July 21 was a very good day for The American Express PGA Tour event, a tournament played in January.
Nick Dunlap, who won The American Express in January to become the first amateur to win on the PGA Tour in 33 years, found his second win of the year. This time playing as a pro, Dunlap had a huge Sunday in winning the Barracuda Championship in Truckee, cementing what has been one of the best stories on the tour in 2024.
Halfway around the world, Xander Schauffele, third in The American Express each of the last two years, was winning the British Open for his second major title of the year, perhaps putting himself into position to win the PGA Tour’s player of the year honor.
“It was great. I texted Nick. It was nice for him to get the win,” said Pat McCabe, executive director of The American Express. “I know he signed up for (the Barracuda) relatively late but it is good to see him getting reps. He has to play more golf and obviously this was good for his confidence.”
At the halfway point between the 2024 American Express and the 2025 playing of the desert’s PGA Tour event in La Quinta, McCabe is already working on the 66th annual event. While that may or may not include Schauffele, since player schedules can change year to year, McCabe is confident the AmEx field will be as strong as it has been the last two years, which have featured Schauffele, Scottie Scheffler, Tony Finau, Justin Thomas and more.
“What we saw last year was a testament to a couple of things of what AmEx is doing and what we are doing. People do like starting their year in the desert. I mean, Shane Lowry played with us for the first time in a long, long time, and he was right there in the Open Championship,” McCabe said. “You saw Justin Thomas come and play for the first time in a number of years, and by all accounts he had a great week.”
McCabe pointed to other top names like Billy Horschel, Tony Finau, Tom Kim, Sam Burns and Min Woo Lee who played in The American Express last January. McCabe hopes for as strong a field in 2025, if not a bit stronger.
“I think the schedule is helping us, going back to that more condensed, consolidated schedule. Guys are seeing that they have to go play,” McCabe said. “And some of the guys who you see who are outside (of the FedEx Cup playoffs) right now, the Jordan Spieths of the world, the Rickie Fowlers of the world, they have go and play and get FedEx Cup points.
“So I’m optimistic that our quality of field will continue and, look, with the significance of our title sponsor and the clout that they are able to bring, that is helpful, too,” McCabe added.
The strength of the 2025 field was helped when Dunlap won the Barracuda Championship. Dunlap was the first amateur in 33 years to win a PGA Tour event with his win at The American Express last January, but a second win verifies the 20-year-old Dunlap as more than a one-hit wonder, even if the Barracuda was an alternate-field event from the British Open.
Coming to the desert
“I think what happened in January was so amazing on a number of different fronts,” McCabe said of Dunlap’s American Express win. “The fact that he played on a sponsor’s invite, the fact that he was the first to win as an amateur in all those years and all that went behind it, the attention he got. It is fun to watch PGA Tour telecasts and when they show him they always mentioned AmEx, so we love that for brand recognition of winning in the desert.”
Dunlap’s win helped The American Express to some big television numbers, making it one of the few PGA Tour events in the first three months of the year to register an increase in ratings for the Golf Channel broadcast.
“Our Sunday cable ratings were up 35 percent from 2023. We were 63 percent up from 2022 to 2024., which is pretty good,” McCabe said.
The golf is always the No. 1 priority for a PGA Tour event, but McCabe and his operations staff are also focusing on other aspects of the event six months from the next tournament. Some changes are on the way for 2025, he said.
“We are actually going to bring back a more robust onsite merchandise buildout experience onsite, which I think will be great,” he said. “It will be located out on the golf course. So people will be able to buy tournament merch. We’ve got Malbon (clothing) coming back. They have been a big hit the last few years. I’ve made a couple of trips with my ops team looking at new fan venues. We have kind of identified a few, definitely looking at some new spots on 18, new spots on 17, that have some great vantage points where we can build out some structure, which I think will be fantastic.”
Other things about the tournament won’t change for 2025. McCabe said the two concerts, one on Friday and one on Saturday, will return in 2025, though he won’t give any hints as to the two acts coming to La Quinta. The three-course rotation, the Pete Dye Stadium Course and Nicklaus Tournament courses at PGA West and La Quinta Country Club, also returns.
One of those courses, the Stadium Course which serves as the Sunday host of the event, is undergoing changes to all 18 of its green complexes including grasses and bunkers. McCabe said he’s excited to see how those changes, including expanded greens and flat-bottomed bunkers, will impact the play.
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