2022 The American Express Betting & DFS Preview

Jan 19, 2022

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With the "Hawaiian Swing" concluded, the PGA Tour returns to the mainland as players make a trip to the desert in La Quinta, California for The American Express at PGA West. This is a very unique event for a number of reasons. First, this tournament is actually part of a Pro-Am where each pro tees off with an amateur for the first three rounds of the tournament. Another difference is that three different courses will be in use instead of the typical single course. Finally, the cut will take place after 54 holes have been completed on Saturday, instead of the usual 36-hole cut on Friday. It will be the top 65 and ties who make it through to Sunday's final round on the Stadium Course.

Along with the Stadium Course, the Nicklaus Tournament Course and La Quinta Country Club are the other venues in play for this week. The latter two courses are among the five easiest on Tour, which makes very low-scoring rounds the norm. Players will tee off on those two courses only one time. The Stadium Course is a bit tougher and will be used for two of the four rounds. It is a Pete Dye design featuring smaller greens, plenty of bunkers and seven holes with water danger to contend with. Another reason the winning score usually ends up in the 25-under range is that all three are resort-style courses with pin placements intentionally easy for the amateurs playing.

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Past Winners/Odds

As for the golfers, it is a fairly solid field with an average strength of field rating of 324. The two headliners are Jon Rahm (+500) and Patrick Cantlay (+900), who are favored by leaps and bounds compared to their fellow competitors. Sungjae Im, Talor Gooch and Tony Finau, among others, will try to keep pace and look to be strong bets to contend here as well.