Did 2022 American Express tournament turn Scottie Scheffler's career around?
In 2022 Scottie Scheffler was a talented player on the PGA Tour still looking for his first tour victory. It certainly didn’t look like he would get that win at The American Express in La Quinta, but perhaps Scheffler found something else in The American Express that year: The confidence to go out and win.
Scheffler started The American Express that year with rounds of 69 and 70 and was over par late in his third round on his way to what looked like a missed cut. But, as Scheffler related at the La Quinta tournament last January, something suddenly clicked, and it might have started a roll that has Scheffler sitting now as the No. 1 player in the world and a two-time Masters Champion.
“I think this tournament kind of helped jumpstart me for the rest of the (2022) season. I think I was outside the cut line by maybe three shots with three holes to go over on Stadium Course (at PGA West), and I chipped in for eagle on 16, and made a 30-footer for birdie on 18 to make the cut on the number,” Scheffler recalled.
“Then I went out on Sunday and had a really good round (a 67), I finished 20th or 25th, something like that,” Scheffler added. “Then, after that, it kind of jumpstarted the rest of my year. I think I played Torrey Pines the next week, and won in Phoenix a couple weeks after that, and kind of started my run there in 2022.”
More: Augusta debut: American Express winner Nick Dunlap soaking in his first Masters
That 2022 run included a win in the Masters, his fourth win of that year. He added two more wins in 2023 and now has three big wins – The Arnold Palmer Invitational, the Players Championship and a second Masters title – this year.
Back as the champion
Scheffler has now played in The American Express five times, returning in 2023 as the reigning Masters champion. He was third as a rookie in 2020, missed the cut in 2021, was 25th in that fateful 2022 event and has since finished 11th and 17th. Over that span, Scheffler has elevated his game to where he is the undisputed best player in the world, even if he’s only just now getting that credit from fans and the rest of the golf world.
Scheffler’s win Sunday at Augusta National would certainly appear to be great news for The American Express. That tournament has certainly been on a roller coaster since the 2023 event in La Quinta, when Jon Rahm won. Rahm then won the Masters and seemed like a great winner to return in 2024, only to have Rahm jump to the LIV tour and not come back to La Quinta at all.
Then came the remarkable win by Nick Dunlap in January, the first win by an amateur on the tour in 33 years. Now comes Scheffler’s win and with it the promise that he could play in the American Express for the sixth year in a row in 2025.
Of course, last year it looked for a while like The American Express would have three of the four reigning major champions in its field. But with Brian Harman playing in Abu Dhabi that week after winning the 2023 British Open and with Rahm jumping to LIV, the La Quinta event had just one major winner from 2023, U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark.
January is a long way off by professional golf standards, but with Dunlap returning as defending champion and Scheffler as a strong possibility to return, the 2025 American Express is already off to a good start for its field.
Larry Bohannan is the golf writer for The Desert Sun. You can contact him at (760) 778-4633 or at larry.bohannan@desertsun.com. Follow him on Facebook or on Twitter at @larry_bohannan. Support local journalism. Subscribe to The Desert Sun.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Did 2022 American Express event turn Scottie Scheffler's career around?
