The second PGA Tour event season following the Sony Open in Hawaii comes from La Quinta in California, where three courses – PGA West Stadium Course, the Nicklaus Tournament Course and La Quinta Country Club – host the action.
There, the largest field of the PGA Tour season, 156, will compete, the only event to maintain that number following the decision to reduce the maximum in other full-field tournaments to 144.
Among the players confirmed for the tournament are the defending champion, other former winners of The American Express and Major winners, including the current World No.1, Scottie Scheffler.
Scheffler’s most recent world ranking event came in December’s Hero World Challenge, where he finished T4, while you need to go back to September’s Procore Championship for his last appearance in an official PGA Tour event, when he edged out Ben Griffin in what was a warm-up for the Ryder Cup.
The American is back in PGA Tour action earlier than in 2025. Back then, he had to wait until February’s Pebble Beach Pro-Am after injuring his hand the previous Christmas Day.
Despite taking some time to get up to speed, ultimately, he dominated men’s golf for the second successive season, with six wins including Majors the PGA Championship and The Open.
Thanks to his brilliance in recent years, Scheffler will head to California in the world number one spot for the 140th successive week - a run not seen since Tiger Woods’ 281-week record between 2005 and 2010.
This will be Scheffler’s sixth appearance at the event, although he is yet to win it. Is 2026 the year that changes?
While that remains to be seen, he seems certain to face stiff competition, not least from defending champion Sepp Straka, who beat Justin Thomas by two a year ago.
Other former winners of the tournament in the field include Nick Dunlap, who created headlines in 2024 when he became the first player to win a PGA Tour event as an amateur since Phil Mickelson in 1991. Si Woo Kim, who won five years ago, is also in the field.
Other big names who will be determined to ensure Scheffler doesn’t begin the year with a win include fellow Major winners Wyndham Clark, who won the US Open in 2023, and 2022 US Open winner Matt Fitzpatrick.
Brian Harman is another Major winner in the field, with the 2023 Open champion looking for his first win since last April’s Valero Texas Open.
They’re far from the only big names set to compete at the event, with Scheffler’s fellow 2025 US Ryder Cup stars Griffin, Patrick Cantlay, Sam Burns and Harris English also involved.
Aside from Straka, there is also plenty of representation from the European team who won at Bethpage Black in the form of Ludvig Aberg, Rasmus Hojgaard, Robert Macintyre and Justin Rose.
Other notable names heading to La Quinta include Billy Horschel, Rickie Fowler and 2023 PGA Championship hero Michael Block, who has recently signed to Malbon as an ambassador.
Fans of one recent high-profile addition to the PGA Tour roster, former LIV Golfer Brooks Koepka, will need to wait another week to catch a glimpse of the five-time Major winner in action, with the American set to tee it up at the Farmers Insurance Open.
However, while there is no shortage of top talent among the 156 players at the tournament, there is no doubt that most attention will be on Scheffler as he continues his quest for greatness with another dominant PGA Tour season.
