of sand of five. The Long Beach, Calif. native and UCLA product spun a PGA West Stadium Course record 11-under-par 61 in the final round, finishing one stroke behind Kim. Cantlay’s 22-under total featured 20 birdies over the closing 36 holes.

This time, Cantlay and the others will have La Quinta to deal with. The par 5s will be easy and the par 3s challenging. Palm trees and lavish homes will be left and right, mountains will stand in the distance and history alongside every step.

The PGA Tour comes home this week to La Quinta, literally and figuratively. 

Big West Athletic Conference

Nine Teams Ready for the 2024 Big West Men's Golf Championship at La Quinta Country Club

Championship Central  |  Live Scoring  | VIDEO: Championship Preview

LA QUINTA, Calif.  – Nine teams are set to converge at La Quinta Country Club for three days and 54 holes of action from the desert for the 2024 Big West Men’s Golf Championships April 28-30.    The 7,056-yard track is not your typical desert course, rather a tighter well-bunkered course with mature trees. With pristine fairways and manicured greens, La Quinta Country Club enjoys a rich history of over 60 years. The Club is home to the American Express, formally known as the Bob Hope Desert Classic on the PGA Tour.   The Big West is returning to La Quinta Country Club for the fourth straight year. In 2023's edition, Long Beach State earned the team and individual titles. The Beach was able to hold off the competition to claim their fourth Big West championship in program history, firing off a team total of 12-under 852 to win by two strokes. Individually, 54 holes wasn’t enough to determine The Big West victor, as a tri-champion was crowned for just the second time in Big West Championship history. Baron Szeto of Cal Poly was joined by Cal State Fullerton’s Russell Howlett and Ian Gilligan of Long Beach State in a sudden-death playoff before Gilligan bested the group on the 412-yard par-4 18th hole to claim medalist honors. Szeto and Howlett are back in their team’s respective lineups for the 2024 edition, where the Beach, Titans and Mustangs open play as the top three seeds. The grouping of Long Beach State, Cal State Fullerton and Cal Poly will be first off the tee, swinging away in Sunday’s first round beginning at 10 a.m. Long Beach State enters the Championship with three team top threes to their name, including a season-opening victory at the Ram Master’s Invitational. The Beach has been paced by the play of Clay Seeber , who has recorded four top 10 finishes on the season. After redshirting in 2022-23, the senior from Newport Beach, Calif., will be seeing the championship field for the first time since 2021 when Seeber recorded a runner-up finish.   The Titans return a seasoned bunch to the course with all uppperclassmen dotting the lineup paced by senior Tegan Andrews. Andrews has placed in the top 10 in four tournaments, winning twice in 2023-24 and earning two nods as Big West Golfer of the Month (October & February). As a team, the titans have posted six top 3s and three wins. The Mustangs’ five-person lineup also features juniors or above, with graduate student Ben Quick on the top line followed by back-to-back All-Tournament Team selection Szeto. Both of Szeto’s top five finishes in the Championship have been at La Quinta.  Next to tee off will be the trio of CSUN, UC Davis and Hawai’i, starting at 10:50 a.m.  The Matadors No. 1 player is a new addition to the lineup in graduate student Antoine Sale from Chateau d'opera, France. Felix Schrott occupies the second spot in the lineup, and has two Big West All-Tournament Team performances after finished tied for fourth at the Championship the last two years. UC Davis freshman Leo Metzger will look to lead the Aggies on the course with senior Blaze Akana headlining the Hawai’i lineup.  Sunday’s final grouping will pair UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara and UC Riverside, with players taking to the course at 11:40 a.m.  The Anteaters have 2022 third-place finisher Darien Zhao holding the No. 1 position in the lineup, with the new-look Gauchos lineup led by the only returner to the Championship field in Blake McGovern . UC Riverside’s Josh Hu is in the top position for the Highlanders heading into Championship play.  Monday’s second-round pairings will be set by first round scores, again beginning at 10 a.m. PT with the leaders off the tee first, with Tuesday’s championship round set for 8 a.m. PT, with a split tee start.    The Big West champion earns an automatic berth in the 2024 NCAA Division I Men's Golf Championships, and the individual medalist also earns a place in the regional field if not a member of the winning team, nor on a team chosen for an at-large selection.    Spectators are encouraged and welcome, and the event is free and open to the public.

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Course Reviews

Don't pass up an invite to any of these "second-best" courses

courtesy of Sea Island

Kiawah Island, located south of Charleston on the Atlantic Ocean, is one of the country’s great golf resorts with a menu of five different courses that each reveal aspects of the distinctive environment that makes golf in the Lowcountry so unique. But Kiawah Island wouldn’t be among the game’s most desirable destinations without its marquee attraction, The Ocean Course, ranked No. 24 on America’s 100 Greatest Courses and host venue of two PGA Championships and a Ryder Cup.

As fun and interesting as Kiawah Island’s other four courses are, everyone who visits wants to play The Ocean Course —if you went there and didn’t get a round in, you’d know you missed out on a rare experience.

Resorts like Bandon Dunes and Streamsong don’t have second and third courses—they are all 1A, 1B, 1C and so on (the five Bandon courses and three Streamsong layouts are all members of the America’s 100 Greatest and Second 100 Greatest Courses). Most resorts, however, have a main attraction that pulls golfers in, with one or more character actors around it playing supporting roles.

The same is true for some private clubs. Places like Baltusrol and Winged Foot each have 36 holes ranked among the 100 Greatest, but others like Medinah in Chicago, Los Angeles Country Club and Olympic Club in San Francisco built their reputations on singular architectural expressions that have historically overshadowed their secondary courses (Note: Medinah’s famed #3 course reopens this year after a major transformation by the Australian firm of Ogilvy, Cocking and Mead, and Olympic Club will soon embark on a reimagining of its Ocean Course by Jim Urbina).

Not all clubs and resorts suffer from lead/understudy syndrome. Some 1s and 2s are closer in quality and architectural intrigue than others. Though they rarely get the same level of publicity or ranking respect as their counterparts, these are our 10 favorite “little brothers” at multicourse public and resort properties, plus two bonus private clubs with underrated second options. If you skipped any of these off-Broadway productions, you’d be missing a show worth seeing.

Scroll through my selection of best "second courses," and be sure to click through to each individual course page for bonus photography and reviews from our course panelists. We also encourage you to leave your own ratings on the courses you’ve played … so you can make your case for why each course deserves, or doesn't deserve, more notoriety.

Arcadia Bluffs South Course

Arcadia, mi.

• 100 Greatest Public
• Best In State

Atlanta Athletic Club: Riverside

Johns creek, ga.

Omni Barton Creek Resort: Crenshaw Cliffside

Bethpage State Park: Red

Farmingdale, ny.

The Broadmoor Golf Club West Course

Colorado springs, co.

French Lick Resort: Donald Ross Course

French lick, in.

Oak Hill Country Club (West)

Rochester, ny.

PGA National Resort: Match Course

Palm beach gardens, fl.

PGA West: Pete Dye Mountain

La quinta, ca.

Pinehurst Resort: #3

Pinehurst, nc.

Sea Island: Plantation

Saint simons island, ga.

Torrey Pines Golf Course: North

La jolla, ca.

Explore  Golf Digest's new Course Reviews section  where you can submit a star rating and evaluation on all the courses you’ve played. We've collected tens of thousands of reviews from our course-ranking panelists to deliver a premium experience, which includes course rankings, experts' opinions, bonus course photography, videos and much more.  Check it out here !

Trending Now

Week ahead in pro golf: Who's playing, how to watch as PGA Tour heads for the Big Easy

The PGA Tour will hold its only team event on the schedule.

LIV Golf goes down under.

And 15-year-old Miles Russell of Jacksonville Beach will try to add to his remarkable accomplishment last week on the Korn Ferry Tour.

There are only two guarantees for the week ahead in professional golf: Scottie Scheffler and Nelly Korda won't win because they're not playing, Scheffler won his fourth event in five starts on Monday at the RBC Heritage and Korda won her fifth start in a row at the Chevron Championship.

Event:  Zurich Classic, Thursday-Sunday, TPC Louisiana. 

At stake:  $8.9 million purse ($1,286,050 and 400 FedEx Cup points to each member of the winning team). 

Defending champions: Davis Riley-Nick Hardy. 

TV:  Golf Channel (Thursday-Friday, 3:30-6:30 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 12:45-2:45 p.m.); CBS (Saturday-Sunday, 3-6 p.m.). 

Area players entered: Billy Horschel -Tyson Alexander, Davis Thompson-Andrew Novak, Jimmy Stanger-Adrien Dumont de Chassart, Ben Kohles-Patton Kizzire, Nico Echavarria (with Max Greyserman), Russell Knox (Peter Malnati), Zach Johnson (Ryan Palmer), Ben Griffin (Taylor Montgomery), Sam Ryder (Beau Hossler), Keith Mitchell (Joel Dahmen), Greyson Sigg (Chesson Hadley), Carl Yuan (Zecheng Dou), Raul Pereda (Austin Cook), Jonathan Byrd (Scott Gutschewski), Ryan McCormick (Norman Xiong). 

Notable:  Riley and Hardy defeated Nick Taylor and Adam Hadwin by two shots. ... The format will be best ball of partners in rounds one and three and alternate shot in rounds two and four. ... This is the only team format on the PGA Tour schedule. 

LIV GOLF LEAGUE 

Event: LIV Golf Australia, Friday-Sunday, The Grange Golf Club, Adelaide. 

At stake:  $25 million purse ($4 million to the winner). 

Defending champion:  Talor Gooch. 

TV:  CW (Saturday-Sunday, 1-6 p.m.). 

Area players entered:  Cameron Smith. 

Notable: Gooch shot 62-62 to open the tournament and beat Anirbarn Lahiri by three shots. 

LPGA TOUR  

Event: JM Eagle LA Championship, Thursday-Sunday, Wilshire Country Club, Los Angeles. 

At stake:  $3.75 million purse ($562,500 to the winner). 

Defending champion: Hannah Green. 

TV:  Golf Channel (Thursday-Friday, 6:30-9 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 6-9 p.m.). 

Area players entered: Auston Kim, Amelia Lewis, Mel Reid. 

Notable:  Green defeated Xiyu Lin and Aditi Ashok in a three-hole playoff. ... Nelly Korda, who has won her last five starts, is not playing. ... Major champions from 2023 Celin Boutier and Allisen Corpuz lead the field. 

PGA TOUR CHAMPIONS 

Event:  Mitsubishi Electric Classic, Friday-Sunday, TPC Sugarloaf, Duluth, Ga. 

At stake:  $2 million purse ($300,000 to the winner). 

Defending champion:  Stephen Ames. 

TV:  Golf Channel (Friday, 12-3 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 2:5-6 p.m.). 

Area players entered:  David Duval, Fred Funk, Vijay Singh. 

Notable: Ames beat Miguel Angel Jimenez by four shots. ... Also in the field will be Stewart Cink, Retief Goosen and David Toms. 

KORN FERRY TOUR 

Event: Veritex Bank Championship, Thursday-Sunday, Texas Rangers Golf Club, Arlington, Texas. 

At stake: $1 million purse ($180,000 to the winner).

  Defending champion: Spencer Levin. 

Area players entered: Dawson Armstrong, Chris Baker, Fred Biondi, Chandler Blanchet, Cody Blick, Dillon Board, Ricky Castillo, Brett Drewitt, Joey Garber, Tano Goya, Evan Harmeling, Peter Knade, Rick Lamb, Doc Redman, Miles Russell, Danny Walker, Thomas Walsh, Jared Wolfe. 

Notable:  Levin defeated Drewitt by one shot. ... Russell makes his second start in a row on the Korn Ferry Tour. He tied for 20 th last week at the LECOM Suncoast Open after becoming the youngest player ever to make the cut on the Korn Ferry Tour.