With the \u201cAloha Swing\u201d concluded, the PGA Tour returns to the mainland as players make a trip to the Coachella Valley 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\u2019s final round on the Stadium Course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Along with the Pete Dye 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. After more than 50 years of course changes, the current rotation of courses has been the same since 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Each of the courses in the rotation share many of the same characteristics. First, with mostly calm winds and clear skies in a desert environment, this tournament is as close to \u201cdome golf\u201d as players will experience all year which leads to each being among the top-10 easiest annual PGA courses. All three courses have four scoreable par-5s and measure under 7,200 yards. Each also has pure Poa trivialis greens and ryegrass fairways surrounded by non-penal dormant Bermuda rough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Stadium Course is the toughest of the three 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 made intentionally easy for the amateurs that are playing. It is a tournament where all different styles of players can thrive and those with the hottest flat stick in the inevitable putting contest are usually rewarded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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The Field<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The strongest-ever field will tee it up this week in the California desert at the American Express, including 10 of the top-25 and 22 of the top-50 ranked players in the world. The headliners include #1 Scottie Scheffler, #5 Patrick Cantlay, #6 Xander Schauffele and #10 Wyndham Clark. Also in attendance are numerous other notables like Tony Finau, Sam Burns, Tom Kim, Sungjae Im, Jason Day, Rickie Fowler, Justin Thomas, and Min Woo Lee. Multiple event winner and past Ryder Cup member, Daniel Berger will also make his long-awaited return to play this week. Berger has not played due to injury since the 2022 U.S. Open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the first three rounds, players will be paired with an \u201camateur\u201d. They could be celebrities, professional athletes, CEOs of companies, or someone you have never heard of who thought it would be a great idea to fork over $30,000 to take part in the event. While most PGA players love the conditions of the courses and the weather, they also despise the format and having to play most pro-ams in general. Rounds can approach six hours with the amateurs basically tagging along and hacking their way around the course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Past Winners and Odds<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
American Express \u2013 2024 Betting Preview<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":9481,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":""},"bs_types":[14],"bs_tags":[29,143],"class_list":["post-9468","article","type-article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","bs_type-betting","bs_tag-golf-betting","bs_tag-the-american-express"],"acf":false,"featured_image":"https:\/\/api.betspertsgolf.com\/raw-forum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/gettyimages-1913160548-612x612-1.jpg","tags_list":[{"id":29,"name":"Golf Betting","slug":"golf-betting"},{"id":143,"name":"The American Express","slug":"the-american-express"}],"types_list":[{"id":14,"name":"Betting"}],"bs_author":{"name":"Ron Klos","profile_image":"https:\/\/api.betspertsgolf.com\/raw-forum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Ron-Klos-150x150.jpg"},"bs_term_name":null,"is_paid":"true","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/api.betspertsgolf.com\/raw-forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/9468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/api.betspertsgolf.com\/raw-forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/api.betspertsgolf.com\/raw-forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/api.betspertsgolf.com\/raw-forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/api.betspertsgolf.com\/raw-forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/api.betspertsgolf.com\/raw-forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"bs_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/api.betspertsgolf.com\/raw-forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bs_types?post=9468"},{"taxonomy":"bs_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/api.betspertsgolf.com\/raw-forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bs_tags?post=9468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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