World No 1 Scottie Scheffler aiming for another 'jump start' at The American Express
- Planet Sport writer
- 18 January 2024
World number one Scottie Scheffler has targeted the same kind of "jump start" at The American Express in California that led to him becoming Masters champion two years ago.
Scheffler started his 2024 PGA Tour campaign at The Sentry in Hawaii two weeks ago by finishing in a tie for fifth place.
The 27-year-old American is aiming to improve on that at a tournament he says led to his incredible run of four wins in two months in 2022 – Phoenix Open, Arnold Palmer Invitational, WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play and Masters – and catapulted him to the top of the world rankings.
"Two years ago here, this tournament kind of helped jump start me for the rest of the season," said Scheffler.
"I think I was outside the cut line by maybe three shots with three holes to go over on Stadium Course, and I chipped in for eagle on 16, and made a 30-footer for birdie on 18 to make the cut on the number.
"Then I went out on Sunday and had a really good round, I finished 20th or 25th, something like that.
"Then, after that, it kind of jump started the rest of my year. I played Torrey Pines the next week, and won in Phoenix a couple of weeks after that, and kind of started my run there in 2022."
Several of the world's top 25 are present with Xander Schauffele (5), Patrick Cantlay (6), Wyndham Clark (10), Tom Kim (14), Jason Day (18), Tony Finau (21), Chris Kirk (23) and Sam Burns (24) all teeing it up.
The pro-am event is held on three venues at La Quinta Country Club, the Pete Dye Stadium Course and the Jack Nicklaus Tournament Course at PGA West.
Jon Rahm won the tournament last January, but the Spaniard's switch to LIV golf means that he is not defending his American Express title.
Asked if it was hard to focus with so much noise around golf these days, Scheffler said: "I play with the same guys every week at home, and so it's not really a big topic of discussion for us in our day-to-day lives.
"I think, at night, sometimes, going out to dinner and stuff like that with the guys out here (on the PGA Tour), conversations are a bit different than they have been in the past. But that's just because we got some stuff we need to figure out."
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