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LA QUINTA, Calif. — Because the PGA Tour returns to the Coachella Valley for the sixty fifth time with the 2024 American Specific, listed here are some storylines to observe for this week.
A robust area will tee it up though numbers will be deceiving in relation to the Official World Golf Rankings and power of area. Final 12 months the American Specific boasted 10 of the highest 19 gamers within the rankings. This 12 months, the quantity is 10 of the highest 25, however officers imagine the sphere is simply as robust as final 12 months.
Wyndham Clark, as an example, tenth on the planet rating and winner of final 12 months’s U.S. Open, is again after he additionally participated within the desert in 2023. Rickie Fowler has labored his manner again into the highest 25, and gamers like Justin Thomas and Shane Lowry are within the area this 12 months, bringing main championship credentials with them.
In all, 12 of the highest 30 and 20 of the highest 50 on the planet rating are taking part in in La Quinta this week, fairly robust for a non-signature occasion. Three of the highest six gamers on the planet headline the sphere, together with the highest three ranked People: No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, No. 5 Patrick Cantlay and No. 6 Xander Schauffele.
What different storylines are price listening to?
Okay, by now everybody is aware of that Jon Rahm, who gained the American Specific in 2018 and 2023, is just not within the area to defend that title this 12 months. Rahm took plenty of cash to move to LIV Golf, incomes him a suspension from the PGA Tour, so he is not going to defend any of his three 2023 wins on the West Coast Swing this 12 months.
The event has confronted this case twice earlier than, with Hudson Swafford not taking part in in 2023 due to a bounce to the LIV Golf and in 2001 when Jesper Parnevik didn’t make it to the primary tee as a result of his spouse was having a child.
Jon Rahm speaks to members of the media after successful the 2023 American Specific on the Pete Dye Stadium Course at PGA West in La Quinta, California. (Picture: Andy Abeyta/The Desert Solar)
The American Specific survived these first two absentee defenders, and it’ll survive this 12 months. Within the years with no defenders, the winners have been Joe Durant in 2001 with a PGA Tour report 36-under par (the then-Bob Hope Chrysler Traditional was a five-round, 90-hole occasion) and, nicely, Jon Rahm final 12 months.
The Pete Dye Stadium and Nicklaus Event programs at PGA West and La Quinta Nation Membership will likely be within the event rotation for the eighth consecutive 12 months, and that stability is a powerful level for an occasion that gives the professionals three assured rounds on well-manicured greens. Everybody’s remaining spherical will likely be on the Dye course.
Course situations have been a focus getting into the 2024 occasion, since PGA West struggled by a troublesome stretch with its Stadium Course final 12 months. This 12 months each the Stadium and Nicklaus Event programs look to be in great form, becoming a member of the always-appreciated La Quinta Nation Membership and its nice greens. Golfers love easy and quick greens early within the 12 months.
The American Specific at La Quinta Nation Membership in La Quinta, California. (Picture: Meg Oliphant/Getty Pictures)
The American Specific is likely one of the PGA Tour stops that has seen a number of 59s shot on its programs, in 1999 by David Duval on the Palmer Course at PGA West and in 2017 by Adam Hadwin at La Quinta Nation Membership.
The desert event is at all times ripe for a 59, but it surely has been seven years since anybody shot that magic quantity within the American Specific.
With prime course situations and PGA Tour golfers seemingly getting barely higher yearly, is it doable 2024 sees a 3rd 59 within the occasion? La Quinta Nation Membership would possibly once more be the most effective spot for a 59 if somebody begins, say, 7 beneath by seven holes. However all three programs can yield low scores.
Adam Hadwin poses for a photograph after the third spherical of the 2017 CareerBuilder Problem at PGA West after taking pictures a 59. (Picture: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports activities)
Two golfers who have been within the American Specific area in 2023 have been family names however hadn’t truly gained tournaments on the PGA Tour shortly. These two golfers – Rickie Fowler (final win in 2019) and Jason Day (final win in 2018) – each return to the desert after ending their winless droughts final 12 months.
Toss in Justin Thomas, who performed nicely sufficient in 2023 even with out a victory to safe a Ryder Cup berth, and you’ve got three attention-grabbing gamers on the comeback path all taking part in in a event the place they’ll shoot low scores and perhaps get their subsequent necessary victory.
Rickie Fowler performs his shot from the sixth tee through the third spherical of the 2023 American Specific at Pete Dye Stadium Course in La Quinta, California. (Picture: Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports activities)
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