2023 The American Express Betting Preview

The PGA Tour continues its West Coast Swing with its first event of the year in California at The American Express. The tournament is a return of the Pro-Am format with three par 72 courses on the rotation offering very little rough but plenty of water to navigate. Jon Rahm (+600), Patrick Cantlay (+950) and Scottie Scheffler (+1000) top the odds to win, and are three of the 10 players in the field that rank top-20 in the world golf rankings.

Golf Courses and Odds to Win The American Express

• Pete Dye Stadium Course – 7,187 yards (2 rounds including Sunday)
• Jack Nicklaus Tournament Course – 7,147 yards
• La Quinta Country Club – 7,060 yards

Since this event switched to a 72-hole format in 2012, every winning score has been 20-under par or lower.

Golf odds from FanDuel Sportsbook refresh periodically and are subject to change.

Leading favorites and contenders:

• Jon Rahm (+600)
• Patrick Cantlay (+950)
• Scottie Scheffler (+1000)
• Tony Finau (+1400)
• Will Zalatoris (+1900)
• Xander Schauffele, Tom Kim (+2000)
• Sungjae Im, Cameron Young (+2100)
• Sam Burns, Tom Hoge (+3100)
• Si Woo Kim, Brian Harman, Cam Davis (+3400)
• Aaron Wise (+3700)
• Taylor Montgomery (+3900)
• Sahith Theegala (+4500)
• JT Poston, KH Lee, Andrew Putnam (+5000)

Popular Types of Golf Betting Odds

Types of bets and how to read the odds

• Winner: Bet on who will win this week’s PGA tour event
• Finishing Position Odds: Bet on a golfer to finish in the top 5, top 10, top 20 or top 40 in this week’s golf tournament
• Round Leader Betting: Golf odds on who will win the first round, second round, third round, and fourth round separately.
• Golf Matchup Betting: Prop bets on which golfer will finish better in the tournament head to head between the two golfers listed for each matchup.

Notable golf tournament match-ups:

• Scottie Scheffler (-130) vs. Patrick Cantlay (+102)
• Jon Rahm (-176) vs. Tony Finau (+138)
• Sungjae Im (-118) vs Cameron Young (-108)
• Will Zalatoris (-148) vs Tom Kim (+116)
• Si Woo Kim (-116) vs Sam Burns (-112)

Golf Betting Strategy and FAQ

Jon Rahm won this event in 2018, and Long Beach native Patrick Cantlay has three top-10 finishes since then including runner-up in 2021. Si Woo Kim returns to La Quinta and the tournament he won in 2021 when three rounds were played at the Stadium Course and La Quinta Country Club were dropped. Kim is No. 1 in this field in Strokes Gained: Par 5 efficiency at the Stadium Course.

Si Woo Kim also won last week’s Sony Open at 45/1 odds, and he was one of Ryan Noonan’s picks to win. You can read Ryan’s The American Express preview and picks for The American Express at Betsperts.

Golf Picks and Stats

While the leading favorites generate more of the bets and money to win, note that the three top favorites all missed the cut last week at the Sony Open. There are dozens of other contenders and dark horses capable of challenging for a win and top finishing position. Many others at even longer odds and triple digit prices that can challenge for top finishing position payouts as well. That includes lesser known players like Lee Hodges (+14000), whose golf stats and performance charts show a tie for 3rd place at -20 under par in The American Express last year.

Also note that three of the past four The American Express winners closed with odds of +15000 or higher (150/1).

Here are some players and picks to win the 2023 Sony Open from leading golf experts, analysts and handicappers.

• Ryan Noonan, Betsperts – Tom Hoge, Taylor Montgomery, Andrew Putnam, Ben Griffin (longshot)
• Golf Digest staff: Cameron Young, Brian Harman

Additional expert golf picks in Golf Digest preview.

Justin Ray of the Twenty First Group and golf contributor to The Athletic and PGA Tour notes that Brian Harman is a combined 49-under here since 2020, tied for best of any player during that stretch. Also, Tony Finau has accumulated 74 birdies-or-better at this tournament the previous three years. That’s seven more than any other player in that span. Finau had top-15 finishes here in both 2020 and 2021.

Check out more players golf odds and coverage of The American Express including tee times and pairings as betting on golf continues to be most popular.

You can bet on it.