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As staid and traditional as the PGA Tour tends to be, one thing that does change from year to year is the tour’s schedule.

Consider in the last few years the tour has gone from four playoff events to three, has eliminated the Fall Series events from the FedEx Cup and added eight signature events with purses of at least $20 million. You can make it nine signature events in 2026 with the return to Trump National Doral to the tour schedule at the start of May.

That will mean that starting with the Masters in April and ending with the PGA Championship in May, tour players will have two major championships and three signature events in the span of six weeks. Just who skips which event should be fascinating to watch.

But one thing that hasn’t changed on the PGA Tour, at least not changed much, has been the West Coast Swing to start the calendar year. With the tour announcing the official 2026 schedule this week, a schedule that has certainly been no secret to players and fans, the West Coast Swing is once again a strong kick off to the season with no tournament moving and no golf courses being kicked to the curb.

For local golf fans, the key to the West Coast Swing is The American Express in La Quinta, which will again be the third event of the year, Jan. 22-25. While it is not a signature event on the tour, The American Express has done strong work in attracting top players to the desert.

Even with the loss of two top-ranked players to injury last January, Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele, The American Express had a field stronger than most regular events. As it turned out, Scheffler and Schauffele played a combined four events on the 2025 West Coast Swing because of their injuries.

One downside of the schedule for the desert is the Jan. 25 date is the day of the AFC and NFC championship games, the games that decide which teams play in the Super Bowl. That’s a tough ask for a tournament that would like better television ratings.

The American Express will again be played after two events in Hawaii, The Sentry in Maui, a signature event, and the Sony Open, a regular event on the tour.

Following the La Quinta event will be the Farmers Insurance Open, held the week when there are no NFL games played. The event, in its last year with Farmers Insurance as a sponsor, is played on both courses at Torrey Pines Golf Course in San Diego. One of those courses, the South Course, is one of three major caliber courses on the West Coast Swing in the final four weeks of the seven-week West Coast Swing.

The Super Bowl will be Feb. 8, and that’s the Sunday of the WM Phoenix Open, a tournament that seems to embrace being played against the Super Bowl because of its own party atmosphere. That will be followed on the PGA Tour by the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am (another major championship course) and finally the Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades. Both the Pebble Beach and Riviera tournaments are signature events.

With the FedEx Cup shortened to just 70 players for the first of the three playoff events and with the Fall Series no longer awarding FedEx Cup points, golfers need a quick start to the season in January and February to assure a spot in the playoffs. That’s what the West Coast provides for golfers — great golf courses and great weather for great golf. Throw in three signature events and The American Express which continues to attract strong fields, and the West Coast Swing again looks like a strong start to the PGA Tour year.

Now, if Scheffler and Schauffele can just stay healthy.

Larry Bohannan is the golf writer for The Desert Sun. You can contact him at (760) 778-4633 or at [email protected]. Follow him on Facebook or on X at @larry_bohannan.

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