The American Express courses offer different styles, but similar scoring for PGA Tour players
In the summer of 2022, officials at PGA West did some major work on their Pete Dye Stadium Course, taking out hundreds of trees among other changes as the first part of a two-year effort to restore Dye’s design back to how it played when the course opened in 1986 and hosted The American Express in 1987.
But in the last year, the work that would have completed the two-year renovation of the host course of The American Express was put on hold, meaning golfers and fans will see basically the same course this year as they did last year.
“We didn’t do much this summer,” said Chris Caballero, director of golf for the PGA Tour resort courses. “The plans were to re-do the greens, and that would have finished up the two-year project, but it’s now actually a three-year project with nothing really being done in the second year.”
Instead of structural changes to the Stadium Course, the focus was on improving overall conditions at the host course of the tournament. Caballero said the players and fans will notice that important difference in both the Stadium and the Nicklaus Tournament courses this year for the PGA Tour event.
More: Major champions Justin Thomas, Wyndham Clark added to field of The American Express
“Honestly, the condition of the golf course is what you will see the most,” he said. “The courses are always really good. But the courses right now have never been this good.
“We do have a new head of agronomy, Brian Sullivan,” Caballero said. “He’s got a good background, and he was well sought after. There was a recommendation from the tour to bring him in and God, this place is unbelievable.”
The three golf courses in The American Express -- the Stadium and Nicklaus Tournament Course and La Quinta Country Club -- are part of the attraction of the desert tournament for players, said tournament executive director Pat McCabe.
“You always hear year in and year out that La Quinta Country Club has some of the best putting surfaces on the entire PGA Tour, which is great,” McCabe said. “And certainly the conditioning at PGA West is the best it has been in a long, long time. So we have a lot of things in our favor.”
Xander Schauffele, in his return to the desert tournament last year, was among those who praised La Quinta Country Club.
“La Quinta is pretty pure or almost as pure as it gets for us,” Schauffele said. “Tough to beat that.”
Changes on the greens
Unlike PGA West, which left its two The American Express courses without any significant work during the summer of 2023, La Quinta Country Club completed a two-year project at its course in the last year. The greens on the back nine were stripped of grass and replanted in 2022, and the front-nine greens received the same treatment in 2023.
Tim Putnam, superintendent at La Quinta Country Club, said players never noticed the change to a similar kind of tifdwarf Bermuda grasses at the 2023 tournament, and he expects the same reaction for the 2024 event.
In addition, some trees were taken out on the course and other trees were planted, with hopes those trees will be part of the course’s challenges once they grow.
The three courses at The American Express have been the same courses played for the last eight years, although La Quinta Country Club will be played for the 51st year overall since the tournament debuted in 1960. The courses all have dramatically different styles, though they play to similar stroke averages.
In fact, La Quinta Country Club, long considered one of the easier courses on the PGA Tour with a scoreable front nine including back-to-back short par-5s at the fifth and sixth holes (just 516 and 527 yards, respectively), actually played to a higher scoring average in 2023 (69.5) than either the Stadium or Nicklaus Tournament courses. La Quinta does have tighter fairways than the other courses and a tougher back nine than front nine.
The Nicklaus Tournament Course has many of the dramatic features of the Stadium Course, including deep bunkers and large lakes. Many of the par-4s on the course are relatively short and even the par-5s are open to scoring with the possible exception of the 572-yard 15th hole with its island green. That hole can be difficult to hold from the middle of the fairway on a second shot.
The Stadium Course might be the most famous course in the Coachella Valley. The 165-yard par-3 17th, known as Alcatraz because of its famous rock-ringed island green, is just part of a demanding closing stretch of holes that include the 600-yard par-5 16th with its 20-foot deep bunker to the left of the green and a demanding 439-yard par-4 18th hole that forces golfers to miss a massive lake to the left on both the tee shot and approach shot.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: American Express: Golf courses part of appeal for golfers at PGA Tour event
