Even as rumors swirl about the availability of defending champion Jon Rahm for next month’s American Express PGA Tour event, the tournament announced a star-studded list of early commitments to the 65th annual golf tournament Tuesday.
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, along with fifth-ranked Patrick Cantlay and sixth-ranked Xander Schauffele will all return to the event in La Quinta, California, Jan. 18-21. Other early commitments include No. 11 Tom Kim and No. 21 Tony Finau.
Those high-profile names will be among the 156 pros in the 72-hole event played at three La Quinta courses: the Stadium and Nicklaus Tournament courses at PGA West and La Quinta Country Club. Whether they will be joined by Rahm, a two-time American Express champion, remains a mystery.
Rahm was not listed Tuesday as one of the players entered in the field. In recent weeks Rahm has been mentioned in social media and various reports as a golfer ready to make the leap to the rival LIV Golf League, backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, with figures as high as $600 million mentioned for Rahm’s services.
Pat McCabe, the executive director of The American Express, admitted the Rahm issue is a challenge for the tournament, but not something the tournament can’t overcome.
“Anytime you can have the No. 1 player in the world, I’ll tip my hat with him hanging on there,” McCabe said. “We are excited to have Scottie. We are excited to have Tony. We are excited to have Tom Kim. We have seen even prior to the announcement of any player that ticket sales are as good as they have ever been.
“There are 156 players that are going to start on Thursday. There are what, 250, 300 PGA Tour members. We will focus on what we can focus on and control,” McCabe added. “You’ve got Xander, you’ve got Patrick. You’ve got some of those other guys. Our field continues to get better and better every year.”
LIV players are suspended from play on the PGA Tour, including names like two-time American Express winner Phil Mickelson, major champions Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau and past American Express winners Pat Perez and Patrick Reed. Other golfers who have moved to LIV have resigned their PGA Tour membership, including Dustin Johnson. The 2022 American Express champion, Hudson Swafford, did not defend his title last January because he joined the LIV tour.
Even without Rahm, the American Express will feature three of the top six players in the Official World Golf Ranking, with more names to be announced in the coming weeks, McCabe said. Last year, 10 of the top 19 players in the rankings the week of the tournament played in the event.
John Norris, senior vice president of tournament business for the Tour, was the guest for the media day and said the current discussions between the PGA Tour and PIF shouldn’t hurt individual tournaments like the American Express too much.
“We know that 156 of the best players will show,” Norris said. “We can never control and never have been able to control who shows up. You’ve had ebbs and flows of five of the top 10 or one of the top 10. The common theme is every year they show up, we have a great winner, a great story. That’s not going to change.”
Norris added that he is encouraged that the deal between the PGA Tour and the PIF to form a new business will happen by the self-imposed Dec. 31 deadline.
All of the marquee names announced by the tournament Tuesday were part of the event last year as well. Scheffler has won six events on the PGA Tour the last two years including the 2022 Masters and the 2023 Players Championship. He also won the unofficial Hero World Championship in the Bahamas last week, a tournament that awards world ranking points because of the strength of its field.
Cantlay didn’t win on the PGA Tour in 2023, but he lost a playoff in the FedEx St. Jude Championship, one of the FedEx Cup playoffs events, and had nine other top-10 finishes. Cantlay, an eight-time tour winner, finished second in the 2021 American Express after shooting a course-record 11-under 61 at the Stadium Course in the final round.
Schauffele had 11 top-10 finishes in 2023 including a runner-up at the Tour Championship as well as the Wells Fargo Championship and has seven career tour wins.
Kim, in a quirk created by the PGA Tour scheduling change back to a calendar year format in 2023, won the Shriners Children’s Open in Las Vegas in both 2022 and 2023 for his two wins in the extended season. He tied for sixth in his American Express debut last year.
Finau, a two-time winner in 2022-23, has finished as high as fourth in The American Express. He is an ambassador for American Express as well.