The best player in the world has made his presence felt in his first tournament of the season as Scottie Scheffler backed up his Thursday 63 with a Friday 64 to post a leading line of 17 entering the weekend at the 2026 American Express. Scheffler is bogey-free through two rounds at the American Express, as he has torched La Quinta Country Club and the Nicklaus Tournament Course, taking advantage of ideal desert conditions.
The lack of wind has given the three-course rotation for this tournament little defense against the best players in the world, and no one has attacked them better than Scheffler.
The No. 1 golfer in the world will now move over to the Stadium Course at PGA West, which presents a bigger challenge than the other two courses across the final 36 holes. Scheffler is excited about playing a course that rewards great play and punishes mistakes.
“That golf course is a lot tougher than these other two, ball-striking-wise. You’ve got to get the ball in play,” Scheffler said. “You can shoot a low number out there, but you’ve gotta really be getting the ball in play. It can punish you pretty quick. There’s a lot of water on the golf course. I think it’s a really good challenge. I think it’s a great course in terms of, when you’re hitting it well and you’re putting the ball in position, you can shoot a really low number. And if not, you’re gonna get punished pretty severely for it.”
Joining Scheffler at the top of the leaderboard is 18-year-old Blades Brown, who played his sixth consecutive competitive round of golf on Friday after participating in a Korn Ferry Tour event located in the Bahamas from Sunday to Wednesday.
Brown also played the Nicklaus Tournament Course on Friday and came out of the gates firing, going 8 under through his first seven holes (starting on the back nine) to firmly put himself on 59 watch. Brown got to 12 under through 15 holes, meaning he needed just one birdie on the final three holes to post the 16th round of 59 or better in PGA Tour history.
Brown couldn’t capitalize on the par-5 7th or a terrific tee shot on the par-3 8th, leaving himself needing a birdie on No. 9 — his 18th — to shoot a 59. After bombing a drive, he had just a gap wedge left for his approach and stuffed it within 5 feet to set up a short birdie putt.
Unfortunately for Brown, he pushed his birdie putt off the right edge and finished par-par-par to shoot 60 and post a course record on the Nicklaus Tournament Course.
“Absolutely … of course I did, yeah,” Brown said with a laugh when asked if he felt added pressure on the last three holes. “I just stuck to my game plan. I said I’m going to execute shots that I can control, and unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get the job done this time. But I am so stoked to have shot 60 on the PGA Tour.”
Over at La Quinta Country Club, Andrew Putnam matched Brown with a 12-under 60 to tie the course record, but he likewise couldn’t make a birdie on his final hole to shoot 59. Putnam’s 60 came after a lackluster 72 on Thursday, moving him up 114 spots into the top 20 of the leaderboard.
Brown’s 60 vaulted him 50 spots and into a share of the lead with Scheffler heading into the weekend. Like Scheffler, he’ll play his third round on the tougher Stadium Course before the 54-hole cut gets made and everyone finishes on Pete Dye’s test in the desert.
Leaders
T1. Scottie Scheffler, Blades Brown (-17): With a 54-hole cut, we won’t see repairings until Sunday, which means Scheffler and Brown won’t play together on Moving Day. Perhaps that could help young Brown, who will get at least an extra day without the added stress and pressure of going toe-to-toe with the game’s best golfer. It’ll be hard to follow up his Friday 60, but he’s in line for the best finish of his young career after making three cuts in eight starts in 2025 but failing to notch a top 25 finish.
Scheffler, meanwhile, is looking to do something he’s never done in his illustrious career to this point: win in one of his first five events of the season. If anyone is built to continue going low at the Stadium Course, it’s Scheffler, and he’ll have his eyes on a wire-to-wire victory to open his 2026 campaign.
Contenders
3. Si Woo Kim (-16)
T4. S.H. Kim, Matt McCarty (-15)
T6. Eric Cole, Rickie Fowler, Nico Echavarria, Wyndham Clark, Jacob Bridgeman, Nick Taylor (-14)
T12. Russell Henley, Patrick Cantlay, Ben Griffin and three others (-13)
While Kim did not post a 60, his 7-under effort on the Stadium Course was wildly impressive to keep pace with Scheffler before he gets a crack at La Quinta Country Club on Saturday. Clark’s 64 at the Stadium Course was the low round of the day there, as he climbed into the top 10 and will likewise move to La Quinta CC to try and make up more ground in the third round.
Beyond those two, multiple heavy-hitters are lurking in the top 20 with Fowler, Griffin, Henley and Cantlay all plodding along nicely to give themselves a look going into the weekend.
If the wind stays light all weekend, there will be more scores in the low 60s, and players will have plenty of opportunities to make big moves up the leaderboard. The challenge for all of them is the name at the top as Scheffler gets to enjoy those conditions like the rest, and he’s a hard man to catch.
With just about any other player in the lead, this would still feel like a wide-open tournament given what’s possible on these courses, but Scheffler’s presence makes it far more unlikely he creates a big opening for those well back in the pack. That said, we saw that a 59 could be in the cards this week, and for those who still have a crack at La Quinta CC or the Nicklaus Tournament Course on Saturday, they’ll have visions of a similar move to what we saw from Brown and Putnam on Friday.
Finishing in style
Tony Finau hasn’t had the scoring gear needed to contend so far this week, but he gave himself a boost going into the weekend with his approach on his final hole on Friday, holing out from the fairway with a wedge for eagle on No. 9 on the Nicklaus Tournament Course.
That moved him to 8 under for the tournament and into T61 going into Saturday. With the cut still to be settled, Finau’s eagle to close out his second round could prove very important to his chances of getting a Sunday tee time.
2026 American Express updated odds, picks
Odds via DraftKings Sportsbook
- Scottie Scheffler (+134)
- Si Woo Kim (+410)
- Ben Griffin (+1450)
- Wyndham Clark (+1650)
- Patrick Cantlay (+1850)
- Blades Brown (+1950)
- Jacob Bridgeman (+2100)
With scoring this good and a leaderboard this crowded, you want to take a few swings at some longer shots — especially those who get another round not on the Stadium Course. At the same time, with Scheffler in first, you probably don’t want to get overly aggressive in adding positions outside of Scottie.
Clark is particularly interesting given he gets La Quinta CC and appears to be in much better form to start 2026 than we saw from him in 2025. He’s a guy that can go low and his low round of the week so far is on the Stadium Course, which means he should have plenty of confidence on Sunday if he gets into a position to contend. I also wouldn’t hate a nibble at Sam Burns further down the board at 92-1. He’s just five shots back and has been known to get red-hot with the putter and post some really low scores.
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