Welcome to the West Coast swing!
5 tournaments in 5 weeks at some of America’s most iconic courses.
But first…. a lotta bit of an appetizer with the American Express.
Yes that’s the name.
No “Open”.
No “Classic”.
No “Invitational”.
For the rest of this tournament I’ll simply be calling it the AmEx.
We’ve got a shockingly stacked field for this one.
Speaking of Pebble… this is also a pro-am much like the Clambake.
It’s just a lot more corporate and a little less celebrity.
Ok, a lot less celebrity.
You’re not gonna see Larry the Cable Guy and Ray Romano hacking it out here.
All 3 courses are at PGA West - The Stadium Course, The Nicklaus Course, and La Quinta.
Top 65 and ties advance to Sunday, which is played at the Stadium Course.
Hudson Swafford won here last year with a final round 64.
It was his only Top 10 in the 27 events he played worldwide before joining LIV Golf in June.
It’s also worth noting that for a short period, this was Phil Mickelson’s tournament.
Needless to say that bridge has been burned.
Alright, enough about two guys who aren’t even here this week.
Last year’s leaderboard and recent winners of the AmEx.
All are par 72’s and all are right around a mild 7,100ish yards.
The Stadium course presents a little more of a challenge, albeit not much of one.
At least not these days anyway.
It took until 2016 for the tournament to return to the course.
Even Corey Pavin, who won the tournament, said it was too severe.
Beman said he had not heard of any such petition yet.
‘‘I will react to it when I see it,’’ he said.
‘‘Until then I have no comment.
But that’s very interesting.’’
‘‘The Policy Board decided that we play there,’’ Maltbie said.
‘‘Yes, I voted to play there.
We owed it to ourselves and everyone to try it.
We did and we saw and nobody likes it.
With that in mind the thing is that not to make a change now that would be stupid.’’
Many changes were made to fairways, greens and hazards at the Ponte Vedra T.P.C.
after it was first used for the Tournament Players Championship in 1982.
‘‘I just don’t think it’s good for the tournament.
‘‘I think Deane Beman understands.
When the players are that unanimous in their dislike of a golf course he has to listen to them.
There are too many good golf minds out here.
I haven’t seen this much unanimity among players about anything before.’’
There are far too many undulations in fairways.
I think bunkers on many holes are far too penalizing, certainly for the length of the holes.
The sheer walls of bunkers are too steep and water running adjacent to fairways hole after hole is bad.
You might as well have out of bounds one foot off every one of those fairways.’’
If you didn’t read the excerpt above, the course is riddled with hazards.
There are over 90 bunkers, many of them incredibly steep.
I mean look at this monstrosity.
You’ll also find water hazards lining 7 holes.
Pete Dye loves his island greens.
Duf Daddy’s par save here in 2016 was a big part of his win that year.
So yeah… weather checks out, although it is about 10 degrees cooler than last year’s weather.
We’re also getting a full blast of ESPN+ this week now that we’re on the mainland again.
I’ll have a go at update featured groups here when those are released.
Which is probably about what this tournament’s trophy should be.
Not too flashy, but the glass (crystal?
is it crystal?)
makes for a nice piece on the mantle.
What do you want me to say, I’m trying here.
It’s a 5/10.
The Board
Clear cut favorite here this week is Jon Rahm at +550 at theBarstool Sportsbook.
Rahm has finished T-6, W, T-34 in his other 3 starts in the AmEx.
As an LA area native,Patrick Cantlayalso plays this event every year andhe’s my pick at +1000.
He’s finished T-9, solo 2nd, and T-9 in his 3 starts here.
Might as well start now.
If Cantlay wins outright, it’s a beautiful doubledip.
Should’ve bet it backwards too, but had to settle for Tom Kim +2200 outright.
Early frontrunner for rookie of the year.
7 Top 15’s in 8 starts.
Cameron Young To Win +2200- We’re in full on FOMO mode on Cam Young here.
Now’s the time to ride or die with Cam Young.
Just gotta close your eyes and smash that bet button (responsibly).
That’s what I got this week.
