It’s been a great week for golf at Betfred, with news that Sir Nick Faldo is the new host of the Betfred British Masters and we are improving our golf coverage all the time.

Here we have previewed the PGA Tour event, The American Express and as always, given you our best bets for the tournament.

The American Express Betting Tips

• 2.5u Cameron Young – each way (1/5 8 places) – 18/1
• 2u Brian Harman – each way (1/5 8 places) – 28/1
• 1.5u Tom Hoge – each way (1/5 8 places) – 33/1
• 1u Wyndham Clark – each way (1/5 8 places) – 70/1

History

The American Express dates back to 1960 and was previously referred to as the Palm Springs Classic, The Bob Hope Desert Classic, The Bob Hope Chrysler Classic and The Desert Classic amongst others.
The current sponsors, American Express started sponsoring the event in 2020 and the tournament took on the full name at the same time.

The event was traditionally a five-day 90 hole tournament and was famed for it’s pro-am tournament which featured some A-list celebrities, including film stars and Presidents past and present.

Since 2012, the format was switched to a traditional four day, 72-hole tournament over three courses, with a 54-hole cut, which has increased the appeal to pro golfers.

The Tournament has been won multiple times by a few previous champions including Arnold Palmer (a record 5 times), Billy Casper, John Cook, Bill Haas, John Mahaffey, Phil Mickelson, Johnny Miller, Corey Pavin and Hudson Swafford.

Of those, only Bill Haas (500/1) is lining up with week, as current champion Swafford defected to the LIV Golf tour in June.

Other previous winners teeing it up here include Jon Rahm (13/2), Brian Gay (750/1), Andrew Landry (500/1) and Adam Long (200/1).

The total prize fund on offer this week is $8m, with a winners purse of $1.368m and 500 FedEx Cup points.

The Courses

There are three courses in play for the first three days of action, all in SoCal, with the fourth day’s play taking place on the PGA West Stadium Course.

They are:

The three courses are generally short and are set up to play relatively easy, given the nature of the pro-am element of the competition.

Scores of -20 under and better have been commonplace since the switch to 72 holes, with a course record of -28, by Patrick Reed back in 2014.

It’s hard to accurately predict what type of player will be successful here, given the three different courses in play.

The Pete Dye designed stadium course is in play for two rounds, so it is probably best looking for correlations there and it does share similarities with some of his other courses, including TPC Sawgrass and Harbour Town.

Given the low scoring nature, you need to be hot with the putter and accurate with your approach irons.

The Field

The field consists of 156 players plus some previous winners from the Players, recent Ryder Cup/President Cup participants and previous winners of this tournament.

Of course, the betting is yet again led by Jon Rahm (6/1), who has won three of his last four tournaments across both tours.

He is followed by the highest ranked player in the field in #2 Scottie Scheffler (11/1) and #5 Patrick Cantlay (9/1).

Next up, we have another man in form, three-time winner in 2022, Tony Finau (12/1).

Then the usual suspects such as Will Zalatoris , the fit again Xander Schauffele (both 18/1), Cameron Young (20/1), Sungjae Im and Tom Kim (both 22/1).

It’s going to be hard to get the likes of Rahm, Scheffler, Cantlay and Finau beaten at the top of the order but try to do that is exactly what we’re going to do.

I’ve picked three players in the top middle of the betting and one slightly longer to get stuck into.

 2.5u Cameron Young – each way (1/5 8 places) – 18/1

We start with Cameron Young, who had a superb 2022, winning the PGA Tour Rookie of the Year, after four runners up and two third places – two of those in Major Championships.

The 25-year-old has carried that form into 2023, with four straight made cuts to start the season, including another third place at the Hero World Challenge.

Young looked primed to break his PGA duck here last year, with three superb rounds to leave him T5th and three shots off the lead after 54 holes. A final round 77 saw off his challenge to finish T40th.

I really fancy his chances to right that wrong here this season.

2u Brian Harman – each way (1/5 8 places) – 28/1

Next up, we have a Amex specialist in Brian Harman.

The lefty has played this tournament every year since 2016 and has only missed the cut once. Other than that outlier, he has finished T3, T8, T21, T20, T3 and T11. A phenomenal record.

The 35-year-old has also started the 2023 season in fine fettle, with six straight made cuts and a couple of runner up performances at the WWT Championship and the RSM Classic.

Harman looks primed to pick up his first win since the 2017 Wells Fargo Championship.

1.5u Tom Hoge – each way (1/5 8 places) – 33/1

Another man looking likely to pick up another win is TCU’s Tom Hoge.

The 33-year-old flew back home between the Hawaiian tournaments to see his beloved Horned Frogs get demolished by Georgia in the NCAA National Championships but still managed a respectable T41 at Waialae.

That means Hoge has made six of eight cuts with five T15’s along the way in 2023 and he has a good record here, finishing runner up last year as well as T6th in 2020.

1u Wyndham Clark – each way (1/5 8 places) – 70/1

My last selection is yet another American, Wyndham Clark.

The 29-year-old is still waiting to pick up his maiden PGA Tour victory but hes come close in the past, notably when losing in a playoff at the 2020 Bermuda Championship.

Clark is 5 of 7 this year with three Top 20’s and has a solid record at the Amex.

He’s missed the cut just once in four attempts and has two Top 20’s here.

2023 PGA Tour stats: 

Staked: 24.5u

Returns: 33.75u

P/L: +9.25u

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