LA QUINTA, Calif. — It has always been rare for a PGA Tour event to be played without its defending champion unless that champion has an injury that forces him out of action.
That won’t be the case for the American Express in La Quinta this week. Its defending champion, Hudson Swafford, won’t be at PGA West or La Quinta Country Club. Swafford, who also won the American Express in 2017, made the decision to sign with LIV Golf last spring and became one of more than a dozen golfers suspended from the PGA Tour by Commissioner Jay Monahan.
Swafford’s absence this week adds to a list of intriguing tales in the tournament’s 64 years about defending champions. Most defending champions show up, play well or miss the cut and that’s the end of the story. But at the American Express, the defending champions have produced some compelling stories throughout the years.