The second round of 2026's The American Express gets underway on Friday in California.
Min Woo Lee and Pierceson Coody are the co-leaders after the first round at 10-under par. They hold a one-stroke lead over the rest of the field, and the tournament remains wide open with three days remaining.
Here are my picks for The American Express Round 2 bets for Friday.
The American Express Round 2 Bets
Pierceson Coody Top 10 (+140 at DraftKings)
Pierceson Coody is tied for the lead alongside Min Woo Lee after one of the most impressive back nines in recent memory. Beginning the tournament on the Nicklaus Tournament Course, Coody birdied seven holes on the back nine, shooting a 29 to close out his round.
He was the hottest golfer leaving the course Thursday, and there is little reason to believe he will not carry that momentum into the remainder of the week. A key trend at this event is that the Pete Dye Stadium Course is playing noticeably harder than the other two venues. Coody, assuming he makes the cut, will need to play it twice over the next three rounds.
That dynamic helps explain why his top-10 prop is priced at +140 despite his current status as a co-leader. Even so, Coody appears well positioned to handle the challenges presented by the Stadium Course.
Greenside play is essential at the Stadium Course. There were two measured rounds at this venue last season, as every golfer who made the cut also played the course again during Sunday’s final round.
Among those golfers, each of the top six finishers ranked 31st or better in the field in strokes gained: around the green across those two rounds at the Stadium Course. No other strokes-gained category showed a similar trend.
Dating back to last season, Coody has gained true strokes around the green in three of his past four tournaments in which ShotLink data was available.
Rickie Fowler Top 20 (+230 at DraftKings)
Another golfer who has yet to play the Stadium Course this week is Rickie Fowler, who enters Friday tied for 51st at 5-under par. However, congestion in the middle of the leaderboard makes his position look worse than it is, as he sits just two shots outside the top 20.
Like Coody, Fowler is well-positioned to handle the more difficult rounds at the Stadium Course. To close out 2025, Fowler gained true strokes around the green in six of his final nine tournaments, posting five top-20 finishes during that stretch.
Fowler also performs well on approach shots from 150-175 yards, finishing 2025 nearly 2% above the PGA Tour average in birdie-or-better percentage from that distance. Last year, 17.1% of approach shots at the Stadium Course came from the 150-175-yard range, the largest share of any 25-yard grouping.
