Scottie Scheffler starts a new season looking like nothing has changed. He wins his PGA Tour opener

LA QUINTA, Calif. (AP) — New year, same Scottie Scheffler.

The world's No. 1 player loves coming to the California desert early in the season to take stock of his game and get into tournament shape. There's wasn't much wrong Sunday in The American Express.

Scheffler made birdie on half of his holes, going from a two-shot deficit early to a lead that stretched to six shots late before he closed with a 6-under 66 for a four-shot victory.

“There's always a certain amount of rust when it comes to playing competitive golf,” Scheffler said. “You can simulate as best you can at home, but you can only get into the heat of the moment when you’re posting a score and you’re in contention when you’re at a tournament. So it’s nice to see some of the stuff that I’ve been being practicing and working on has paid off.”

He had four birdies in a six-hole stretch on the front nine to blow past 18-year-old Blades Brown and everyone and the rest of the field.

Scheffler won for the 20th time on the PGA Tour — all in the last four years — to earn a lifetime membership. More indicative of his dominance in the game is winning nine of those 20 tournaments by four shots or more.

He also joined Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods as the only players to have 20 PGA Tour titles and four majors before turning 30.

“Pretty wild,” Scheffler said. “It's been a great start to my career. It's been special. I try not to think about that stuff too much. I was just trying to do the things I needed to do to be prepared.”

The world's No. 1 player briefly shared the stage with Brown, who finished high school two weeks ago and tied for 17th in a Korn Ferry Tour event in the Bahamas that finished Wednesday. He's the first player to play eight straight days of PGA Tour-sanctioned competition.

Whether the fatigue caught up with him or simply the moment — he was trying to become the youngest PGA Tour winner in 95 years — it ended quickly.

Brown was one shot behind 54-hole leader Si Woo Kim and one shot ahead of Scheffler heading to the tee at the par-3 fourth on the Stadium Course at PGA West. Five holes later, Brown and Kim both were five shots behind and Scheffler was putting it into overdrive.

“Eight rounds I know sounds like a lot, but I was having a lot of fun,” he said. “You’re telling me I get to play in a PGA Tour event and to play with Scottie Scheffler and see him win it, that was insane.

“I got some things I got to sharpen up, and hopefully we see if we can do what Scottie’s doing.”

It all looked so routine at the end. Scheffler rapped in a par putt to finish at 27-under 261, stuffed the golf ball in his pocket and smiled. It all looks so routine.

“It seems like he never wants to relax,” said Jason Day, one of four players who won the B flight by finishing second. “He always does his work, needs to do whatever he needs to do to be able to prepare, and he’s always around the lead. And that’s a very, very difficult thing to do with how much distractions there can be, especially at No. 1.”

Scheffler seized control quickly after a birdie-bogey start. He hit 8-iron to 2 feet on the par-3 fourth hole, played the par-5 fifth smartly with a shot away from the water and a pitch-and-run he nearly holed from across the green for birdie. Wedges led to two more birdies to close out the front, two more early on the back to lead by four.

Brown's chances seemed to end on one hole. He took an aggressive line and pulled his tee shot into the water on the par-5 fifth. He had to drop in front of the tee boxes — he chose to drop in the dormant Bermuda rough instead of the teeing ground — and then hit a poor wedge when he got back into position that led to double bogey.

Brown went 11 holes without a birdie and had to late bogeys that led to a 74. He fell from a tie for second to a tie for 18th, costing him a spot at Torrey Pines next week.

But it was a good lesson alongside a great teacher.

“I would say one of the coolest things that I learned today was how underrated Scottie Scheffler’s short game is,” Brown said. “To see it in person and just to look at kind of the trajectory and the spin, and just the control that he has with his wedges and short game. Obviously, his putting is insane, too. It was really cool to watch. So I’m definitely going to go work on that.”

Day closed with a 64 that moved him up 18 spots to a runner-up finish, along with Ryan Gerard (65), Matt McCarty (68) and Andrew Putnam (68).

Kim, who plays often with Scheffler at Royal Oaks in Dallas, also lost his way on one hole. He was two shots behind on the par-5 eighth when he took two shots to get out of a greenside bunker, chipped strong and made double bogey. He missed a 3-foot par putt on the next hole. Kim rallied with three birdies on the back nine to salvage a 72 and tie for sixth.

Scheffler's only big blunder was when it didn't matter, a tee shot into the water on the par-3 17th known as “Alcatraz,” and by then he had plenty of get-of-jail-free cards. His double bogey only kept the margin from being greater against the strongest field The American Express has had in decades.

Scheffler now takes a week off before ending the West Coast with three straight events, starting with the Phoenix Open where this amazing run began four years ago. He won his first PGA Tour title in a playoff. It hasn't been that close lately.

AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

After winning the American Express golf event, Scottie Scheffler, center, celebrates with son Bennett, right, and wife Meredith Scudder-Scheffler, left, on the Pete Dye Stadium Course at PGA West Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026, in La Quinta, Calif. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Scottie Scheffler smiles after winning the American Express golf event on the Pete Dye Stadium Course at PGA West Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026, in La Quinta, Calif. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Blades Brown hits out of a bunker at the 8th hole during the final round of the American Express golf event on the Pete Dye Stadium Course at PGA West Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026, in La Quinta, Calif. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Scottie Scheffler hits his ball out of the rough on the ninth hole during the final round of the American Express golf event on the Pete Dye Stadium Course at PGA West Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026, in La Quinta, Calif. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Scottie Scheffler hits his tee shot at the fifth hole during the final round of the American Express golf event on the Pete Dye Stadium Course at PGA West Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026, in La Quinta, Calif. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

JERUSALEM (AP) — The remains of the final hostage in Gaza have been recovered, Israel's military said Monday, clearing the way for the next phase of the ceasefire that paused the Israel-Hamas war.

The announcement that the remains of Ran Gvili had been found and identified came a day after Israel’s government said the military was conducting a “large-scale operation” in a cemetery in northern Gaza to locate them.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it “an incredible achievement” for Israel and its soldiers, telling Israeli media that “I promised we would bring everyone home and we have brought everyone home." He said Gvili, who was killed during the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, that sparked the war, was among the first to be taken into Gaza.

The return of all remaining hostages, living or dead, has been a key part of the Gaza ceasefire’s first phase, and Gvili’s family had urged Israel’s government not to enter the second phase until his remains were recovered and returned.

Netanyahu’s office said Sunday that Israel would open the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, which Palestinians see as their lifeline to the world, once the search for Gvili was finished. It has been largely shut since May 2024, except for a small period in early 2025.

Israel and Hamas had been under pressure from ceasefire mediators including Washington to move into the second phase of the U.S.-brokered truce, which took effect on Oct. 10.

Israel had repeatedly accused Hamas of dragging its feet in the recovery of the final hostage. Hamas said it had provided all the information it had about Gvili’s remains, and accused Israel of obstructing efforts to search for them in areas of Gaza under Israeli military control.

Israel’s military had said the large-scale operation to locate Gvili’s remains was “in the area of the Yellow Line” that divides the territory.

The Oct. 7, 2023 attack killed about 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage. Gvili, a 24-year-old police officer known affectionately as “Rani,” was killed while fighting Hamas militants.

Before Gvili’s remains were recovered, 20 living hostages and the remains of 27 others had been returned to Israel since the ceasefire, most recently in early December. Israel in exchange has released the bodies of hundreds Palestinians to Gaza.

The next phase of the 20-point ceasefire plan has called for creating an international stabilization force, forming a technocratic Palestinian government and disarming Hamas.

Israeli forces on Monday fatally shot a man in Gaza City’s Tuffah neighborhood, according to Shifa Hospital, which received the body. The man was close to an area where the military has launched the search operation for Gvili, the hospital said.

Another man was killed in the eastern side of Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital, which received his body. The circumstances of his death were not immediately clear.

More than 480 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire since Oct. 10, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. The ministry, which is part of the Hamas-led government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts.

The Foreign Press Association on Monday asked Israel’s Supreme Court to allow journalists to enter Gaza freely and independently.

The FPA, which represents dozens of global news organizations, has been fighting for more than two years for independent media access to Gaza. Israel has barred reporters from entering Gaza independently since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas, which triggered the war, saying entry could put both journalists and soldiers at risk.

The army has offered journalists brief, occasional visits under strict military supervision.

FPA lawyers told the three judge panel that the restrictions are not justified and that with aid workers moving in and out of Gaza, journalists should be allowed in as well. They also said the tightly controlled embeds with the military are no substitute for independent access. The judges are expected to rule in the coming days.

Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

Palestinian children receive donated food at a community kitchen in Nuseirat, in central Gaza Strip, Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

People hold signs with a photo of Ran Gvili, who was killed while fighting Hamas militants during the Oct. 7, 2023 attack and whose body has been held in Gaza ever since, during a rally calling for his return in Tel Aviv, Israel, Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)