The American Express Draws Flashy Field Despite Un-Elevated Status

The American ExpressAXP
, the opening salvo of the PGA Tour’s California Swing, tees off Thursday in Palm Springs with a stellar field for an un-elevated event.

When the PGA Tour first announced plans for 13 designated events in 2023 with purses of $20 million for full-field tournaments and the Players Championship prize fund ballooning to $25 million, there were fears espoused. The bid to get top talent together more consistently would further fan the flames of a caste system where some tourneys are considered first class while the rest fly coach.

Jack Nicklaus commented that it would create two tiers within the same league where “all of a sudden the other tournaments become feeders.”

But not being a designated event hasn’t put a dent in the American Express field. Five of the top seven players in the world have chosen to tee it up in the Coachella Valley and play in the 64^th edition of the event once upon a time ago known as the Bob Hope Desert Classic. The tournament, one of the two pro-ams on the calendar where pros play alongside amateurs during tournament rounds, is held across a trio of desert layouts: the Pete Dye Stadium Course, La Quinta Country Club and the Nicklaus Tournament Course.

Tony Finau, the 12^th ranked player in the world, attributes the robust field to a variety of factors, including the quality of the sponsor, the unique format and the opportunity to forge connections with business leaders that play in the event.

“This is not just a golf tournament. This is a pro-am and I think the face value of the opportunity we have to play with CEOs of companies and the networking we can do as players play a huge role in the field this week,” Finau, an American Express ambassador, explains.

“Then you have the weather and the course components, this is a place that you know is going to be 65 to 70 degrees, very limited wind and in golf usually you make the cut after two days but this week we know we are going to play at least three days because we play three different golf courses and early in the year guys want to get as many rounds under their belt as possible to see where their game is at. This is still the time of year where we are feeling that out and gauging where our game is and what better place to do that than here in Palm Springs,” he continues.

There was a five-year lull between Tony Finau’s first PGA Tour victory at the 2016 Puerto Rico Open and his next leaderboard topping performance. But in the last seven months the Utah native has added another three victories to his tally along with racking up four top-ten results and he currently leads the tour in scoring average. He credits his renewed flatstick confidence for his turn of good fortune.

“I started putting a lot better. It’s just a physical part of my game. I feel putting has always been the streaky part throughout my career. I started putting better and more consistently and trusting in what I was doing,” Finau explains.

Beyond the golf the tournament is a major fundraiser for area charities. Last year’s tournament raising $1 million for local nonprofit organization in 2022 and the credit card issuer also uses the event to showcase Coachella Valley restaurants with Chef Tanya’s Kitchen, Shields Date Farm, and Brandini Toffee among the local vendors that’ll be serving fans.

A stage set up on the driving range at PGA West will host a concert series headlined by Darius Rucker and Gwen Stefani following the finish of the second and third rounds.

“I’ve become a huge country fan over the last eight to ten years and I’m very familiar with Darius Rucker and his songs with Hootie & The Blowfish. And I grew up on Gwen Stefani and band No Doubt’s music so I’m looking forward to hearing them and they’re a huge part of the festivities this week.”

Finau is one of the featured golfers in Netflix’sNFLX
Full Swing docuseries set to be released next month. Following in the slipstream of the streamer’s smash F1 focused hit Drive to Survive, the series takes dead aim at all the on and off course drama that unfurled last year. The ultimate measure of success of the Formula 1 show is it successfully minted legions of new fans who’d never tuned into the sport.

“There are definitely some parallels with F1 and what can happen with golf. I just know that is an extremely high ceiling and I don’t know that we can live up to that type of expectation but hopefully it shows the world what golf is all about and the PGA Tour world,” Finau says, adding that it will also provide fans a unique lens into the life of elite golfers outside the ropes.