The American Express is the first pro-am event on this year’s PGA Tour calendar with different courses used for the opening three days.
The PGA West, La Quinta Country Club, and the Nicklaus Course play host followed by a 54-hole cut and the final eighteen holes at PGA West. The amateur participation guarantees easy resort-style course setups on the slick Bermuda Grass Greens that the pros have been known to destroy.
Taking on a strong top of the market can be a double-edged sword, on the one hand, Jon Rahm and Patrick Cantlay are as strong as it gets this week, on the other, their prices are so prohibitive that it inflates the rest attractively.
2022 The American Express
January 20th to 23rd at La Quinta Country Club
Séamus Can Power to Victory at the American Express
Twelve months ago, Irishman, Séamus Power looked like a ‘journeyman professional’ struggling to get starts. Now a year later he’s back in La Quinta for the first time since a missed cut in 2019. Don’t be fooled by that, however, as the two years previous he came 21st and 11th when struggling for playing privileges.
Now, Power has no such troubles after an extremely consistent second half of 2021 that saw him accumulate five top 20 finishes which culminated in his first PGA Tour title at the Barbasol Championship.
That qualified him for the Sentry Tournament of Champions where he began 2022 with a solid 15th place finish, then last week he built on that at the Sony Open with an impressive 3rd place finish.
The thirty-four-year-old from Waterford in Ireland resides in Las Vegas so it’s little surprise he’d shown an affinity for this event that was previously called the Desert Classic.
Another factor in our favor is his consistency as we’ve already discussed and 2022 looks no different to 2021 currently, while his 3rd place last week was from off the pace, so likely to have taken less out of him than being in contention.
With everything in his favor, this week expect Séamus to Power through the 2022 American Express and contend so take the +3000 for your best bets with GTbets and add the top 5 markets at +600 with the same firm.
Golf Pick: Séamus Power win +3000 with GTbets (visit our GTbets Review)
Golf Pick: Séamus Power top 5 +600 with GTbets
Putnam Primed for a Strong Challenge in California
In recent years, Andrew Putnam has been high up on my notes as a potential surprise winner of the American Express. With that in mind, it was good to see the thirty-two-year-old from Washington have a nice pipe opener for 2022 at the Sony Open in Hawaii where he played better than his finishing position of 27th suggests.
It’s his recent form at La Quinta that brings his potential chances under scrutiny by never finishing worse than 34th in the last four seasons. Last week’s stats suggested his putting was solid and that has the potential to be sharper this week, with any rust now shaken off.
They will need to be for a low-scoring birdie fest that awaits the golf professionals this week in California. Those factors make Andrew Putnam a compelling selection for me this week for me in the top 10 and win market both with BetOnline.
Golf Pick: Andrew Putnam win +12500 with BetOnline (visit our BetOnline Review)
Golf Pick: Andrew Putnam top 10 +1100 with BetOnline
*The line and/or odds on picks in this article might have moved since the content was commissioned. For updated line movements, visit BMR’s free betting odds product.
