Weekend: Scheffler Wins The AmEx
World No. 1 coasts to season-opening win without his A game. Plus, Reed wins in Dubai, LIV discriminates against a Japanese player during OWGR push, and talk of a Muirfield Open seems curiously timed.
The great ones stand out when they win with their B game. Or maybe even their C+ game.
Scottie Scheffler coasted to a win during a lively, festive, and occasionally testing American Express Championship at PGA West. More impressive: he returned from a two-major-wins season despite lacking his typical approach play precision (SG: 47th on 59/72 greens with a 40’6” proximity (60th)), but got by with decent enough-scrambling (10 of 13) by his elite standards.
Scheffler chose to kick off his 2026 campaign in the annual birdiefest that again saw ridiculous scoring at the once-difficult Nicklaus Tournament Course. Average scores over the first three rounds on the Nicklaus were 67.654 (-4.346). But Scheffler and the best Hope/Amex field in years also got a nice preview of any deficiencies thanks to PGA West’s once frightening Stadium Course that sported surprisingly firm and fast greens.
Still, it’s shocking to see a Pete Dye design once deemed too tough for pros and amateurs played to a 70.313 average over four rounds and needs putting surface firmness to put up a decent fight. If only there were something that could make it a fairer fight?
Scheffler started the round one back of Si Woo Kim and ended up four clear of Jason Day, Ryan Gerard, Matt McCarty, and Andrew Putnam despite dunking his 17th hole tee shot into the water at the island green 17th.
“I was going against two guys today in the final group that are really, really talented players,” Scheffler said. “Si Woo has so much talent. He's so good at golf. Then Blades [Brown], this is my first time seeing him, but anybody at 18 years old that can make it into the final pairing of a PGA Tour event is doing something right. And then there was plenty of other guys behind us chasing us. And it's a course where you got to go out there and make birdies. So there was a lot of challenges today, but I'm proud of the way we played and put up a nice round.”
The win was Scheffler’s 20th PGA Tour win to go with his four majors. The historical context is really something to see. And it’s only January 25th.
Becomes the 40th player to reach 20 wins and moves to T36 on the all-time wins list.
First player to reach 20 wins since Rory McIlroy (earned 20th win at the 2021 CJ CUP in South Carolina)
First player since Tiger Woods to earn 20 PGA Tour wins under the age of 30; Woods’ 20th win came at the 2000 U.S. Open/24 years, 5 months, 19 days
Marks the second-fewest starts (151 starts) to reach 20 wins, only behind Tiger (95 starts)
A 1,442-day span between Scheffler’s first win (2022 WM Phoenix Open) and 20th win makes him the second fastest to reach 20 wins after claiming his first (Tiger/1,351)
One note about the AmEx. It’s rumored to be on the PGA Tour’s vast chopping block and the decision to finish against the NFL seemed oddly cruel to the sponsor. However, the crowds appeared to be the largest in some time and the energy that came through during the telecasts was both noticeable and satisfying as a viewer. Like the Hawaii events apparently doomed due to the new CEO’s scarcity push, there is something intangible about watching golf in beautiful warm-weather locales this time of year. It would be a shame to lose all because some private equity ghouls and bean-counters are running the show and want to drive value to their silly little video game franchises.
Plus, as Scottie Scheffler demonstrated over four beautiful desert days, these weeks are pretty handy ways to jumpstart a world-class game with a Tradition Unlike Any Other less than 70 days away.
Also…
Blades Brown (T18/-19) played in the final group in his 10th career PGA Tour start. He became the youngest player inside the top two on the leaderboard through 54 holes of a PGA Tour event since 1970.
Jason Day (T2/-23) played his final 47 holes bogey-free and earned his 100th career top-10 finish on the PGA Tour.
Ryan Gerard (T2/-23) finished runner-up for the second straight week after finishing solo second at last week’s Sony Open.
After opening with a 71, Andrew Putnam (T2/-23) played the second and third rounds in a bogey-free 19-under par run (60-65). The former Pepperdine great recorded his best finish since the 2022 Baycurrent Classic (T2).
The tournament record holder and 2024 winner, Nick Dunlap, withdrew in the third round after posting 77-74.
Reed Wins In Dubai, Reveals Uncertain LIV Future
Patrick Reed coasted to his fourth DP World Tour with a four-stroke victory at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic.
“It feels amazing,” Reed said. “You know, just kind of one of these things that any time I came to this event, obviously feel like kind of shows how the off-season was, like if the things we were working on were successful and working.”
The 2018 Masters champion then dropped a (first world) bombshell on the scribbler who paid close attention to Reed’s previous post-round remarks: the 35-year-old has not signed his LIV contract for the 2026 season. The circuit backed by the headchopping regime begins next week in ravishing Riyadh.
The exchange:
Q. Can I just clear up something that you said to us the other day, and this might be me reading too much into it. But twice you used the phrase, you’re “supposed to be” teeing it up in Riyadh for the first LIV event. The phrase “supposed to,” does that suggest that you still have some negotiation to do? Are you out of contract now?
PATRICK REED: We’re still finalising the contract. We’re not complete on that yet.
Q. For this year or future years?
PATRICK REED: For this year.
Q. So you’re a free agent?
PATRICK REED: At the moment, yes, sir.
It’s one of those things that I don’t like to talk business and stuff while I’m playing, and so it’s like Monday through Wednesday is the only time to really talk about it.
And so, it’s just kind of one of those things that, you know, getting here this week, I knew that once Thursday got here, just focus on golf and golf only. You know, starting tonight and tomorrow, we’ll get back to talking and things like that.
But really, the biggest thing for me right now is just go out and play well this week. Obviously got the win. Then hopefully carry that momentum into next week and hopefully compete late Sunday again.
Reed remains likely to rejoin LIV’s Mensa chapter, a.k.a. the Four Aces. He confirmed he is not in talks with the PGA Tour. It’s also safe to assume his number is blocked at the Global Home. Reed’s various lawsuits against golf media and his association with now-suspended lawyer Larry Klayman—who subpoenaed Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, and Jay Monahan—makes it difficult to imagine he will be extended an invitation to the Returning Members Program. (The same one welcoming Brooks Koepka back to the PGA Tour this week.)
Against a strong field in Dubai, Reed eventually had to hold off Andy Sullivan, the 38-year-old journeyman whose second-round 65 kept him in contention. A four-time winner on the DP World Tour, Sullivan had fallen to 142nd in the world but finished birdie-birdie to grab a vital solo second-place finish.
Reed’s 14-under-par performance came over a course demanding major-championship style patience thanks to a typical thick rye rough overseed and the Emirates Golf Club’s bias toward right-to-left tee shots. He becomes the sixth American winner of the Dallah Trophy with what was also his first Rolex Series victory. Reed earned around $1.5 million for the win, all of which will go to paying his DP World Tour fines if he continues his LIV career.
Currently 44th in the world and projected to move into the top 30, the OWGR leap sets Reed up for invites to the year’s final three majors. His win chances at the Masters remained at 1% on Polymarket following the victory, while his odds with the old school betting markets rose slightly to 70-1.
Reed’s nearest competitor heading into Sunday got to within two strokes after birdies on the eighth and ninth holes. But David Puig eventually posted a final round 75 after incurring a two-shot penalty for ever-so-slightly grazing 18th greenside bunker sand with his wedge. Because of the infraction, Puig dropped from a tie for third place to T7. It cost the former Arizona State star and current LIV golfer valuable ranking points. He still moved from 99th to 94th ahead of the LIV season opener in remarkable Riyadh.
Viktor Hovland started the final round tied for third place with Sullivan, but slid to a 76 and a T14 finish. Rory McIlroy posted a final round 73 to finish T33.
LIV’s Blatant Discrimination Problem
The legitimacy push for LIV Golf took a hit with the rebranding of the Iron Heads into Korean GC.
Last week, and in the midst of the league CEO indicating they are close to Official World Golf Ranking validation, SI’s Bob Harig highlighted the troubling case of Jinichiro Kozuma.
The 31-year-old three-time winner on the Japan Golf Tour was recently jettisoned by LIV. Kozuma once ranked as high as 94th in the world but finished outside LIV’s top 24 “lock zone” last year, making him eligible to be dropped by his team. And he was.
Kozuma had a second-place finish in Dallas and 32nd overall finish for the season despite missing the first five events due to injury. He finished ahead of bigger names Graeme McDowell, Martin Kaymer, Peter Uihlein, Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter, who all remain with LIV.
Kozuma’s Japanese heritage appears to have cost him a place with the LIV. Because of the Iron Heads’ move to an all-Korean squad, Kozuma only found out he’d been dropped via social media posts on January 14th when Ben An’s LIV arrival had been confirmed.
Such a transparently discriminatory move should torpedo LIV’s OWGR push.
Kozuma and his manager had only nice things to say about his two-year LIV run despite the lack of professionalism displayed by the league. But it’s hard to imagine any other tour on the planet earning OWGR sanctioning while blatantly discriminating by nationality and ignoring the merits of on-course performance.