“Build the hardest damn golf course in the world“. So Ernie Vossler and Joe Walser said to Pete Dye when it came to giving life to the Stadium Course of the PGA West, which includes six courses. Where today, in La Quinta, The American Express (formerly the Bob Hope Classic and then the Desert Classic) is held, it was not possible to play for a long time.
The golfers, in 1987, requested that the Stadium Course be removed from the rotation; since 2016 it has returned, and is indeed appreciated for the difficulties it offers. Of par 72s of this kind, which closely resemble what you see in Scotland, there are few.
Scheffler, schedule
And the event too has a particular historicity, albeit in other places. In 1973, in fact, it was at the Tamarisk Country Club in Rancho Mirage that Arnold Palmer won the last victory of his glorious career on the PGA Tour (a couple would follow in Europe and one in Canada, not counting the Senior Tour).
Returning to the Stadium Course, it is on what Dye defines as “the most difficult final holes he has ever built” (the last three, in particular), there are two who can seek, under various conditions, the number 1 in the world.
Rory McIlroy, who does not participate, is in fact threatened by an all stars and stripes duo, the one formed by Scottie Scheffler and Patrick Cantlay. Paradoxically, Spaniard Jon Rahm could have overtaken the Northern Irishman under the old OWGR scoring system, but he can’t under the new one.
And there is also a potential particular case: if Cantlay wins and Scheffler finishes eighth alone, they would share the first overall position: a more unique than rare case. The main men capable of spoiling the battle of the three mentioned are Tony Finau, Will Zalatoris and the South Korean Si Woo Kim.
There is no 2022 winner, and for a very specific reason: Hudson Swafford, in fact, is currently suspended from the PGA Tour for joining LIV Golf. The Official World Golf Rankings is a system for assessing the level of performance of professional golfers.
It was introduced in 1986, supported by the four major tournaments and six professional tours that make up the International Federation of the PGA Tours, namely the PGA Tour, European Tour, Asian Tour, PGA Tour of Australasia, Japan Golf Tour and the Sunshine Tour.
points also for good final placements in the following tours: Web.com Tour, Challenge Tour, PGA Tour Canada, OneAsia Tour, Korean Tour, PGA Tour Latinoamérica, Asian Development Tour, PGA Tour China, Alps Tour, Nordic Golf League, PGA EuroPro Tour , ProGolf Tour, MENA Golf Tour.
