While plenty of golfers are heading to the United Arab Emirates this week to contest the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship on the DP World Tour, the real action occurs in the desert this week.
Three of the men’s top five golfers in the world will feature in a star-studded field to contest the American Express in La Quinta, California. With a history dating back to 1960, the Desert Classic (now known as the American Express for sponsorship reasons) makes up a key part of the PGA Tour’s West Coast swing in the early 2023 season.
Hudson Swafford won’t be back to defend his title after switching to LIV Golf, meaning a new winner will be crowned in 2023. Jon Rahm, Scottie Scheffler and Patrick Cantlay will all have their eyes on the prize with bookmaker William Hill bringing all the best odds ahead of the first ball on Thursday.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: January 18th, 9:30 A.M. (GMT)
Given that three of the PGA Tour’s top five golfers are playing in the American Express 2023 field, it’s no surprise that these men also top the odds at bookmaker William Hill. Jon Rahm is the favourite with odds of 6.50 for the Spaniard to claim his 18th professional win. Rahm sits well clear of the next two in the betting odds, which are Patrick Cantlay and Scottie Scheffler who are the second equal favourites priced at 10.00 to win the title.
World No. 12 Tony Finau is the fourth favourite in the betting odds at William Hill with a return of 13.00. After this, there’s a steep drop off to the fifth favourites, which are Will Zalatoris and Xander Scheffler both at 19.00.
Choosing between Rahm, Cantlay and Scheffler for the win here is a tough call. Rahm is the only one of the three that has won here in the past, claiming the 2018 title by defeating Andrew Landry in a playoff. He’s also the current World No. 4 and comes into this week still on the high of his Sentry Tournament of Champions performance where the 28-year-old overturned a seven shot deficit to defeat Colin Morikawa in the final round.
Patrick Cantlay, on the other hand, will be eager to go one better than his 2021 performance, which saw him lose to Kim Si-woo by one stroke in the final. Cantlay is the World No. 5 currently, having been overtaken by Jon Rahm last week. Add in Scottie Scheffler to the mix, who sits at #2 in the world just behind Rory McIlroy, and any one of these three could easily claim the tournament.
With all that said however, we feel that Jon Rahm is the best bet here at 6.50 as the Spaniard has the caliber to win, plus knows what it’s like to go all the way here in the desert.
