2022 The American Express Odds and Predictions

It’s time for the legendary tournament now known as The American Express to tee up! The American Express Desert Classic was made famous by Bob Hope and his famous friends as well as its three-course structure. As always, the field for this tournament is a nice mix of solid big- name players, as well as value, picks down the odds list.

As mentioned above, the event takes place on three courses in La Quinta, California. The courses are the La Quinta Country Club, the PGA West Stadium Course, and the PGA West Nicklaus Tournament Course. Players rotate on the three courses with the final round returning for another day on the Stadium Course links.

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It makes for a fun mix of camera work and commentary as coverage switches around. Plus, there’s always some celebrity sightings to keep an eye open for – especially during the pro-am which is returning after being cut due to Covid-19 last season.

Jon Rahm enters as the lone favorite this week at +600 as he won this event in 2018 in a playoff against Andrew Landry. The event has finished in a playoff 3 of the last 10 with all ten being won by 2 strokes or less. This is not a tournament that sees one play dominate the field by a bunch of strokes. The last time that happened was when Tom Kite won by 6 strokes over the field back in 1993.

Patrick Cantlay follows Rahm at +900 with numbers spreading out quickly through the top-five as well as throughout the odds list. Here are the top-five favorites through +2000 to win the American Express / Desert Classic outright.

Jon Rahm +600

Patrick Cantlay +900

Scottie Scheffler +1800

Sungjae Im +2000

Tony Finau +2000

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2022 The American Express Preview

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Where: La Quinta, California

Courses: La Quinta Country Club, PGA West Stadium Course, and the PGA West Nicklaus Tournament Course

Par: 72 (All three courses) 7,060 (LQ) 7,140 (S) 7,181 (NT)

When: January 20-23, 2022

Purse: $7.5 million

TV Coverage: Golf Channel

The American Express continues its Bob Hope Desert Classic history by utilizing several area courses with the final day of play for PGA pros coming on Sunday at the Stadium Course.

The Stadium Course is a classic California set of links. It was designed by Pete Dye and features deep bunkers, immaculate green landing areas with manicured natural boundaries. Several holes play over, and around water. Bunkers are dotted everywhere on all of the course so expect plenty of great recovery shots from the sand.

The grass is Bermuda, with native grasses. Opportunities for birdies are available on several shorter par-five holes. Long irons, wedges, and a hot putter will be critical on par-3’s as everyone will be trying to shave shots on the par-5 holes heading into Sunday.

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2022 The American Express Picks

Jon Rahm +600

Jon Rahm won this tournament in 2018 and finished in 2nd place last week at the Tournament of Champions. Last season he won the U.S. Open and came close to winning the Open (British) Championship with a T3 finish. Not to mention, he finished 2nd at the PGA Tour Championship. Last season he only was cut once and had to withdraw only one time due to a Covid test. He’s the hottest golfer in the field this week with a No. 1 ranking by the OWGR.

Scottie Scheffler +1600

Scottie Scheffler is playing great golf. This could be the week that he grabs his first PGA victory as he’s been close to doing that here in the past with a solo third-place finish in 2020. Coming into this week he’s carded a solo 2nd place at the Hero, a T2 at the Houston Open, a solo 4th at Mayakoba, and was part of Team USA for the win at the Ryder Cup.

Abraham Ancer +2500

Abraham Ancer finished T5 during this event last year and had a 2nd place finish the year prior and a T18 in 2019. Ancer seems to move around these courses with confidence and looks to be building up for another strong run at this edition of the American Express Desert Classic. Ancer grabbed his first PGA win last season at the St Jude Invitational.

Others: Patrick Reed comes in at +3300 and could be considered a good value pick. The same also goes for Will Zalatoris who is at +4000 heading into Thursday’s opening round. Of course, my sentimental side will be pulling for Phil Mickelson +10000.

Tips for Betting on PGA Majors

2022 The American Express Betting Lines

Jon Rahm +600

Patrick Cantlay +900

Scottie Scheffler +1800

Sungjae Im +2000

Tony Finau +2000

Corey Conners +2200

Abraham Ancer +2500

Matthew Wolff +2800

Seamus Power +2800

Talor Gooch +2800

Patrick Reed +3300

Russell Henley +3300

Will Zalatoris +4000

Cameron Tringale +4000

Justin Rose +4000

Alex Noren +5000

Christiaan Bezuidenhout +5000

Rickie Fowler +5000

Si-Woo Kim +5000

Carlos Ortiz +6600

Jhonattan Vegas +6600

Luke List +6600

Charles Howell III +8000

Brian Harman +8000

Gary Woodland +8000

Chris Kirk +8000

Adam Hadwin +8000

Cameron Champ +8000

Jason Day +8000

Sebastian Munoz +8000

Michael Thompson +8000

Phil Mickelson +10000

Adam Long +10000

Brendon Todd +10000

Chez Reavie +10000

Russell Knox +10000

Harold Varner III +10000

Lanto Griffin +10000

Brendan Steele +10000

Lucas Glover +10000

Kevin Streelman +10000

Kyoung-Hoon Lee +10000

Taylor Moore +10000

Tom Hoge +12500

Emiliano Grillo +12500

Andrew Landry +12500

Doug Ghim +12500

Aaron Rai +12500

Patton Kizzire +12500

Kramer Hickok +12500

Denny McCarthy +12500

Danny Lee +12500

Hayden Buckley +12500

Patrick Rodgers +12500

Troy Merritt +12500

Andrew Putnam +12500

Dylan Frittelli +15000

Matthew Nesmith +15000

Wyndham Clark +15000

Taylor Pendrith +15000

Francesco Molinari +15000

John Huh +15000

Zach Johnson +15000

Brandt Snedeker +15000

Alex Smalley +15000

Henrik Norlander +15000

Vincent Whaley +15000

C T Pan +15000

Rory Sabbatini +15000

Scott Piercy +15000

Adam Svensson +15000

Chad Ramey +15000

Adam Schenk +15000

Martin Laird +15000

Hudson Swafford +15000

Robert Streb +20000

JJ Spaun +20000

Nick Taylor +20000

Brian Stuard +20000

Davis Riley +20000

Nick Hardy +20000

Harry Higgs +20000

Scott Stallings +20000

Dylan Wu +20000

Hank Lebioda +20000

Greyson Sigg +20000

Sepp Straka +20000

Sahith Theegala +20000

Graeme McDowell +25000

Cameron Young +25000

Andrew Novak +25000

Ryan Moore +25000

Pat Perez +25000

Joseph Bramlett +25000

Ben Kohles +25000

James Hahn +25000

Jason Dufner +25000

Tyler Duncan +25000

Tyler McCumber +25000

JT Poston +25000

Wesley Bryan +25000

Brice Garnett +25000

Doc Redman +30000

Bronson Burgoon +30000

David Lipsky +30000

Nate Lashley +30000

Kevin Tway +30000

Max McGreevy +30000

Brandon Wu +30000

Sam Ryder +30000

Roger Sloan +30000

Luke Donald +30000

Peter Uihlein +30000

Peter Malnati +30000

Anirban Lahiri +30000

Chan Kim +30000

Camilo Villegas +30000

Richy Werenski +30000

Lee Hodges +30000

Chesson Hadley +30000

Jonathan Byrd +30000

Austin Cook +30000

Nick Watney +30000

Kurt Kitayama +30000

Justin Lower +30000

Kevin Chappell +30000

Trey Mullinax +30000

Sung Kang +30000

Brandon Hagy +30000

Jim Herman +30000

Jimmy Walker +50000

Seth Reeves +50000

Brett Drewitt +50000

Michael Gligic +50000

Austin Smotherman +50000

David Skinns +50000

Scott Gutschewski +50000

Brian Gay +50000

Curtis Thompson +50000

Seung-Yul Noh +50000

Bill Haas +50000

Chris Stroud +50000

Dawie Van Der Walt +50000

John Pak +50000

Paul Barjon +50000

Davis Love III +50000

Kelly Kraft +50000

Martin Trainer +75000

James Hart Du Preez +100000

Jonas Blixt +100000

T.j. Vogel +100000

Kyle Mendoza +100000

Mark Wilson +100000

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