2022 American Express Latest Odds & 5 Betting Picks: Back Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Russell Knox, More

Latest 2022 American Express Odds

The Sony Open held true to form.

Hideki Matsuyama took the event in a playoff from Russell Henley, again capturing the title for another TOC participant. We were able to get a couple of third-place finishes from Seamus Power and Kevin Kisner to make sure the week ended on a good note.

Overall, four of the top six played the week before, again showing we might not always hit the winner, but focusing on that core group can usually lead to finding a good place bet or two and coming out ahead.

Now we move on to California and the American Express. The tournament will shift back to its pro/am, three-course format this year after using just two courses and leaving the amateurs on the sideline in 2021.

The Course(s)

PGA West is the primary course, designed by the late, great Pete Dye. It measures out around 7,200 yards for a par 72, and there’s water in play for about half the holes. Overall, it’s the most difficult of the three, playing around two strokes harder than the two resorts courses.

Players will also see La Quinta and the Nicklaus Course for one round apiece. Both really don’t provide much of a test for the players, measuring under 7,200 yards. Most sportsbooks won’t offer first-round leader odds with the multi-course set up, but if yours does, La Quinta is the spot to target with maybe one or two players from the Nicklaus.

Twenty-under par is a requirement here if a player wants to be in contention.

The Favorites

Jon Rahm tops the board at +500. He's the 2018 champion of the event and was runner up a couple weeks back to Cam Smith at Kapalua. Patrick Cantlay is right behind him at +900. Cantlay was the runner-up last season in the altered format and was fourth at the TOC.

With the top two players in good form and playing an event in which they've had a lot of success, it will put me in a spot where I'm not going to be as aggressive in the outright market.

Next, we have a group including Scottie Scheffler, Tony Finau and Sungjae Im coming in at +2000. Finau and Scheffler have both finished in the top five here before while Im has never been worse than 12th in three starts.

The Mid-Tier

I've only got one play in this range before I pepper in a handful of longshots. I'll take my chances with Christiaan Bezuidenhout at +6000 on DraftKings. He's coming off a good ball striking week at the Sony where he finished 17th. He's been playing consistently well for the past year now, missing just one cut in his last 32 starts bouncing between four different tours.

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The Longshots

We've got four plays here starting with Russell Knox at 100/1 on DraftKings. Knox was seventh last week and has three top 20s here at an event where he's been fairly solid during his career. The Sony was also the first time in 16 months that he gained strokes in all four categories.

I'm also going with Hayden Buckley at 140/1 on FanDuel. Buckley was 12th last week and had a couple top 10s during the fall after earning his PGA Tour card last year. It was the third time in five starts he'd gained strokes in each category.

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Next, I'm playing Dylan Wu at 200/1 on DraftKings. Wu is another guy coming off a good week at the Sony. He finished 20th and gained over five strokes on approach.

One thing I'll look at with these recent Korn Ferry grads in this type of event is their result in the BMW Charity Pro/Am on that tour. It's got a similar multi-course format with slow rounds from a bunch of amateurs. Some players don't like the style so I'll check those results to make sure they've at least played well in it at some point. Buckley was eighth last year and Wu was 13th.

My last play will go to Joseph Bramlett at 280/1 on FanDuel. He gained a little over 7.5 strokes with his ball striking at the Sony to finish 20th. That was his best result on tour in six months. He's also finished inside the top 20 at Pebble Beach and fourth at the BMW Pro/Am, so the format has suited him in the past.

The AmEx card

• Christiaan Bezuidenhout +6000 (.55 units)
• Russell Knox +10000 (.33 units)
• Hayden Buckley +16000 (.21 units)
• Dylan Wu +20000 (.17 units)
• Joseph Bramlett +28000 (.12 units)

Total Stake: 1.38 units

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