LA QUINTA — PGA Tour events are always looking forward, but The American Express tournament can be forgiven if they are looking back two years.
As the 2022 event begins in less than six weeks, tournament officials are excited that it will again look like the 2020 tournament, with fans in the grandstands, concerts on the PGA West driving range and amateurs playing side-by-side with PGA Tour professionals.
During a news conference Thursday at PGA West, officials of both the tournament and sponsor American Express were excited that COVD-19 protocols that changed the face of the tournament last January will be gone for the 2022 event, to be held January 20-23.
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Among the pros playing for the $7.6 million purse – a $900,000 increase from last January — will be tournament host Phil Mickelson, who produced one of the biggest stories in golf in 2021 with a win at the PGA Championship at the age of 50. Si Woo Kim, the tournament’s defending champion, also will be in the field, along with 2021 PGA Tour winner and Ryder Cup player Tony Finau, who has played in the tournament the last two years. Ryder Cup teammate Scott Scheffler also has committed early to the event.
“We’ve got a lot of great things in store as we welcome back our traditional three-day pro-am along with spectators to enjoy the event,” tournament executive director Pat McCabe said. “With that, health and safety will be a top priority for all of us.”
Spectators will be required to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test to enter any of the golf courses used in the tournament.
Besides the return of galleries, the tournament also will see the participation of 156 amateurs playing the first three days beside the pros in a 54-hole pro-am. Officials thought the pro-am could be played in 2021 under county and state safety protocols, but they believed it was not a good situation to bring the 156 amateurs and their caddies to the desert in a pandemic.
It was the first time in the tournament’s 62-year history that amateurs did not play in the event with the tour pros.
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La Quinta Country Club also was dropped from the 2021 tournament as officials decided to operate out of just the PGA West clubhouse while playing the Stadium and Nicklaus Tournament courses. La Quinta is back in the rotation this year alongside the two PGA West courses.
The tournament’s concert series also was a casualty of the pandemic last January, but the music will return after Friday and Saturday’s rounds next month. Pop/rock group Maroon 5 will perform after play Friday, with country star Brad Paisley playing on Saturday on the PGA West driving range.
Finau, joining the news conference by phone from Las Vegas, said he’s excited for a chance to again play in The America Express, where he finished fourth last year at the start of a strong year that saw him in contention in so many tournaments from January through December.
“Having guys like Maroon 5 there, concerts, I love music,” Finau said. “A tournament is a lot of things that go into a golf tournament, and what makes it special is kind of what happens during the week. To have concerts like that, to meet the great people in the pro-am, it has a field that’s different than most of the other events we have, so I get to meet people that I admire and maybe looked up to in music or the entertainment industry. I have those opportunities during this event. And then I love the golf courses we play.”
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