We’ll take a quick peek at the results from last week’s Sony Open, where 10 former ‘Dawgs teed it up:

Kevin Kisner missed the cut. There’s a lot of wondering out loud about Kisner’s career, as his golf game has gone south but his broadcasting/TV analyzing has burgeoned somewhat.

Greyson Sigg made a little money ($17,430) with 4 under par and a T66 finish.
Davis Thompson did a little better at 6 under par and T57. $18,592
Brendon Todd and Keith Mitchell got it to 9 under par for the week, good for T30. $44,751
Chris Kirk and Brian Harman tied for 18th with 11 under par totals, and each received $106,102
Harris English got a Sunday backdoor top 10 (T10). He earned $209,575.

And Russell Henley got into contention once again, shooting a final round 63 and leading the tournament for much of the day Sunday. But a late bogey put him 1 back of the 3-way playoff. Still, his T4 got him $373,500.

Now onto this week’s stop:

Tournament: The American Express, January 18-21, 2024

Course(s): Nicklaus Tournament Course: 7,147 yards, par 72; La Quinta Country Club: 7,060 yards, par 72; and Pete Dye Stadium Course: 7,187 yards, par 72. Players rotate the first 3 days through each course, with the final Sunday round played exclusively on the Stadium Course. They say La Quinta might be the finest patch of grass outside of Augusta National.

Purse: $8.4 million total, and $1.512 to the winner.

Defending Champ: Jon Rahm. In the midst of his incredible 4 month stretch to start 2023, the hottest player in the world (at the time) entered Sunday’s final round tied with Tour rookie and former Bulldog Davis Thompson (after a heralded collegiate career in Athens). Thompson acquitted himself well, shooting a 3 under 69 under the camera’s bright lights. Rahm just shined a stroke better, winning his 4th title in his last 5 tries.

Fun Fact: ‘Dawgs have done well here in the Coachella Valley (also known as Palm Springs, CA). As mentioned, just last year Davis Thompson finished 2nd, and Chris Kirk 3rd. In 2022, Brian Harman tied for 3rd when Hudson Swafford grabbed his 2nd title - Harman was 2nd when Swafford achieved his first Tour win here in 2018. Harman tied for 8th in the 2021 tournament. And in 2020, newcomer Sepp Straka got a T4 finish.

TV Times: Thursday-Sunday, 4-7 p.m. (Golf Channel). With NBC and CBS making the business decision to broadcast NFL football, golf is relegated to the Golf Channel. At least its not exclusively on Peacock.

‘Dawgs in the Field: Chris Kirk, Keith Mitchell, Greyson Sigg, Kevin Kisner, and Davis Thompson.

The flux of the PGA Tour schedule has taken its toll on this tournament more than most. It’s early in the year but does not have “signature” or any other special status, The Hawaii swing was the last two weeks so guys are just getting back stateside, some big tournaments like Torrey, Pebble, Waste Management, and Genesis are coming up fast and many pros will take a break before starting that stretch, and the purse is small. So for one of the oldest continuous tournaments, it has a hard time attracting the best field. I was glad to see that Scottie Scheffler, Justin Thomas, Rickie Fowler, and some other big names are playing in addition to the Classic City boys.

There’s supposedly some NFL games this weekend, and the Hoop Hounds have a big matchup at Rupp Saturday, but if you’d like to see resort golf at its finest, flip it on over to Golf Channel to watch ‘Dawgs chasing little white balls. And as always...

GO ‘DAWGS!!!