Stadium Course plays tougher, but Sepp Straka wins comfortably at The American Express

LA QUINTA, Calif. – Sepp Straka is not a man who’s antsy for change. His swing is nearly identical to when he turned pro. He sticks to his pre-round routine and stays with the same people on the road.

And while Straka started playing new irons and a new ball at the beginning of the season, he’s quick to separate that from actual change. He only switched because both were practically identical to what he was using before.

If you ask him, the biggest marker of change in his recent life is his shaved head.

“I'm not a tinkerer,” Straka said.

It would make sense then, that he’d be immune to change around him, too. That plays well at The American Express, the lone tournament of the season played across three separate courses. And it played especially well this year at PGA WEST’s newly restored Pete Dye Stadium Course, which featured more change and a much stiffer test, despite benign weather conditions.

It mattered little to Straka, who won The American Express comfortably, shooting a final round 70 to beat Justin Thomas by two strokes.

It was Straka’s third PGA TOUR victory.

“It was very intimidating, obviously, because every hole you know you got a chance to make a double, a bogey, everywhere you look,” he said.

Those outcomes happened, just not on Straka’s scorecard. He played the Stadium Course in 10-under for the week, including a second-round 64 that he called “one of my best rounds I've ever played.” Straka’s first bogey of the week didn’t come until his 70th hole, and that he made another on the 18th hole Sunday was of scant importance. His lead was plenty safe.

But Straka’s sentiment held: His 10-under at the Stadium Course was the difference-maker. The Pete Dye design played more than two shots harder than the previous two editions of the event and expanded greens and firm conditions added a new wrinkle to the proceedings.

When Dye designed the Stadium Course, he set out to “build the hardest damn golf course in the world.” It lived up to its billing as pros struggled and complained, leading to the course’s removal from the PGA TOUR schedule after just one year. When it returned in 2016, it was far from the test Dye designed it to be. For a confluence of factors – distance gains, improved technology and course conditioning top among them – the Stadium Course lost its teeth.

With the realities of modern pro golf, there was no feasible way to bring it back to that level of difficulty. The course simply wasn't long enough, nor was there an appetite to attract the ire of TOUR pros again. But there was motivation to return one of Dye’s most well-known gems to the way it looked in 1987 and toughen it up marginally.

Mission accomplished. Scoring dipped with ideal conditions on Sunday, but the scoring average for the week, 71.3, was the second-highest since The American Express returned to the Stadium Course nearly a decade ago.

It was inspired by new ownership, which took over PGA WEST in 2020 and quickly gave Ben Hobbs, the resort’s executive director, a clear mission: “Put it back to the way Pete Dye designed it.”

Tim Liddy had already helped restore two of Dye’s other designs at PGA WEST, the Mountain and Dunes courses and, as one of Dye’s right-hand-men for 28 years, Liddy was keenly aware of what Dye would want to see done to the Stadium Course. He was an easy choice. Outside of fairway bunkers that were added on five holes, the bulk of Liddy’s work was done on and around the greens, which had softened and shrunk considerably since 1987.

When digging up the greens, the demolition crews found old steel rings that outlined where the greens first sat. Along with photos from ‘87 and ‘89, Liddy was able to quickly piece together Dye’s original green designs. That work greatly increased the amount of pinnable space on each green, which had eroded over years of mowing practices.

Hobbs said 10 of Sunday’s final round pin positions were placed in spots that either would have been impossible pre-renovation or in spots that weren’t even on the 2024 version of the greens.

“There’s so many hole locations we’ve never seen before,” Hobbs said.

Every green was expanded, which, in turn, added more teeth to each hole. Bunkers and water hazards that previously weren’t of much concern were threats again as new pin positions were placed precariously close to those risks. Holes like the fifth, sixth, seventh, 13th and 17th holes now have a green that extends almost out to the water. The extra space added new undulations, which proved difficult for the players.

“There's little slopes in there that were never there before that I was having a hard time seeing and reading,” said Charley Hoffman, who finished in a tie for fifth.

The other priority, which most directly led to higher scores in 2025, was recapturing firmness in the greens. Some of that happens naturally when replacing grass, which is always most firm at the beginning of its life cycle. But Liddy’s team also ripped off 5-6 inches of topdressing that had accumulated over 40 years of maintenance (topdressing is the practice of spraying greens with sand to smooth the putting surfaces).

“It’s like putting five inches of snow on top of a green,” Liddy said.

He also flattened out many of the bunkers, making it harder to hit great recovery shots.

“When greens are firm, you can't get away with those short sides, you can't get away with maybe taking on some risks,” said Thomas, who finished runner-up. “That's the biggest difference for us, if you give us soft greens, it's pretty hard for to us make bogeys.”

There was no better example than William Mouw’s misadventure on the par-5 16th hole on Friday. Mouw made an octuple-bogey in part because he was unable to keep a pair of chips on the firm green, his ball funneling back down into the 18-foot-deep greenside bunker. Following several unsuccessful hacks from the sand, Mouw made a 13.

“I think the biggest change is 16,” Hoffman said. “Obviously we have seen some catastrophes there.”

Straka was careful to avoid a similar misfortune. His first bogey came at the par-5 16th specifically because he wanted to take a catastrophic number out of play. Holding a four-shot lead at the time, he bailed out right with his second shot. He left his 50-yard pitch well short of the hole so as not to risk hitting it long and into the greenside bunker. Then he chipped on and two-putted for bogey, mindful of the calamity lurking at one of Dye’s most devious creations.

“Pete Dye would love that,” Liddy said. “I think he would be proud of the work we did.”

Work so good that even the winner paid it the ultimate respect.