The 2026 PGA Tour season is off to a strong start with Chris Gotterup and Scottie Scheffler winning the first two events of the year.
With The Sentry cancelled, it has been two full-field events that have kicked off the 2026 season.
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And the PGA Tour could have hardly asked for a better result at The American Express this past week. Scottie Scheffler emerged from a congested leaderboard to secure his 20th PGA Tour victory.
There were plenty of big names in the field at La Quinta. However, there were also several players who threatened to spring a surprise.
Smylie Kaufman issues his verdict on The American Express’ future
Blades Brown and Andrew Putnam both posted rounds of 60 on Friday. The latter was the player keeping pace with the world number one over the front nine during the final round.
Of course, there are doubts over the future of a number of events on the current schedule. There is an expectation that the calendar will be streamlined. It has been suggested that the PGA Tour season could be reduced to just 20 events.
That leaves the Sony Open in Hawaii and The American Express in vulnerable positions. But speaking on The Smylie Show, Smylie Kaufman suggested that the start to this season has provided a brilliant advert for the full-field events.
“I’ll say this about the AmEx as we kind of think about next year, a broader conversation, what I loved about Sunday and what I loved about this field is that there were so many different storylines,” he said.
“I don’t want the tour to go away too much from events like this, because you had Andrew Putnam, a guy that has everything to play for. You have Blades Brown, an 18-year-old, who has an opportunity to be the second youngest winner on the tour. And you’ve got Si-woo Kim, who’s a guy who everybody loves to watch. But there were so many other guys who had chances to win. I think the more storylines the better.
“The signature event model I think you could argue you wouldn’t have had nearly as many fun storylines as a viewer where you feel like somebody’s life and their job feels like it’s on the line on Sunday and you can feel it through the TV screen. And I felt that today with some players.”
How Sony and American Express feel about continuing to sponsor PGA Tour events
It will be fascinating to see how the future schedule does look on the PGA Tour. You would imagine that there will be a lot of significant changes, particularly with Brian Rolapp not as attached to the history of the game.
Much will come down to what the sponsors want. And Kaufman explained that there is a desire to see these events remain on the schedule.
“I can tell you that Sony and American Express, they want to be back on the PGA Tour. They want to have these events. I think there’s a little bit of a song and dance that’s happening between the two. I think the PGA Tour is tap-dancing a little bit and everybody else is out on the dance floor wanting to party,” he added.
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“I’m interested to see what happens, because it’s just hard to say no to these big sponsors that are willing to put the dollars, especially in locations which players like to be at in Hawaii and American Express at La Quinta – such an amazing place to start the year. I understand from a ratings aspect starting the year with a big bang in Phoenix, but I still feel like if you can manoeuvre around football enough, I feel like these events still should be happening.”
It will be interesting to see how The American Express is reflected upon once the signature events start coming thick and fast this year.
Golf fans enjoy seeing those storylines, where someone on the fringes of the PGA Tour threatens to take on one of the greatest players of all-time.
But Rolapp will have one eye on what will cut through to the mainstream. And clearly, that is going to lead to some ruthless decisions being made.