Scottie Scheffler one back of American Express leaders, who are already in double digits

What rust?

Scottie Scheffler kicked off his season on Thursday looking very much like the world No. 1 who has won a combined 14 times worldwide in the past two years. On a typical low-scoring day in Palm Springs, Scheffler scorched La Quinta Country Club to the tune of 9-under 63.

The round was Scheffler’s best in 19 career rounds at The American Express.

While Min Woo Lee and Pierceson Coody shared the first-round lead at 10 under, they both played their rounds at PGA West’s Nicklaus Tournament Course, which played the easiest of three courses in the AmEx’s rotation and about a half shot easier than La Quinta CC. Scheffler is tied for third with eight others, including Patrick Cantlay, Ben Griffin, Jason Day, Robert MacIntyre and Si Woo Kim.

Scheffler birdied six of his first eight holes. He didn’t miss a green until the par-4 17th hole, and even then, he chipped in for his ninth and final birdie of the day.

“Off to a good start,” Scheffler said. “Maybe be a little sharper with the ball striking tomorrow, but I was pretty sharp on the front nine.”

Lee has been trending after a summer slump that followed his victory last spring in Houston. He ended last year with a T-14 at the Australian Open, his fifth top-15 finish in six events to cap 2025. Now sporting a stronger left grip, he birdied Nos. 4-7 on his second nine Thursday to help push into a share of the lead.

“There was a little bit of anxiousness starting out,” Lee said. “The first round of the year, bit of a swing — not change, but something that we’ve been working on in the offseason. So, you didn’t really know how it was going to go. But, yeah, started off really nice, kept it going. It was a great day to make some birdies. Probably the stillest day I’ve ever played golf in, so the numbers were exactly, you know, what you wanted, and you just execute ‘em.”

Coody, who, like Scheffler, was an All-American at Texas, got his PGA Tour card back after finishing top 20 on the Korn Ferry Tour points list last season, which included 15-plus starts for Coody on both the PGA Tour and KFT. He was the first player since Darron Stiles in 2006 to do that.

Coody joined Lee in getting hot late, birdieing seven straight holes starting at No. 11 and nearly making a 20-footer at the last for what would’ve been eight in a row.

“I seem to get going hot whenever it kind of snowballs,” Coody said. “I don’t know what it is, I’m not thinking anything different. Yeah, I know that I’ve rattled off a few like this where I made a bunch in a row, and it’s kind of just the style of this week.”

Scheffler called these easier tests, the birdie-fests, more stressful.

“I think the hardest part about these tests where you have to shoot so low is you can only shoot so many under par in a round of golf,” Scheffler said. “I think, when you look at the harder tests there’s always a couple guys each round that are able to shoot something really low. The easier tests, where the scores are crazy low, if you start falling behind it’s a lot harder to keep up, so you have to keep pace out here...

“If you show up out here and shoot 68, you’re probably falling behind the pace.”