Hudson Swafford's second The American Express win was about the desert and family

It is understandable that if you’ve earned a few million dollars in a certain area, you’d like that place a lot.

But Hudson Swafford liked the Coachella Valley well before picking up two PGA Tour victories in the desert.

“I've fallen in love with this place. This is kind of my West Coast home, honestly,” Swafford said after earning the second of his two The American Express victories Sunday at PGA West in La Quinta. “We base ourselves kind of out of the Hideaway just across the street. We have now, this is our eighth year.”

Like so many other golfers on the PGA Tour, Swafford comes to the desert in the winter from his Tallahassee, Fla. home to work on his game and prepare for the seven-tournament West Coast swing of the PGA Tour that starts in January and goes to Hawaii, Arizona and California. But Swafford takes that desert connection a little further than some other golfers who come for a week or two to enjoy the weather and courses of the desert.

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“I come out here early before Sony (Open in Hawaii), get some work in, get ready,” Swafford said. “I enjoy the weather here. I enjoy the grass. It's all Bermuda grass. It's what I grew up on. I don't know why here. It just clicks. I see the lines on the greens pretty well here and I got a lot of confidence and a lot of good memories here, so I can pull on that and keep going.”

Swafford now has even more reason to love the Coachella Valley. Two of his three tour wins have come in La Quinta, the first in 2017 and Sunday in a showdown with a seemingly endless group of players who hovered about the 19- or 20-under par late in Sunday’s final round before Swafford bolted from the field with an eagle on the 16th hole and a birdie on the 17th hole. His earnings for his two wins in the desert, $2,412,000, represent more than 25 percent of his total earnings of $9.4 million in a nine-year PGA Tour career.

A family affair in victory

But Swafford’s win Sunday was about more than geography. It was also about family. The star of the post-round celebrations was Swafford’s 3-year-old son James, who wasn’t born when Swafford won The American Express in 2017. James climbed all over his father in post-round interviews to the delight of Swafford and the fans. Swafford now has two wins since James was born, the 2020 Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship in the Dominican Republic and Sunday’s win in La Quinta. Swafford said it is important to him that his son will be able to see his father play at his peak, winning PGA Tour events.

Sunday was also Swafford’s first tour win since the death of his father, David Swafford, just one month ago. Swafford, 34, was brought to tears at the thought of his father after the round, saying he was sure his father was watching and willing his son to victory.

“One of the best people I know and he taught me everything I know, how to be a dad, how to be a friend, how to be a champion, and how to play golf,” Swafford said. “He's the one that got me into golf when I was young. He gave me every opportunity to succeed, but never pushed it on me.

“But I always kind of wanted to hang out with him, so he would take me to the golf course and we were playing and I would play in his men's game when I was younger,” Swafford added. “And he was just, he kind of taught me all the basics and gave me every opportunity in life to succeed. I know he's proud.”

One of the big moments from Swafford’s 2017 The American Express win was earning a berth in the Masters and being able to take his father to Augusta National in Georgia, not far from where Swafford went to school at the University of Georgia.

“It was such a memorable day, just an incredible experience that I'll always cherish,” said Swafford, who will return to the Masters this year through his victory Sunday. “To give back to somebody that provided me and paved the way for what I love to do and what I get to show my son what I get to do and how dad just kind of inspired me, it's truly incredible.”

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: American Express: One month after his father's death, Swafford gets this tour win