2021 The American Express: Tournament preview and picks

Golf’s Hawaii swing is finished for 2021 and the PGA Tour now makes its way to the West Coast for The American Express at PGA West in La Quinta, California.

Being the tour’s first stop as part of it’s California/West Coast swing The American Express has undergone several name changes in its history and was most recently known as The Careerbuilder Challenge (2016-18), and Dessert Classic (2019), before becoming The American Express last year.

More from Pro Golf Now

This tournament is unique in that it has traditionally been played across three courses with the cut traditionally taking place after 54 holes of play. The 2021 edition however will take place on PGA West’s two courses, The Nicklaus Tournament Course and Stadium Course with the traditional pro-am event not being held this year.

The 2021 edition of The American Express is a full field event and is a slightly stronger field than has typically been seen here in the past. This week’s tournament is a 156 man field and it features five of the top 20 in The Official World Golf ranking.

The courses at The American Express

As mentioned above The 2021 American Express will be held on PGA West’s two courses for the first two days of play with a traditional 36 hole cut taking place at the halfway point for this year’s edition.

The Nicklaus Tournament Course is a Par 72 design that measures out at just over 7,100 yards and is truly a second shot course with generous fairways and challenging spots around the green being the prominent features of this design. Players that are locked in with their approach shots will be rewarded and the course should provide plenty of scoring opportunities.

The Stadium Course will host three of the players four rounds this year and is another one of Pete Dye’s spectacular designs. The course also plays as a Par 72 and is not overly long at just over 7,100 yards as well.

PGA West’s Stadium Course is the more challenging of the two and similar to other Pete Dye courses can be visually intimidating to golfers. It was ranked as one of the top 50 most difficult courses in America back in 2007 and can certainly punish those that are not on their game with water coming into play on nine of its eighteen holes.

Overall The American Express has seen winning scores in the low twenties but with just the two-course rotation this year the winning score this week could be expected to be more in the mid to high teens.

Betting Favorites and Picks at The American Express

The odds in this article can be found online at popular betting sites, for more information on the best odds and books available locally to you check out The Action Network

The number two ranked player in the World Jon Rahm opened as the favorite earlier in the week but has since withdrawn leaving Patrick Cantlay +1300, Patrick Reed +1500, Tony Finau +1700, Scottie Scheffler +1700, and Brooks Koepka +1800 as those leading the way in the under 20 range this week at The American Express.

It will be difficult to put much into tournament history this week with the traditional three-course rotation being put on the back-burner for 2021. One stat however that is worth noting is that since 2010 there has been only one winner of this event that did not tee-off in Hawaii in one of the two events prior.

Of those near the top of the board this week that would only rule out Brooks Koepka who is beginning his 2021 season this week at The American Express. If I was to play one of the favorites this week it would be Patrick Cantlay +1300 who was 9th in his only start here back in 2019 and comes in exhibiting nice form with a 13th most recently at The Tournament of Champions two weeks ago.

Instead, I’ll begin this week’s card with Cameron Champ +4000 who began his 2021 season with a somewhat disappointing 31st at the TOC in Hawaii. Champ was average in almost every statistical category in Hawaii but he lost an eye-opening five strokes putting.

Cameron was in nice form to close out 2019 and he has had good results in California throughout his young career already including two top tens at both last year’s ZOZO and PGA Championship, Champ was also top 25 at The American Express last season.

Zach Johnson +6600 disappointed for us last week at the Sony but I am more than willing to go right back to him this week after he uncharacteristically lost strokes putting and was dialed in with his irons for most of the week.

ZJ has also had a couple of top tens at The American Express in the past and before last week’s result had finished 6th at the RSM Classic indicating that his game is in good shape to begin 2021.

Another player that was excellent with his irons last week but lost strokes putting was Charley Hoffman +8000. Hoffman still managed a top 15 finish last week and he was striking the ball very well in the final round of the Sony Open.

Hoffman has made four consecutive cuts in his last four starts now and with two top-ten finishes at The American Express in the past could be on the verge of winning again soon.

I’ll go with two at +10000 next with Erik Van Rooyen who missed the cut last week despite gaining over 3 strokes with his irons. The South African lost almost 3 strokes putting last week but his irons continue to be locked in as he has gained significantly on approach in his last three starts.

Sepp Straka was 4th at The American Express last year and he had a top 25 finish last week in Hawaii. Straka gained over 4 strokes with his irons last week and was top ten in approach and ball striking numbers during the final round as well. The Austrian has also made six consecutive cuts on Tour.

The final addition to this week’s card will be the defending champion Andrew Landry +250000 who comes into the 2021 American Express at a massive number.

Landry has been in terrible form recently but he has historically struggled on the island of Hawaii and came into last year’s American Express in similarly bad form.

Next. Brooks Koepka: 2021 FedEx Cup Contender or Pretender?. dark

Landry has a 1st, 28th, and 2nd in his last three starts in La Quinta and each time was coming off a missed cut at the Sony so I’ll take a shot at this number with last year’s winner.

The American Express

Cameron Champ +4000

Zach Johnson +6600

Charley Hoffman +8000

Erik Van Rooyen +10000

Sepp Straka +10000

Andrew Landry +250000

Pro Golf Now will have plenty of coverage of this week’s American Express including advice if you are looking to build fantasy lineups this week.

Home/Golf News