World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler opened his PGA Tour season in impressive fashion, winning the 2026 The American Express by four shots for his 20th career victory.
Trailing by a shot behind leader Si Woo Kim heading into the final round in Palm Springs, Calif., and falling two shots behind after opening with a birdie and then a bogey while Kim birdied the second hole, Scheffler quickly took control with four birdies in a five-hole stretch while Kim had two bogeys and a double-bogey to go out in 3 over par.
Scheffler added four more birdies on the back nine at the Pete Dye Stadium Course to take a six-shot lead. Only a watery double-bogey on the par-3 17th trimmed his margin of victory over four players who tied for second.
“Today was a day in which I played pretty nice and did some good things out there,” Scheffler said. “I hit a lot of wedges really close to the hole, gave myself some easy birdies. And then when I was out of position, I did a good job of getting the ball up-and-down.”
Notable Accomplishments for Scheffler
Scheffler shot rounds of 63-64-68-66 for a 27-under-par total. He earned $1.656 million to surpass $100 million in career winnings. At age 29, Scheffler became the second-youngest player behind Tiger Woods to win 20 times and the second-fastest, behind Woods, to achieve 20 victories, winning in his 151st PGA Tour start.
“It’s been a great start to my career,” said Scheffler, whose victories, including four majors, have all come in the past four years, starting with the 2022 WM Phoenix Open. “It’s been special. I try not to think about that stuff too much. I was just trying to do the things I needed to do to be prepared.”
Jason Day shot a final-round 64 to move up 18 spots into a tie for second at 23 under with Ryan Gerard (65), Matt McCarty (68) and Andrew Putnam (68). Kim shot 72 to finish tied for sixth with Sam Stevens at 22 under.
Brown Falters After Strong Start
Scheffler began the final round tied for second at 21 under with 18-year-old sensation Blades Brown, who tied for 17th in a Korn Ferry tournament in the Bahamas that finished Wednesday, then went straight to The American Express.
Brown had an eagle and 10 birdies for a course-record 60 on the Nicklaus Tournament Course on Friday. That tied him with Scheffler for the second-round lead at 17 under.
Both men remained in contention after they each shot 68 on Saturday and Kim shot 66 to take the lead. Brown needed to birdie the 18th hole Sunday to finish at 21 under, which would have tied him for eighth place and earned him an invite to the Farmers Insurance Open this week at Torrey Pines in San Diego. But he three-putted for bogey to shoot 74 and finish in a tie for 18th at 19 under.
“I have so much to take away from this week,” Brown said. “Getting to play with Scottie Scheffler in the final group at 18 years old is … I had to pinch myself a couple of times just to make sure this was real. Not the Sunday that I would have liked, but I overall had so much fun playing The American Express this week.
“I would say one of the coolest things that I learned today was how underrated Scottie Scheffler’s short game is. To see it in person and just to look at kind of the trajectory and the spin, and just the control that he has with his wedges and short game. Obviously his putting is insane, too. It was really cool to watch. So I’m definitely going to go work on that.”
Torrey Pines on Deck
The Farmers Insurance Open returns to the North and South Courses at Torrey Pines. World No. 11 Harris English is back to defend his title. Also competing are fourth-ranked Xander Schauffele, No. 7 J.J. Spaun, No. 15 Hideki Matsuyama, No. 16 Keegan Bradley, and Sony Open winner No 17 Chris Gotterup.
