Challenges of Multi-Course Events

The 2025 PGA Tour season returns to the mainland this week for The American Express. The annual stop in La Quinta, CA is the start of three straight unconventional weeks for the Tour. If you count the uncertainty surrounding the Genesis Invitational, Riviera, and the wildfires, it makes four unconventional weeks out of five.

Unlike the majority of Tour events, the American Express, next week at Torrey Pines and the following week at Pebble Beach are three straight weeks of Tour events played on multiple courses.

The American Express is played on three courses: PGA West Stadium, PGA West Nicklaus Tournament, and La Quinta Country Club, the players who survive the 54-hole cut play the Final Round at the PGA West Stadium Course. The Farmers Insurance Open is played on the Torrey Pines North and South Courses and the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am is played at Pebble Beach and Spyglass Hill. The players who make the 36-hole cuts, play the final two rounds at Torrey Pines South and Pebble Beach, respectively.

Multi-course events are not exclusively reserved for the West Coast Swing of the PGA Tour.

The RSM Classic at Sea Island plays the Seaside and Plantation courses. Other events played on multiple courses are the Korn Ferry Tour’s BMW Charity Pro-Am, the DP World Tour’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, the US Amateur, the PGA Professional Championship, and the Senior PGA Professional Championship.

Events played on multiple courses has a variety of reasons: flexibility for limited daylight, flexibility for weather issues, a larger field, etc. The PGA Professional Championship is played on two courses and has a 312-player field and is the largest all-professional tournament in the world – impossible if played on just one course. The 2020 US Women’s Open was contested over two courses due to limited daylight on its rescheduled December dates.

Multiple venues create challenges for the players. While not required, players look to play at least one round on each of the tournament’s venues during practice rounds. Players, in general, are not permitted to play more than one practice round a day. Since The American Express is played on three courses, players arrive Monday, play one course Monday, another Tuesday, and the last Wednesday. Or they skip one course and play one blind (albeit with the aid of a yardage book).

Players who teed it up at the Sony in Honolulu in Sunday’s Final Round know that there is no true travel-only day to La Quinta. Sifting through flight schedules is vital so players can get to the venue early enough in the day to play eighteen holes the day they arrive.

If players made the cut at the Sony, played three practice rounds, then the four rounds of the American Express, they have played 11 straight days.

The next event is the Farmers Insurance Open, on two golf courses. In 2025, the First Round is on Wednesday and finishes on Saturday. Practice rounds on each of the two courses on Monday and Tuesday mean that players who play all three events now play on their travel day, plus the event itself.

That is 17 straight days of golf. If I were making a schedule for the season, I might strongly consider passing on one of these events given the potential of 306 holes of golf in 17 days.

Single course events like The Masters, WM Phoenix Open, RBC Heritage, and others can be welcome by players. Players can play multiple practice rounds on a single course, or they can have a day to rest during tournament week.