Even as rumors swirl about the availability of defending champion Jon Rahm for next month’s American Express PGA Tour event, the tournament announced a star-studded list of early commitments to the 65th annual golf tournament Tuesday.
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, along with fifth-ranked Patrick Cantlay and sixth-ranked Xander Schauffele will all return to the event in La Quinta, California, Jan. 18-21. Other early commitments include No. 11 Tom Kim and No. 21 Tony Finau.
Those high-profile names will be among the 156 pros in the 72-hole event played at three La Quinta courses: the Stadium and Nicklaus Tournament courses at PGA West and La Quinta Country Club. Whether they will be joined by Rahm, a two-time American Express champion, remains a mystery.
Rahm was not listed Tuesday as one of the players entered in the field. In recent weeks Rahm has been mentioned in social media and various reports as a golfer ready to make the leap to the rival LIV Golf League, backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, with figures as high as $600 million mentioned for Rahm’s services.
Pat McCabe, the executive director of The American Express, admitted the Rahm issue is a challenge for the tournament, but not something the tournament can’t overcome.
“Anytime you can have the No. 1 player in the world, I’ll tip my hat with him hanging on there,” McCabe said. “We are excited to have Scottie. We are excited to have Tony. We are excited to have Tom Kim. We have seen even prior to the announcement of any player that ticket sales are as good as they have ever been.
“There are 156 players that are going to start on Thursday. There are what, 250, 300 PGA Tour members. We will focus on what we can focus on and control,” McCabe added. “You’ve got Xander, you’ve got Patrick. You’ve got some of those other guys. Our field continues to get better and better every year.”
LIV players are suspended from play on the PGA Tour, including names like two-time American Express winner Phil Mickelson, major champions Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau and past American Express winners Pat Perez and Patrick Reed. Other golfers who have moved to LIV have resigned their PGA Tour membership, including Dustin Johnson. The 2022 American Express champion, Hudson Swafford, did not defend his title last January because he joined the LIV tour.
Even without Rahm, the American Express will feature three of the top six players in the Official World Golf Ranking,…
..
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Golfweek…