With the 2025 American Express completed with Austrian-born (and Georgia-raised) Sepp Straka winning his 3rd PGA Tour event, it’s always interesting to review scoring averages across the three courses where the tournament is played: La Quinta Country Club, PGA West Nicklaus Tournament Course, and PGA West Dye Stadium Course.

The Dye Stadium Course once again played the toughest, with an average scoring average of 71.35 (versus 69.15 in 2024). La Quinta Country Club actually played second toughest with a scoring average of 68.59 (versus 67.90 in 2024–when it was the easiest of the three). The Nicklaus Tournament course played slightly easier than La Quinta, with a scoring average of 68.25 (versus 68.08 in 2024).

2025 AMEX Course Scoring Averages:

Stadium Course – 71.35 (from 69.15 in 2024)

La Quinta Country Club – 68.59 (from 67.90 in 2024)

Nicklaus Tournament Course – 68.25 (from 68.08 in 2024)

The over two-shot increase in difficulty has been attributed to the recent restoration that Tim Liddy just finished on the Stadium Course, with the greens being much firmer and tougher changes to bunkering and green contours being made. And then, of course, there is just the inherent difficulty of playing the Pete Dye design. Pete would have smiled a bit to himself after PGA professional William Mouw carded an octuple-bogey 13 on the par-5 #16th hole!

https://www.pgatour.com/article/news/latest/2025/01/19/sepp-straka-wins-the-american-express-austrian-third-career-victory-la-quinta

https://www.desertsun.com/story/sports/golf/american-express-pga/2025/01/20/pete-dye-stadium-course-proved-tougher-for-2025-the-american-express/77827482007