The PGA Tour continues its West Coast Swing with the first event of the year in California at The American Express. The tournament returned to the Pro-Am format last year with three par 72 courses on the rotation offering very little rough but plenty of water to navigate on more than 25% of the holes. A mixed group of pros and amateurs play three different golf courses Thursday-Saturday before a 54-hole cut. The remaining top-65 players (and ties) with lowest scores advance to Sunday’s final round.

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler finished T11 here last year and enters as the prohibitive favorite with last year’s AmEx champion Jon Rahm not playing after joining LIV Golf. World No. 6 Patrick Cantlay finished 2nd here in 2021, and the Long Beach native out of UCLA has two other top-10 finishes in the AmEx since 2019. Over the past two years, no player in the world has gained more strokes per round in easy scoring conditions than Cantlay, and he’s thrived on desert courses.

Justin Thomas makes his season debut as a leading win contender despite playing in the event for the first time since 2015, where he finished T-7. World No. 5 Xander Schauffele is a leading favorite as well after finishing T3 in this event last year following a sizzling 62 on Sunday that included this albatross (2) on the par 5 fifth which is a risk-reward hole called Double Trouble at the Pete Dye Stadium Course.

The Par 3 at No. 17 on the Pete Dye Stadium Course is the signature hole, Alcatraz.

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Saturday

After struggling last season, 15-time PGA Tour winner and former No. 1 player Justin Thomas fell to No. 78 in the FedEx Cup Standings.

“I learned a lot this past season,” Thomas said in December, knowing he did not qualify for the opening Tournament of Champions event in Hawaii. “No. 1 thing is things are never as bad as people make them out to be. At times I was just a couple putts, shots, swings here and there away from at least having a chance of making a run in the Playoffs. But it's a fine line out here.”

It sure is, as a 200/1 and 500/1 pair of longshot winners won the opening two PGA Tour events to tee off 2024. It’s clear that These Guys Are Good and PGA Tour players Live Under Par, as Chris Kirk (TOC) and Grayson Murray (Sony Open), found their way to the winners circle to hoist a championship trophy and gain multi-season extensions on Tour with invitations to Majors and elevated events.

Winning score: over/under 262.5

Since this event switched to a 72-hole format in 2012, every winning score has been 20-under par or lower.

Golf odds from FanDuel Sportsbook refresh periodically and are subject to change.

Daniel Berger, 30, returns to competion for the first time in 18 months having last played in the 2022 U.S. Open. He’s been dealing with bone sensitivity and lower disc issues in his back.

Most the golfers in the 156 player field have odds of +10000 or greater, including Will Zalatoris (+11000), who finished T6 here in 2021 and missed eight months of competition last year with a back injury. The field is cut down to 70 players plus ties after 54 holes.

Weather your in PGA pools, playing fantasy golf, picking golfers to win and top finish, or hitting your groove on tournament matchups, there are plenty of ways to watch, wager and win betting golf including prop bets and player specials.

A look at the golf course, stats and insight from FanDuel Research provides more betting data including strokes gained stats, win simulations and golf models with players that could contend for a win or top finish at The American Express.

Here are the golfers in the 2024 field who have multiple top-15 finishes over the last five years in The American Express: Sungjae Im, Patrick Cantlay, Scottie Scheffler, Tony Finau, Si Woo Kim, J.T. Poston, Sam Burns, Tom Hoge, Andrew Putnam and Roger Sloan.

Some picks to win or have a top finish, according to FanDuel Research and data, along with leading golf analyst Ben Coley include:

Sungjae Im is currently ranked No. 27 in the world, and has a strong record in the event with five-straight top-20 finishes. Adam Hadwin is a sleeper with four straight top-6 finishes in the tournament from 2016-2019. Tom Kim won the Shriners Open last fall in Las Vegas at low odds (12/1); his second straight Shriners win, and the 21-year-old South Korean finished T6 in The American Express here last year.

Big longshots and top finishing position additions:

Matchup offerings and odds vary from leading online sportsbooks, and here are some notable tournament matchups at the Sony Open offered on FanDuel Sportsbook.

Check out more golf stats and coverage of The American Express and weekly PGA Tour events as betting on golf continues to be most popular with fans firing for more fairways and greens when wagering.

You can bet on it.