The American Express: 2023 PGA Tour Golf Betting Odds
Jon Rahm is favoured to win on the golf odds.
It’s an excellent field with 10 of the top 20 players in the world — including five of the top seven — teeing it up, including world No. 2 Scottie Scheffler and No. 5 Rahm.
One big name who is not playing is Jordan Spieth, who had a very unusual stop at the Sony Open in Hawaii last week. He was tied for first after the first round following a 6-under 64 but then followed with a 5-over 75 to go from T-1 to missed cut. Spieth became the 18th player since 1993 to lead or co-lead after 18 holes on the PGA Tour and then miss the 36-hole cut. He’s the first to do so since Matt Every went 65-83 at the 2020 Arnold Palmer Invitational.
The American Express is played over three courses: PGA West Stadium Course: 7,113 yards, par 72; La Quinta Country Club: 7,060 yards, par 72; and PGA West Nicklaus Tournament Course: 7,159 yards, par 72. Each PGA player will be grouped with amateurs for the first three rounds before the low 65 pros (and ties) will play their final round at the Stadium Course.
The defending champion is Hudson Swafford. He won the event for the second time in five years, breaking a late tie with an eagle in a closing-round 8-under 64. Swafford began his final round three strokes behind Lee Hodges and Paul Barjon. Tom Hoge finished second, two shots back. Swafford will not defend this year, though, as he’s now a member of the LIV series.
Two of the 59s shot on the PGA Tour happened in this tournament: David Duval (Round 5, 1999 at PGA West/Palmer) and Canadian Adam Hadwin (Round 3, 2017 at La Quinta CC). Big underdogs tend to win here as the last champion of the tournament who was ranked in the Top 90 of the Official World Golf Rankings was Rahm in 2018.
The American Express Golf Odds
Spain’s Jon Rahm is the +650 favourite and will be favoured in most events this season – he has played twice on the PGA Tour in the wraparound schedule and has a T4 and win at the year-opening Tournament of Champions. He won here in 2018 and was T14 last year. Rahm didn’t play last week at the Sony Open but has won three of his last four starts between the PGA Tour and DP World Tour.
Patrick Cantlay is +1100 with Scottie Scheffler +1200 – neither of them played last week, either. Cantlay hasn’t been worse than T9 his past two trips here, including runner-up in 2021. Scheffler has a best of third here in three trips.
Tony Finau is +1400, Will Zalatoris +1800 and Xander Schauffele +2000. Finau was a three-time winner last year and has a best of fourth here. Si Woo Kim took the Sony Open on Sunday, rallying from a three-shot deficit to win for the fourth time career on the PGA Tour and first in two years. He’s +3300 to win this event a second time, doing so in 2021.
Canadian Mike Weir won this tournament in 2003 by two over Jay Haas when it was called the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic. Roger Sloan finished T14 last year, Adam Hadwin was T25, Nick Taylor T33, Adam Svensson T49, Michael Gligic T55, Taylor Pendrith missed the cut as did Corey Conners. Hadwin is +5000 this week with Pendrith +8000, Taylor +20000 and Gligic +50000.
The American Express Golf Predictions
Take Rahm and Cantlay for Top 10s, but the value winner at +5000 is Andrew Putnam. He comes off a T4 at the Sony Open and has made the cut here five straight years with four Top 25s (best of T10).