As NBC Sports continues its search for a full-time analyst to work alongside Dan Hicks in the booth for its coverage of the PGA Tour, a familiar name will be in the seat at this week’s American Express in La Quinta, California.
Brandel Chamblee will assume the role of lead analyst for this week’s coverage. Terry Gannon will have play-by-play duties, as the duo will lead the coverage on Golf Channel and Peacock.
Four-time PGA Tour winner Kevin Kisner was in the booth at The Sentry, and longtime analyst Curt Byrum took over last week at the Sony Open in Hawaii as NBC Sports looks to fill the role formerly occupied by Paul Azinger.
Paul McGinley called the action at the Hero World Challenge in early December. Chamblee is the latest in what appears to be a rotating cast of characters, but he has appeared plenty before for NBC Sports, including at the Open Championship.
“I wouldn’t trade it for getting here any sooner, I think the timing is perfect.”
LA QUINTA, Calif. — For Tom Whitney, the struggles of a 34-year-old rookie on the PGA Tour come into focus because of his time in the U.S. Air Force as a nuclear missile operator. He literally was the person who could launch such a weapon if the President of the United States called.
“Golf is just what I am currently doing, and I’m completely blessed to do it. But I could still be in the Air Force, at a place I don’t want to be,” Whitney said Tuesday afternoon as he prepared for the first PGA Tour start of his rookie year at the American Express, just six miles from where he attended La Quinta High School.
“I could be in harm’s way,” Whitney said. “I could be fighting enemies. I’ve lost friends and loved ones in the armed forces. I have friends that are deployed. And I’m here in Palm Springs with two miles per hour wind, 75 degrees, getting paid to play these fantastic golf courses. Absolutely, I have a different perspective.”
Whitney played college golf at the Air Force Academy before serving his four-year stint in the military. He has become as well known for his old job in a bunker in Wyoming overseeing nuclear missiles as for his golf game. But his golf was good enough on the Korn Ferry Tour last season to earn him a full PGA Tour exemption which begins this week at the American Express on golf courses he played as a junior.
“I was a little bummed I didn’t get into the field in Sony (Open in Hawaii) and get my year started last week, but the silver lining is I get to make my debut here in my hometown in front of a hometown crowd,” Whitney said. “I’m pretty comfortable at this place.”
Whitney’s only PGA Tour check in three career starts came in the 2018 American Express, a start that came after a late sponsor exemption on a Sunday night and a frantic cross-country flight from Miami to the Coachella Valley. Whitney finished tied for 67th that week to earn $12,095.
Tom Whitney practices putting on the ninth green of the Pete Dye Stadium course at PGA West during a practice round for The American Express in La Quinta, Calif., on Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024.
That one PGA Tour check has been surrounded by years on mini-tours, the PGA Tour Latinoamericas and several seasons of fighting conditional status on the Korn Ferry Tour. Throughout that time, though, Whitney was able to see things in a different perspective because of his military service.
“I signed up to basically say I’m willing to give my life for this country, and never came anywhere close to that point,” he said. “But I mean, that’s kind of what you’re agreeing to when you join the military. Just understanding that, like, man, there’s tough days out (on the tour), but in the grand scheme of things, I get to play golf for a living, I get to represent some awesome companies, I get to do what I love, and pretty much have control over my schedule and what I do day-to-day. So, yeah, it’s definitely fixed my perspective on life.”
Ready to launch
Whitney’s military job sounds like something straight out of an action-adventure movie, though he admits a 24-hole shift in a bunker in Wyoming could be relatively routine and even boring. But Whitney acknowledges the main purpose of the bunker wasn’t lost on anyone.
“Ultimately, our main training part of the mission is we are the ones that launch the missile if the President sends the order,” Whitney said. “And it goes from the President to the USSTRATCOM (U.S. Strategic Air Command), USSTRATCOM to us. So, there’s only one entity in between us and the President, if we are launching a nuclear missile.”
No launch code was ever sent to Whitney or the others who controlled the missiles. When he wasn’t in the bunker, Whitney was back in Colorado, working on his game and planning a career in golf that never really dawned on him before he graduated from La Quinta High School in 2006.
“I had five individual titles during my tenure (at the Air Force Academy playing in the Mountain West Conference),” Whitney said. “I had a pretty impressive string of top 10s, either my sophomore or junior year. Then, my senior year I spent a good chunk of time in the top-25 individual rankings.
“It was at that point that I truly knew like, okay, I’m going to honor my commitment to the Air Force,” he said. “I’m going to finish that out, and then I’m going to give golf a go, because I can’t not try and be able to live with myself if I didn’t do it.”
Success didn’t come quickly for Whitney, though he did win an E Golf Tour event about seven days after leaving the military at Avondale Golf Club in Palm Desert.
“That was just pretty cool validation of me stepping away from a full-time job with guaranteed promotions, guaranteed salary, benefits, all that jazz, to chase the little white ball,” he said. “For me to win my first tournament out was, yeah, validation that I was on the right path for the time being.”
Tom Whitney during a practice round on the Pete Dye Stadium course at PGA West ahead of the 2024 American Express in La Quinta, California. (Photo: Taya Gray/The Desert Sun)
The lessons learned chasing a full PGA Tour exemption feel different for Whitney now than they would have 10 years ago.
“I’m looking back at a lot of pieces of advice I received from veterans and they kind of went in one ear and out the other, and you don’t really internalize those until you live it and experience it yourself,” Whitney said. “I mean, kudos to the young guys that have already figured it out at this point, but, yeah, I’ve learned a lot in my 10 years.
“I wouldn’t trade it for getting here any sooner, I think the timing is perfect,” Whitney added. “God’s got me right where I’m supposed to be. Yeah, just looking forward to entering my prime.”
Whitney, who now lives in Dallas with his wife, an Air Force reservist herself, and their four kids, earned his way onto the PGA Tour with a 21st-place finish in the 2023 Korn Ferry season-long points race and a 20th-place finish on the money list. While Whitney made the cut in just 13 of 23 starts on the Korn Ferry Tour, he had one second-place finish and two third-place efforts among his six top-10s.
There are days, Whitney admits, he misses being in the Air Force, his friends in the military and even his old job.
“It’s not a sexy job while you’re doing it, and at times it can not even be very enjoyable,” he said. “But I’ll tell you, it didn’t take very long after I separated and left that job and started golf full-time to where I missed it. I completely misgauged what I had, and you think the grass is literally greener as you’re entering the career of golf, and, man, I had it easy.
“People told me where I had to be, when I had to be there, what I had to wear, how long I had to be there for, what I was going to get paid. I pretty much knew what I was going to be fed. I mean, all the hard decisions were made for me,” Whitney said with a smile. “I just kind of had to follow a checklist.”
StrackaLine offers a hole-by-hole guide for the Pete Dye Stadium Course for the American Express.
PGA West’s Pete Dye Stadium Course – one of three courses used for the PGA Tour’s 2024 The American Express in La Quinta, California – opened in 1986 with a design by the legendary architect whose name appears in the layout’s title.
The 7,187-yard, par-72 Stadium Course is the main track for this week’s event, hosting each player for one of the first three rounds as well as Sunday’s final round. The other two courses used in the first three rounds are La Quinta Country Club (7,060 yards, par 72) and PGA West’s Nicklaus Tournament Course (7,147 yards, par 72). All the players have one round on each course before the cut is made for Sunday’s final round.
Worth noting, La Quinta Country Club has undergone a two-year renovation in which all the greens have been replaced. Also, the Pete Dye Stadium course will wrap up a multi-year restoration later in 2024.
Thanks to yardage books provided by StrackaLine – the maker of detailed yardage books for thousands of courses around the world – we can see exactly the challenges the pros face this week on the Stadium Course. Check out the maps of each hole below.
Schauffele finished T-3 at last year’s American Express.
After a few weeks on the islands of Hawaii, the PGA Tour has made its way to the mainland for The American Express at PGA West in La Quinta, California.
A loaded field will tee it up for the third event of 2024, including world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffele, Justin Thomas, Tom Kim, Sam Burns, Tony Finau and Jason Day.
Scheffler, the betting favorite at +550, tied for 11th at PGA West last season and is coming off a T-5 performance at The Sentry.
Defending champion Jon Rahm isn’t in the field due to his recent move to LIV Golf.
Three courses will be used over the first three rounds — Pete Dye Stadium Course, Nicklaus Tournament Course and La Quinta Country Club — before the final round is played at the Stadium Course.
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Golf courses
Pete Dye Stadium Course | Par 72 | 7,187 yards
Nicklaus Tournament Course | Par 72 | 7,147 yards
LA Quinta County Club | Par 72 | 7,060 yards
Jon Rahm putts on the fifth green during the final round of The American Express golf tournament at Pete Dye Stadium Course. (Photo: Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports)
Berger hasn’t played since the 2022 U.S. Open at The Country Club.
According to a report from Golf Channel, Daniel Berger, who hasn’t played on the PGA Tour since the 2022 U.S. Open at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts, due to a back injury has entered the field for the American Express, Jan. 18-21, in La Quinta, California.
Berger now ranks 634th in the Official World Golf Ranking and will be playing of a major medical extension.
The 30-year-old has four wins on Tour with the latest coming at the 2021 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. He’s also represented the United States at two team events, the 2017 Presidents Cup and the 2021 Ryder Cup.
Berger has recently been posting videos practicing again on social media.
Daniel Berger (Back) is out practicing again. Last we heard from him he planned on returning to the PGA Tour at the beginning of the 2023 Fall Swing. 🤷 @NUCLRGOLFpic.twitter.com/W7Psbd5UJS
The world No. 3 is a massive loss for the PGA Tour and an equally important acquisition for LIV Golf, and the root of his move will branch out with many a discussion to follow: What does this mean for the Tour? How much will this grow LIV? What impact will it have on the framework agreement between the Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund?
But how about what this all means for Rahm himself? The 29-year-old Spaniard is a two-time major champion who still has a deep respect and appreciation for both the PGA Tour and DP World Tour, where he has 11 and 10 wins, respectively. His passion for the Ryder Cup burns as hot as his fiery personality. In fact, Rahm even said the biennial bash against the Americans was the biggest hurdle in his way on the path to LIV. While speaking with reporters Thursday evening, Rahm gave a look into the future and discussed playing on both tours, as well as in the Ryder Cup.
“My position with the Ryder Cup stands as it’s always been. I love the Ryder Cup. I’ve explained many times how meaningful it is to me, and I surely hope I can be in future editions of the Ryder Cup,” he said. “That’s not up to me right now, but if it was up to me, I’ll be eligible to play so I surely hope I can keep up the good golf, keep playing good golf and give them a reason to have me on the team.”
“I can say that I do want to maintain my PGA Tour and DP World status. I will not give that up, and hopefully with the freedom that LIV Golf gives me I can play in both of those tours as well,” Rahm added. “I’ve expressed how important the Spanish Open is to me in the past, and if we ever reach that point there are certain PGA Tour events I still want to go and play as long as my schedule allows. So if possible, we’ll see what we can make happen.”
But how soon could we see Rahm back on Tour? LIV Golf’s 2024 season opener at Mayakoba in Mexico is Feb. 2-4. Rahm is a past winner of three PGA Tour events – The Sentry, American Express and Farmers Insurance Open – that will all be held before LIV Golf Mayakoba. If the framework agreement goes through by the Dec. 31 deadline, that may open the door for Rahm to play (though he wasn’t on the early commit list for the AmEx, where he’s the defending champion).
Rahm said he’ll miss the signature events he has won, like the Memorial and Genesis Invitational, “but what’s even better than that is hopefully being a pioneer and being the ones that create the legacy that other people speak of in the future,” he explained. “That’s something that, again, as ambitious as it may be, we have the opportunity to do right now, and that’s something really exciting.”
Legacy was a key talking point for Rahm as he explained his decision Thursday, and his move to LIV is a pretty big gamble (even with a reported 600 million “chips” now in his possession). Being a team owner and captain – details still to come on that front – was enticing for Rahm. He thinks LIV is his chance to make his mark on the game.
“My position is to play golf. That’s what I strive to do, play golf to the best of my abilities and hopefully leave the game in a better position than I found them when I started playing golf, which I’ve said has been my goal for quite a while now,” Rahm said. “I always idolize (Seve Ballesteros) and how much he grew the game of golf in Spain, and indirectly worldwide, so hopefully I can do half as much as what he did, and that’ll be a success.”
“If I can do my part and leave golf in Spain and many other parts of the world in a better state and more improved, it would be a great accomplishment for me, even if it’s just 50 percent of what Seve did, which is already very ambitious because he was a very unique, polarizing man,” he added. “I think that would be a very successful achievement, and that’s my goal, so hopefully we can keep working towards that.”
By winning a PGA section championship last week at Sherwood Country Club, Block has earned the berth.
Michael Block, one of the stars of the 2023 PGA Championship at Oak Hill, will have another chance to show off his wares on the PGA Tour next January.
The 47-year-old club pro forever became part of PGA Championship lore when he aced the 151-yard par-3 15th hole on Sunday with a 7-iron and finished in the top 20, earning a check of $288,000 for his efforts.
After his triumphant showing, Block made subsequent appearances at the Charles Schwab Challenge and RBC Canadian Open, but missed the cut in both events.
But by winning the PGA of Southern California’s section championship last week at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, Block has earned a berth in the American Express, which takes place at La Quinta.
Block started the third and final round one shot off the lead, then fired a 6-under 66 in the final round for a three-day total of 11-under 205, four shots better than runner-up Steve Saunders of Temecula Creek Golf Club.
The win, Block’s second consecutive section title and his fourth in seven years, earns Block a berth into the two non-invitational PGA Tour events played in the section, The American Express and the Farmers Insurance Open in San Diego.
Block played in The American Express last January and shot a 7-under 65 in the first round at the Jack Nicklaus Tournament Course at PGA West. Block eventually missed the 54-hole cut in the La Quinta event.
The 2023 PGA marked the fifth time Block had qualified for that event, while also playing in two U.S. Opens.
The top 10 players and ties from this year’s 54-hole event at Sherwood Country Club, advance to the PGA’s National Professional championship. The top 20 players from that event earn a berth into next year’s PGA Championship. No desert golfer finished in the top 10 and ties this year, with Geoff Dean of PGA West in La Quinta and Nate Williams of Hideaway Golf Club in La Quinta tying for 14th at 8-over, two shots out of a qualifying berth.
Block also found lightning in a bottle again when he traveled to Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville as part of a scouting trip for next year’s tournament.
He carded seven birdies and an eagle during the practice round, finishing his round at 9 under and tying the course record, a mark that was set by Jose Maria Olazabal at the 2000 PGA Championship.
LA QUINTA, California — When the No. 1 men’s golfer in the world says your greens are among the best, it’s a compliment to be taken seriously.
“They may be some of the best surfaces I’ve ever seen,” Scottie Scheffler said last January of the greens at La Quinta Country Club, one of the three courses played in The American Express PGA Tour event. “They’re really, really good. That’s consistent. It’s been like that — I think this is my fourth time here at this event — and they have been like that every time I’ve been over there. It’s pretty amazing what that superintendent and the club can do with those greens.”
What Scheffler and the other golfers in The American Express might not have known last January was that the greens on the back nine of La Quinta Country Club had been stripped down and had new grass planted in the summer of 2022. That same process is taking place at the club this summer on the front nine, with superintendent Tim Putnam certain of the same results.
“If you look at the data, they were virtually identical, for the speed of the greens, the firmness of the greens, all that,” Putnam said of the back-nine greens from 2022 to 2023. “They were virtually identical.”
Putnam, approaching his 21st anniversary at La Quinta Country Club, said swapping out the tifdwarf Bermuda grass on the greens for basically the same kind of tifdwarf is needed to help the course and keep the greens receiving rave reviews from tour players.
“(Hybrid Bermuda grass) starts to mutate and revert back into its parent types, which were 328 (variety),” Putnam said. “And then you get a lot of contamination that comes in through various processes.”
The ninth green is seen dug out for renovations with the clubhouse in the background at La Quinta Country Club in La Quinta, Calif., Friday, June 23, 2023. Photo: Andy Abeyta/Desert Sun/USA Today Network
Part of an overall project at the club
The process this summer includes stripping all of the grass from the putting surfaces, with the help of some herbicides.
What’s the secret to La Quinta Country Club’s pristine greens once compared to Augusta National’s?
“Then we come in and we punch a little bit, stir it up a little bit and we apply a little granular fumigant to it,” Putnam said.
The tifdwarf being replaced now has been on the course since 1999, the year of a major renovation to the La Quinta course. While Putnam says players in The American Express should see no difference in the putting surfaces next January, the obvious changes will be in the late spring, summer and fall.
“(The greens) were bad in the summer and the renovation part of the overseeding (the transition of grasses in the spring) was becoming difficult because of the different growth habits of the mutations and the contamination species in there,” Putnam said. “It made it very hard to get an even renovation on the greens. It was going to eventually start affecting the overseeding process.”
“Long-term health of the golf course is the priority here,” said Chris Gilley, head golf professional at La Quinta Country Club. “The great thing about La Quinta Country Club is that it has the reputation it is because of who has been running it, not because the tour is dictating it. The tour chooses to come back every year, which is great.”
Another part of the work at the course this year is the removal of 135 trees from the property, 125 of which were single date palms. Putnam said the trees were getting old and becoming a hazard.
“Just this year we lost six date palms during the season to wind events,” Putnam said. “They are breaking at what is called a drought ring. When a date palm is transplanted, it undergoes a shock from being pulled out of the ground and put into a new one. What happens is the trunk will get skinny, and then as it gets established it goes back to growing its normal width.”
A young ghost gum or Eucalyptus papuana tree is seen planted between the first and ninth holes with older date palm trees standing in the background at La Quinta Country Club in La Quinta, Calif., Friday, June 23, 2023. The date palm trees are being phased out as a safety hazard since they are prone to wind damage and will be removed once the new trees are of substantial height in the next couple years. Photo: Andy Abeyta/Desert Sun/USA Today Network
The older trees become fragile at the drought ring and become a danger for breaking and falling. To replace the trees being taken out, La Quinta is planting 90 new trees, with varieties from eucalyptus to Chinese elm to mesquite.
“So it’s not like we are going to be changing the strategy of the golf course or anything,” Putnam said. “Some of the ones that were removed were at (the PGA Tour’s) request as well. And we still have more than 350 palm trees on the property.”
Putnam said while the PGA Tour doesn’t have approval rights to projects at La Quinta Country Club, the club takes its reputation for great greens seriously.
“It is definitely motivation,” Putnam said. “We’ve got to make sure that these greens are as good as they were last year. I don’t want to have a down year. You don’t want to hear, “What happened to these greens here?’ ”
Jon Rahm has earned four of his nine PGA Tour wins in California.
He’s also now 2-for-2 in 2023, having won the Sentry Tournament of Champions in Hawaii two weeks ago and the American Express in La Quinta, California. He’s won four of his last six starts and is 54 under in his last eight rounds.
After winning in the Southern California desert near Palm Springs for the second time, Rahm was beaming about the way things are going so far.
“Heck of a start. Heck of a start,” he said. “Sentry and this one are very, very different golf courses and very different golf, right. You still have to go low in both of them. So luckily the mentality is the same.”
Rahm has gone 27 under in each of two wins and had just three bogeys over four days at the AmEx.
After his win, he talked about how health, his swing and about how rookie Davis Thompson kept the pressure on.
JON RAHM: Body’s been feeling great. My swing’s been feeling really, really good. And it shows, right. Even when I’m saying I may not be as comfortable as I would like, I’m shooting 64s because everything is just firing when it needs to. I’m, in a weird way, glad that today went the way it went. I’ve enjoyed some runaway victories, I’ve enjoyed some comebacks, but today was certainly a struggle. Out of the five birdies I made, what is it, one, two, three of them were tap-ins and the other two were basically 6-footers. So that tells you the story. Didn’t really make much today, even though everything looked really good and a lot of them looked like any of them could have gone in. But kept battling. Davis played amazing golf today, even through some of the bad swings he had early on. He battled, he came back, made am amazing 6 on the 5th hole. Gave me a run. This is just golf, right. If I don’t make the putt on 14, if his ball goes in on 17, you never know what can happen. But luckily the scales tipped in my favor today and I got the win.
Q: You talked about putting a lot of great rolls on putts that didn’t go in. Looked like that was kind of the story today. Then you made two big putts on 14 and 16. Was that the story today, same as yesterday, good putting, just not going in?
JR: I can tell you there’s a few, I mean, on 5, 7, 8, 10, 15, 17 and 18, all of those putts were good. All of them looked like they were dead center with two feet to go and just at the end they just missed. Luckily, the one on 16 curled in. I made the one on 14 that I needed to not give up the lead. But that’s golf. Yesterday on the front nine I basically felt like I couldn’t miss for the first 14 holes. I mean, the hole looked as big as it could ever look. I can definitely say the first 54 holes some putts that weren’t as good as some of the rolls I put in today that definitely went in. That’s just golf. It is what it is. I wouldn’t know what to say. Usually it evens out somehow. My ball striking got better and my putting maybe not as good as I would have liked. But if I were to play at that level every single round, well, yeah, I would be winning by six or seven. That’s just not easy to do.
Q: You were playing well, you were hitting the ball well, you were putting the ball well and yet you’re tied.
JR: I’ve shot combined 54 under in the last two tournaments and won by a combined three shots. I don’t know what else to tell you. It’s not like I’m putting bad, right. It’s just they’re really good rolls that sometimes didn’t go in.
After that swing I put in on 5, those two swings, the tee shot and the 5-iron, I’m like, ‘Man, if I keep making swings like this, today could be a really low day.’ I kept making the swings, I just didn’t capitalize on those. But it was a fantastic round of golf, that’s all I can say. I knew some people were going to come out and shoot 62, 64, 65s and get close, but luckily we started with a cushion of shots and was able to end up ahead.
Q: After having a chance to play in the same group as Davis today, what were your impressions of the way he handles himself and the poise — it seemed, just looking at it, like he was awful cool for a rookie.
JR: He is. Yeah. But make no mistake, what you see and what he feels could be completely different things. We’re all nervous out there. You feel it. It’s just how you deal with it. First time in this situation, teeing off with the lead on Sunday in a PGA Tour event. I think he did a great job. He played good golf. It was just, I would say, two bad swings at the wrong time. And that was 5 and 16. One could say it was two holes where he was maybe trying to hit it a little bit hard, trying to get some extra distance. One cost him at least one shot and the one on 16 cost him half a shot. And that was the difference at the end.
Q: It just comes back to the idea that in this game the margin is incredibly slim.
JR: It is. I mean, we’re not — listen, we’re not only shooting these scores because the courses are easy. It’s just the average, the level of the average player keeps gets higher and higher. I would like to know in years past if you shoot 27 under how many of ’em you win by one. Not many. Most of the time you’re winning by a comfortable margin. So it goes to show how good everybody is getting. It’s a really good time for spectators and fans of the game. Because what’s more fun than to seeing people just make birdies after birdies and having an exciting game.
Q: Rory has spoken at times of how it can be almost easier mentally to chase No. 1 than staying at No. 1 and kind of the war in the mind of complacency trying to creep in at times. What’s your reaction to that and kind of how it feels as you’re chasing it as opposed to when you’ve been at No. 1?
JR: There’s definitely a difference. When you’re chasing, to an extent it’s almost easier. Because you have one option and that is to make birdies. When you’re leading, yes, you want to make birdies, but you don’t want to make stupid mistakes that are going to cost you a bogey. So it’s obviously a little bit more difficult. But I enjoy both of them. If I had to choose, obviously I would always like to have the lead because you always, you’re always out there and if you keep making birdies, he’s never going to catch you. So I would always rather be there. But those comeback wins are fun, man. When you go on a heater and get those birdies and then all of a sudden, bam, you’re leading the tournament and you win the tournament. It’s quite unique. But, yeah, if I had to choose I would rather lead. You learn a lot about yourself in 18 holes. Because it’s four to five hours of a lot of stress. You definitely learn about yourself a lot about yourself.
Jon Rahm putts on the fifth green during the final round of the 2023 American Express at Pete Dye Stadium Course in La Quinta, California. (Photo: Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports)
Q: In terms of your kind of season and the last few months, winning four of your last five worldwide starts, how would you contextualize your comfort level on the course this stretch and where it relates kind of in your career?
JR: I think today was about as comfortable as I’ve been in a long time on the golf course tee to green. I felt really in command of my swing. The only two mistakes were the tee shot on 1 and the tee shot on 13. The one on 13 was barely a miss. So I felt in command of my game. Made a lot of good swings out there. Always gave myself a lot of chances. Which sometimes you make and sometimes you don’t. Felt about as comfortable as can be. Every time I felt like this in the past I’ve ended up going on to win, just because it takes a lot of pressure off a lot of parts of my game knowing that basically I’m going to hit the shot that I’m envisioning. And that’s a really unique zone to put yourself in. That doesn’t happen as often as I wish. I wish I could be like that every single time that I know I’m going to stripe it into the middle of the fairway and hit the shot at the pin. But it doesn’t always happen. So I’m glad I enjoyed a day like that today.
Q: In terms of celebrating success, managing success and keeping striving forward, are there any other athletes or people in life that come to mind that you respect.
JR: So many. So many. That’s a very long list. One that in college got very dear to my heart, if we go outside of golf, was Kobe Bryant. I spent a lot of time listening to a lot of his interviews and videos, because I see a lot of similarities between us in the way we approach our craft. Because craft is the key word for Kobe. And having that obsessiveness that we both have over the game. It’s somebody to learn from, for sure. Work ethic beats talent every day of the week, period. And I like to think that I have a really hard work ethic and I put a lot of time in. Like I said all year last year, like at the end of the year, you’re seeing now, let’s say, the fruits of all the hard work that I’ve put in. Like I said, I felt like I was swinging really well last year, the results were just not happening. And they’re coming in a bunch right now. Other athletes. I’ve gotten pretty close with Michael Phelps. I’ve been able to ask him quite a few things and pick his brain. But he simplifies it a little bit. I guess when you’re the greatest in history in anything it seems easy, right. Personally, there’s been a few I’ve been able to meet. There’s two football players for the Cardinals, we’re in a group chat, that are complete golf nerds. One of this them is going to have a lot of time to play golf now, which is J.J. Watt, and Zach Ertz, who is now injured. I hope they were able to watch a round. Meeting them and see how they approach a game, even though I haven’t asked them a ton of questions, I observe and they are definitely an incredible inspiration how they do what they do. J.J. especially. To be a leader of a team, a captain and a force to be reckoned with on the field like he has been for so long. To still be as dedicated as he has been on, not only how much he had to eat, what he had to eat. Because, I mean, eating 10 dry chicken breasts a day has to get old very quickly. But he does for recovery and making sure his body’s healthy. Same with Zach. Both of ’em. It’s been really, really inspiring. I’ve learned a lot from both of ’em.
Q: You’ve talked a lot about how comfortable you feel in the American southwest. Arizona, California, obviously two wins here, two big wins at Torrey. Could you just talk about, was that just a matter of having gone to college in the American southwest or is it something else that turns you on out here?
JR: Having played college for Arizona State, we played a very large amount of our tournaments Arizona, California. Southern California especially. For some reason I’m just comfortable. Palm Springs, I mean, might as well be Scottsdale. It’s pretty much the same thing. So golf is very similar. But I wouldn’t know why. I think it’s because I grew up on poa annua greens. Southern California I feel really comfortable on. It’s something that feels really familiar. I think it’s probably because the success I had in college was followed and kind of led into the PGA Tour and I won in my first few events in California, right. Honestly, if we start counting from 2012 until now my percentage, I don’t know what it is exactly, we know about Torrey Pines. … it was probably because I’m just so comfortable. The lifestyle suits me. My wife and I love this part of the country. She’s happy, I’m happy, our kids are happy. It’s a lot easier to play golf.
Q: You talk about how the margins are pretty thin out here. You seem to be making the margins a little larger. Four wins in your last six tournaments. Despite what some computers might say, you seem to be the best player in the world right now. Do you feel like you can just maintain this or how much better can you get?
JR: In my mind I feel like I can get a lot better. I feel like that’s the mentality I should have. Again, I work very hard to do what I do. I could find mistakes in every single round I’ve played. Very few times I would say I’ve played a flawless round. Even though there’s a massive amount of positives, like the one massive positive is how good my wedge game was this week. The amount of tap-ins that I’ve had these four days is unlike anything I’ve ever had. If I had to put a MVP to something it’s that 56 and that 52 degree wedges were key. So if I can keep that going and the ball striking at the level that I know I can, I know I can get better. Again, it’s my job to try to do the best I can and so far I’m doing a pretty good job.
Q: [With] your ninth PGA Tour win you tie Seve [Ballesteros] for nine PGA Tour wins from the country of Spain. I know how much you look up to Seve. Just sort of your reaction to that.
JR: Are you counting his five majors as PGA Tour wins?
Q: Yes.
JR: Yeah, well, slight asterisk next to that one, right. (Laughing.) I mean, Seve didn’t play full-time PGA Tour, so the fact that he had nine wins is pretty spectacular. I’ve been fortunate to tie a lot of things he’s done and if I ever get to surpass some of those things it would be incredible. I’ve spoken many times, the reason why I play golf, not like motivation, meaning my dad started playing golf because of the ’97 Ryder Cup and Seve’s captaincy. That’s basically why I’m here. I asked my dad recently, If your friends hadn’t been down there to see that, what would we be doing? Who knows. I have no idea. That’s why I take representing golf in Spain so seriously and why Seve’s legacy is so important to me. When he started playing golf I think there were 30,000 people with a golf license in Spain. At the time he died it was over 350,000. So when I started playing I think it was three hundred something thousand. So I would love to be able to escalate that. I know it will be hard to do to the level that he did, but if I can increase that number and make golf more popular in Spain I’ll be a happy man.
“Competing against the best in the world is my dream and I did that today and proved that I can hang with ’em.”
His baby face aside, Davis Thompson didn’t look like a PGA Tour rookie making his 20th start for most of the week at the 2023 American Express.
The 23-year-old Georgia grad led after the first and second rounds in the Coachella Valley, where his five eagles over 36 holes tied a record for most eagles made in a 72-hole event (1983-present). Come Sunday’s final round at the Stadium Course at PGA West in La Quinta, California, he was grouped with 2018 AmEx winner and world No. 4 Jon Rahm and J.T. Poston.
“I had a great week,” said Thompson, who ultimately finished one shot short of Rahm and what would’ve been a playoff for his first PGA Tour win on Sunday. “Competing against the best in the world is my dream and I did that today and proved that I can hang with ’em. It was a lot of fun.
“A lot of nerves and I hit a lot of quality golf shots under pressure, which was really cool.”
Thompson played the par-5s at 14 under over the first three rounds spread across La Quinta Country Club and PGA West’s Stadium and Tournament courses. On Sunday at the Stadium Course, Thompson played the four par-5s at just even par following his 2-under effort on Saturday.
“Honestly, I don’t know,” Thompson said of the difference between his two weekend rounds. “I had a few tee shots off line. I mean, didn’t really give myself a chance to go for it on 5 and 16 due to poor tee shots. As well as I played the par-5s all week I kind of didn’t really do that well today.”
“Jon making par on 5, which I thought he was going to make birdie, but he made par on 5 and birdie on 16. That was two shots,” explained Thompson. “I played those holes 1 over. So that was kind of a two-shot swing there.”
On Sunday, Thompson was T-62 in fairways hit, 62nd in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee and 54th in SG: Around the Green among the 69 players who made the cut. But his toughest break of the day came on the 17th green, where Thompson made a heartbreaking par after his birdie putt from 48 feet hit the flagstick and failed to drop in the hole. The putt would have tied he and Rahm for the lead with one hole to play.
“I usually always leave the stick in from a long distance. I feel like it helps me with my speed,” Thompson said of his decision to not pull the pin. “I’ll probably play the ‘what if’ game in my head for a long time, unfortunately.”
The missed chance on No. 17 aside, Thompson still had a shot to chip in for birdie on the final hole after missing the green with his approach. Despite his poor performance around the greens on the day, the TV broadcast fawned over Thompson’s effort to hit the tricky chip inside two feet and nearly hole out.
“I went through about every option in my head. I could have hit just a low bump and run, but that hill was so steep,” Thompson said of the show. “I laid my 60 down and I knew I had enough, I had a good enough lie to get it up quick. Just kind of goes back to if you want to make it, you chip it. If you want to hit it up close, you putt it. So I was obviously trying to make it. Figured might as well.”
Thompson has made the cut in five of his six starts so far this season and finished T-9 at the season-opening Fortinet Championship. He went toe-to-toe with one of the world’s best Sunday and didn’t back down under the most severe pressure. He’s got immense talent for his age. Moxy, too.
Keep an eye on the young rookie. You might as well.
