American Express golf tournament bringing more visitors, how local businesses prepared

The American Express golf tournament and its fans are finally back after last year's tournament happened without spectators.

With the tournament bringing in more visitors to the area, will businesses be able to take full advantage of the busy weekend with staff and supply shortages?

Nancy Prieto is one of the owners of TQLAS Agave Bar and Grill in Old Town La Quinta. She said they're running on half the staff they should have.

"We ask our clients, everybody, have patience, please," said Prieto. "It's called multitasking. You'll see me hostessing, you'll see me bussing a table, you'll see me bringing food out."

She said they've been making sure to have enough ingredients and supplies, but it's more complicated now with prices increasing. 

"Meat prices have gone up at least 40% everything has gone up. But we've been able to maintain our prices so far," said Prieto. "We're trying to keep them down, you know, but we need to make money too."

Brett Maddock, the owner of The Grill on Main, is also dealing with similar issues as his restaurant gets ready for more visitors.

"Working more, ordering lots of food- whatever food I can get, I guess it's a little tough with that right now," said Maddock.

It's forcing him to limit his menu and make changes to it if certain ingredients aren't available. 

"I'm changing maybe once a week on certain items," said Maddock.

He said his business is also short-staffed mainly due to workers getting COVID, but he's expecting an up to 40% increase in sales this week. 

"It's making it tough, but we're getting through it," said Maddock.

The golf tournament will run through Sunday and many of the businesses said they are expecting their busiest days to be on the weekend.