Min Woo Lee gets his first full PGA Tour season underway at The American Express, and he agrees with Jon Rahm’s once controversial view from the 2022 tournament.
That week, Reed, who is currently on the LIV Golf League alongside Rahm, shot 28 under par.
Since the legendary Arnold Palmer won the American Express in its inaugural event in 1960, it has gone by a number of names.
From 1965 until 2011, it was most well-known as the Bob Hope Classic.
With five victories in his tournament (1960, 1962, 1968, 1971, 1973), Palmer holds the record for most victories.
The talented Australian, who has adopted the nickname ‘The Chef’, then went on to capture his third DP World Tour title at the end of 2023 when winning the Australian PGA.
Lee is now turning his attentions to a full debut season on the PGA Tour, and it all gets underway for him at The American Express in California.
The tournament is staged over 72 holes but across three different courses – La Quinta CC, PGA West Stadium and PGA West Nicklaus.
Lee agrees with Rahm that The American Express is a “putting contest” – just without all the expletives!
Jon Rahm controversially labelled the tournament in 2022 as a “piece of s*** set-up f***ing putting contest week”.
A golf fan captured those exact words on camera as Rahm stormed off a green.
The Spaniard, who went on to finish T14 that week, was later asked about the video.
He did not hold back.
Rahm said:
“I mean, the video’s pretty self-explanatory. We’re the PGA Tour, we’re the best golfers on the planet and we’re playing a golf course where missing the fairway means absolutely nothing. There were times where missing the fairway by an inch was worse than missing the fairway by 20 yards. That to me is a mistake. I don’t know what else to say. I also understand we’re in the desert, you can’t overseed the entire golf course and things like that can’t happen, but yeah, we played a lot of golf with zero rough.”
Rahm of course is not in town this week as he made a shock move to join LIV Golf at the end of 2023, and he is currently suspended.
It is understood Rahm accepted a multi-year deal in the region of £450m.
Speaking ahead of his first event of the 2024 PGA Tour season, Lee admitted he was excited to get going but did agree with Rahm’s assessment of this tournament in that it will be decided on the greens.
He just did not fire any expletives.
Lee told the media:
“I’m really excited. This week’s going to be fun. I know it’s, there’s a lot of birdies and the scoring’s really low, so it’s, I guess it’s a nice easer, in a way, but you still got to play really well, and hit your drives well and wedge it close. So, like Jon Rahm said, it’s a putting contest and, yeah, if you get on the green, hopefully you hole some putts.”
Scores are typically extremely low here with all winning scores in the 20 or 30-under territory since 2006 – and even then the winning score was 17-under par.
The 72-hole tournament record was set by Patrick Reed back in 2014.
That week, Reed, who is currently on the LIV Golf League alongside Rahm, shot 28 under par.
Since the legendary Arnold Palmer won the American Express in its inaugural event in 1960, it has gone by a number of names.
From 1965 until 2011, it was most well-known as the Bob Hope Classic.
With five victories in his tournament (1960, 1962, 1968, 1971, 1973), Palmer holds the record for most victories.