Fowler Favored To Win The American Express Tournament

The PGA Tour is headed back to the state of California for a five-week stretch that begins with The American Express this week. While the tournament has a new sponsor and a new name, the course remains the same and that means we have a good idea of what to expect this week. From the Humana Challenge to the CareerBuilder Challenge, the Desert Classic and now with a new title, all eyes will be on La Quinta, Calfornia when the best in the world tee off on three different courses. Here is a closer look at what you need to know heading into The American Express.

EVENT DETAILS

EVENT: THE AMERICAN EXPRESS
CATEGORY: PGA
DATE: JANUARY 16TH-19TH, 2020
LOCATION: LA QUINTA COUNTRY CLUB, LA QUINTA, CALIFORNIA, PGA WEST (TPC STADIUM COURSE, PGA WEST (NICKLAUS TOURNAMENT COURSE)

PAST FIVE WINNERS

2019: ADAM LONG -26
2018: JON RAHM -22
2017: HUDSON SWAFFORD -20
2016: JASON DUFNER -25
2015: BILL HAAS (2) -22

Long returns as the defending champion at this event but the oddsmakers aren’t giving him much of a chance at all to win this tournament at +10000 odds. The 2018 winner Jon Rahm will not compete this year. Meanwhile, the 2017 winner Hudson Swafford is considered an even bigger reach to repeat at +15000 odds. Rickie Fowler is the current favorite at +1100 odds to win outright. Sundjae Im, Paul Casey and Tony Finau round out the list of the top sports betting favorites on the board for this tournament.

WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THE COURSE

The expectation heading into this tournament is that we will see another birdie fest with a ton of quality scores. Over the last five years, the worst possible winning score was 20-under, by Swafford back in 2017. Par 4 scoring is a statistic worth considering this week. Meanwhile, Putting statistics are also worth taking a look at. Driving Distance and Greens In Regulation won’t be nearly as important this week as they are in some other tournaments so don’t put too much stock in those numbers heading in to this event.

A GOOD MATCHUP TO BET: CHARLES HOWELL III OVER TONY FINAU

While there has been a lot of talk about what caused Finau to struggle in the fall, we still don’t know for sure if he is back. Finau did place fifth in the Hong Kong Open, but we are still hesitant to put too much stock in to that result. Meanwhile, Howell has never won this tournament. However, that hasn’t stopped him from putting up some great results here. Howell has made the cut in each of his 11 appearances at this event, including three top-20’s since 2016.

FIVE TRENDS WORTH NOTING FOR THE AMERICAN EXPRESS

–Seven of the last nine winners at this event finished first in Par 4 Scoring stats for the week.

–11 of the last 12 winners here have had at least one prior start in the year before participating in this tournament.

–Not a single player ranked in the top-12 in the world will participate in The American Express.

–La Quinta has been the easiest par 72 used on the PGA Tour in each of the last three years.

–Brian Harman, who could be considered a sleeper pick at +4000 odds, placed in the top-20 in each of his previous three starts at this event before missing the cut here last season

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