Can Will Zalatoris find his game? Expectations for Daniel Berger’s return?

We’re headed back to the mainland.

The 2024 PGA Tour season is heading into its third week with The American Express, which begins Thursday with action on three courses in La Quinta, Calif. The Hawaii leg of the calendar has already brought us a pair of compelling finishes, with Chris Kirk and Grayson Murray each winning.

Whereas most of the PGA Tour’s top players took off for the Sony Open, this week’s field is fairly stout with Scottie Scheffler, Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele all teeing it up. We also have Justin Thomas, Tom Kim, Rickie Fowler and Tony Finau playing. Then there’s the Hero Dubai Desert Classic on the DP World Tour with Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood and Tyrrell Hatton headlining.

To talk about what we’ve seen and what we think is next, editor Hugh Kellenberger and staff writer Brody Miller got together for a conversation.

Hugh: OK Brody, let’s start here: Are you more interested in the coffee golf going on in Dubai or the late afternoon/early evening golf in California?

Brody: The coffee golf is certainly “better” golf, but it falls flat to me. Not because it’s a DP World Tour event. I love DP World Tour golf, but I think this isn’t what is most important to those players. Yes, I can’t wait to see how the Hojgaards play or what Cameron Young can do in such an important year, but those are all players that I know I’ll be following extremely closely for the next eight months at bigger events.

I’m into the AmEx because it’s not the best field. After obviously the big three you mentioned, these events are huge opportunities for new people to make their claims. I thoroughly enjoyed watching Kirk’s and Murray’s wins this month because of the emotional storylines and because we get to see different golfers in big moments. So now I want to see if, say, Sungjae Im or Sam Burns can take a leap and beat this field. Or if Min Woo Lee and Akshay Bhatia are really on the path it seems they are. That has me excited much more than watching Scheffler, Cantlay or Schauffele this week.

Hugh: Yeah, I think that’s right. I also find myself often very uninterested in some of the events in the Middle East because the golf courses are just so flat. Both literally and figuratively. Not a lot there.

There’s this budding storyline about how the LIV/PGA Tour fracture is going to create the smallest Masters field in decades since a lot of guys without exemptions have dropped so far in the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR). But Murray is going to the Masters. Can someone else join him this week? If nothing else, the AmEx provides that opportunity for someone to change the course of their career with one good week. *Cues the “Full Swing” intro*

One guy who is going to the Masters is Will Zalatoris, but Brody, I’m concerned. The Hero World Challenge in November was his return after back surgery, and…