January 21-24
PGA West Stadium Course &
Nicklaus Tournament Course, La Quinta, California
$6,700,000
Round 2, Round 3, Round 4

Brandon Hagy got into the American Express field on Monday when Jon Rahm withdrew with a minor injury and made the most of his opportunity on opening day. He shot ten birdies for an 8-under 64 on the Nicklaus Tournament Course to take a one shot lead over Byeong Hun An.

"I felt like I saw the greens really well, and the last couple of days, I felt like I was putting really well," said Hagy. "Once I started to read them well, I knew if I could just keep doing what I was doing, I'd have a good shot to do something."

Hagy bogeyed the first hole but quickly made up for it with a first run of three birdies from the 3rd to 5th holes, then a second starting at 7th. He falterered and bogeyed the par-3 12th before making a third run between the 13th and 15th and closing with another birdie at 18.

After turning pro in 2017, Hagy recorded his first top-10 finish at the RBC Canadian Open but an ongoing wrist injury made him miss the 2018 season. A back injury in 2019 meant he could only play in thirteen events and he made only eight cuts last year. Injury free and fully prepared, Hagy is ready to compete with the best.

"I'm happy with what I've been doing. I'm getting to a point now where I know exactly what I need to work on, and to just keep getting the reps."

The Stadium Course was playing a stroke harder than the Nicklaus on opening day (71.05) and An, who lost six balls in a practice round there, made seven birdies and went bogey-free.

“I do that more often than you would think, to be honest, because I wasn't focused that much because there is a lot of water on the Stadium Course, to be fair. There's water on almost every hole,” he said. “I ran out of [golf balls], so I asked my buddy for golf balls. I had to borrow like two, three balls for the last three holes. It was my caddie's fault. He only brought like five balls out there.”