Meet Johnny Brande, a palm desert teen with a rare form of cancer
Johnny Brande, a rising golf star at Palm Desert, has been diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma, a cancer that afflicts less than 250 people in the United States.
One of the things that change from year to year, as is the PGA Tours, as is stable and traditional.
Consider that over the past few years the tour has gone from four playoff events, eliminating the Fall Series event from the FedEx Cup and adding eight signing events with at least $20 million wallets. We have created nine signature events in 2026 and will return to Trump National Doral at the beginning of May to return to the tour schedule.
This means that it will start with the Masters in April and end with the PGA Championship in May. Tour players will hold two major championships and three signature events over the course of six weeks. It’s fascinating to see which events you’re skipping.
But one thing that hasn’t changed on the PGA Tour is, at least not much, the West Coast swing to start the calendar year. On the tour, which announced its official 2026 schedule this week, the West Coast swing, a schedule that certainly wasn’t a secret for players and fans, is a strong kickoff to a season where there is no tournament movement and the golf course is not being kicked out to the curb.
For local golf fans, the key to their West Coast swing is La Quinta’s American Express, again the third event, January 22nd-25th. Though it’s not a signature event on the tour, American Express has done a powerful job attracting top players to the desert.
Even if Scotty Schauffer and Zander Schauffere were defeated by injuries to two top-ranked players last January, the American Express had a stronger field than most regular events. As it turns out, Schaufferer and Schauffere combined four events on the 2025 West Coast swing due to injuries.
One of the drawbacks of the desert schedule is that the date January 25th is AFC and NFC Championship Game Day. This is a game that determines which team will play in the Super Bowl. It’s a difficult question for tournaments that want better TV ratings.
The American Express will be held again after the Sony Open, a regular event for two events in Hawaii, Maui Sentry, Signature Events and tours.
Following the La Quinta event, the Farmers Insurance Open will be held for weeks when NFL games were not played. The event was sponsored by Farmers Insurance last year and will take place in both courses on the Torrey Pines Golf course in San Diego. One of these courses, the South Course, is one of three main caliber courses for West Coast swings, in the final four weeks of a seven-week West Coast swing.
The Super Bowl will be on February 8th, and it will be the Sunday of the WM Phoenix Open. This is a tournament that accepts playing against the Super Bowl for its own party atmosphere. This is followed by the AT&T Pebble Beach Proam (another major championship course) and the Genesis Invitational at the Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades. Both Pebble Beach and Riviera tournaments are signing events.
With the FedEx Cup being reduced to just 70 players to the first first players of three playoff events and the Fall Series no longer awards FedEx Cup points, golfers need to have a quick start for the January and February seasons and guarantee a playoff spot. That’s what the West Coast has to offer golfers – great golf courses and great weather for great golf. With three signature events and the American Express, which continues to attract strong fields, the West Coast swing once again looks like a strong start to the PGA Tour year.
If Schaeffler and Schauferle can stay healthy now.
Larry Bohannan is a golf lighter for the desert sun. You can contact him at (760) 778-4633 or larry.bohannan@desertsun.com. Follow him on Facebook or on X on @larry_bohannan.
