The PGA Tour heads to PGA West for the second event of the 2026 season, The American Express.
Scottie Scheffler makes his season debut, looking to take Sepp Straka’s title, which he claimed last year. Scheffler is the strong favourite, but he has never won the American Express before.
That’s likely because the course is known for being a bit of a birdie-fest. Straka won with a score of 25-under last year, which is common at PGA West. With players going low up and down the leaderboard, it’s hard for players such as Scheffler to flex their talent advantage.
That’s why the course has been highly criticized in recent years, and Jon Rahm had some fiery words about how the course was set up in 2022.
Jon Rahm slammed American Express course for a big mistake
In 2022, Rahm finished T14 at the American Express, and the world number one voiced his fury at the course setup.
As he walked down to the green on the Nicklaus Course during his second round, Rahm was picked up by the on-course microphones saying: “Piece of s–t f—–g setup, putting-contest week.”
When asked about these criticisms of the course after the tournament, Rahm didn’t back down. He said to reporters, “We’re the PGA Tour, we’re the best golfers on the planet and we’re playing a golf course where missing the fairway means absolutely nothing.
“There were times where missing the fairway by an inch was worse than missing the fairway by 20 yards. That to me is a mistake. I don’t know what else to say. I also understand we’re in the desert, you can’t overseed the entire golf course and things like that can’t happen, but yeah, we played a lot of golf with zero rough.
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“No matter where you hit it, you’re going to be able to hit it on the green, and it becomes a putting contest, who can make the putts. That’s about it. There’s no premium for anything else.
“I can tell you right now with the way I struck the ball last week and the way I putted, if it was in, let’s say, major championship conditions, I probably wouldn’t have made the cut, let alone finish 14th, or I shouldn’t have, I believe. I just think it was a bit too easy for the best players in the world. That’s just my opinion.”
It’s the same complaint lodged at Keegan Bradley’s setup of Bethpage Black, as he made the Ryder Cup far too easy for players.
Rahm went on to win the tournament the following year at 27-under, the season before he signed with LIV Golf. However, the course underwent renovations last year, and proved to be a bigger test for the players.
The changes PGA West made following Rahm’s comments
After Rahm made those comments (but not in response to them), a multi-million dollar project was completed to modernize the course. 2025 was the first time the course had been played on the PGA Tour since those renovations, and it did make it more of a challenge.
Greens were expanded to create more difficult pin positions, the bunkers were made more challenging, and some tee boxes were moved to add length to the course. And while Straka shot 25-under, the underlying stats show that these changes did work.
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Tough decisions! 🤔
- Pebble Beach Pro-Am
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The scoring average rose to 71 from 69 the previous year, and the course ranked 19th out of 50 in Tour difficulty. And the cut line moved up to -9 from -13.
Scores are still out there for these players, but it is definitely not a putting contest any longer. It’s just a shame Rahm isn’t on the tour to see these changes in effect.
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