The 2024 American Express: PGA Tour Golf Betting Odds
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler is favoured on the golf odds.
It’s the 65th edition of this tournament, which like most PGA Tour events has had numerous names/sponsors through the years. It’s also one of a few events that features golfers playing on multiple courses: PGA West’s Pete Dye Stadium Course at 7,187 yards, par 72; La Quinta Country Club at 7,060 yards, par 72; and Nicklaus Tournament Course at 7,147 yards, par 72. La Quinta has been part of the rotation the longest. Each PGA player will be grouped with amateurs for the first three rounds – thus the cut is after 54 holes — and play one round on each course before only the professionals play the final round at the Stadium Course.
It’s about as good a field as one can get this early in the New Year with some Europeans still competing overseas, Tiger Woods still not ready to debut and obviously not including the LIV golfers. That includes new LIV player Jon Rahm, who won here in 2018 and also last year (was +650 favourite) when he finished at 27-under 261 to edge out American then-rookie Davis Thompson by a shot. We did back Rahm for a Top 10.
The two shared the 54-hole lead at 23 under and were tied with three holes to play Sunday when Thompson, who led solo through 36 holes, pulled his drive into a deep fairway bunker on the par-5 16th and wound up with par. Rahm found a bunker on his tee shot on No. 18 but recovered with a shot to 15 feet of the hole and only needed a two-putt par to win. Thompson had made five eagles through the first two rounds, tying the PGA Tour record for eagles in a 72-hole event.
Past tournament champions in the field include Charley Hoffman, Jason Dufner, Adam Long, Andrew Landry, Si Woo Kim and two-time winner Bill Haas. Hudson Swafford also won here twice, including as recently as 2022, but he’s also with LIV. The only player to win here more than twice was Arnold Palmer with five titles – including the inaugural version of the tournament in 1960.
Four-time PGA Tour winner Daniel Berger is in the field after missing the past 18 months with a back injury. He was 29th his last time here in 2020 and is +6600 to win.
One semi-notable player in the field – notable if you really follow golf – is Michael Block, the reigning Southern California PGA Section Player of the Year. You may remember the unknown got his 15 minutes of fame at last year’s PGA Championship that also included a memorable hole-in-one. He’s +100000 to win.
Two of the 59s shot on the PGA Tour happened in this tournament: David Duval (Round 5, 1999 at PGA West) and Canadian Adam Hadwin (Round 3, 2017 at La Quinta).
The American Express Golf Odds
Bet on American Express PGA Golf
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler is the +650 favourite. He opened the year with a T5 at the Sentry in Hawaii and didn’t play last week at the Sony Open. Scheffler has a best result of third here in 2020 and was 11th in 2023.
Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele are each +1000. Cantlay was a runner-up to Si Woo Kim in 2021 and has a couple of other Top 10 results here. He has an average score of 67.25 in his past 16 rounds at the tournament. Schauffele was third here last year.
Sungjae Im is +2000 with Justin Thomas and Tom Kim both +2200. It’s unusual for Thomas to be playing here, as he last played in 2015 and was seventh, but he’s clearly trying to put a terrible 2023 season behind him in his first 2024 start. Im started 2024 with a T5 at Kapalua before taking last week off. He has five straight T20s at this event. Kim seems to like playing in a desert as he has won the Shriners Children’s Open in Las Vegas each of the last two years and was T6 here last year. Grayson Murray, a very unlikely winner at the Sony Open on Sunday, is +12500 this week.
Canadian Mike Weir won this event in 2003 by two over Jay Haas when it was called the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic. Last year, Adam Hadwin was T18, while Taylor Pendrith, Nick Taylor and Michael Gligic missed the cut. Hadwin is +5500 this week with Nick Taylor and Taylor Pendrith both +6600, Ben Silverman +20000 and Roger Sloan +30000
The American Express Golf Predictions
We like Canadian Adam Hadwin at a great price of +5500. Since 2018, he has the second-lowest round average at this tournament of 67.65. Hadwin has been runner-up twice and third once at The American Express and had that 59 in 2017.
