The 2025 American Express is set to take place from January 16 to 19 in La Quinta, California. This prestigious event will be played across three courses: the Pete Dye Stadium Course and Nicklaus Tournament Course at PGA WEST, along with the historic La Quinta Country Club. The tournament will feature a 156-player field, with professionals and amateurs playing each course over the first three rounds, followed by a 54-hole cut leading to an additional final round at the Stadium Course.
This year’s tournament is the first PGA Tour event on the USA mainland for 2025, and attracted a relatively strong field. Unfortunately, World No. 2 Xander Schauffele and top-ranked Scottie Scheffler have withdrawn from the event due to health issues, leaving Wyndham Clark, Sungjae Im, and Justin Thomas as the highest-ranked players in the field. Joining them is defending champion Nick Dunlap, who made history last year as the first amateur in 33 years to win a PGA TOUR event.
The 2025 American Express will be contested across three courses in La Quinta, California: the Pete Dye Stadium Course and the Nicklaus Tournament Course at PGA WEST, along with La Quinta Country Club.
Pete Dye Stadium Course
Renowned for its challenging design, the Stadium Course underwent significant renovations in 2024 to restore its original 1986 layout by architect Pete Dye. The greens have been expanded to their initial dimensions, allowing for a wider variety of pin placements, and the bunkers have been restructured with flat bottoms to enhance their strategic impact. These updates aim to increase the course’s difficulty, potentially leading to higher scoring averages. Notable holes include the par-5 16th, featuring a 20-foot-deep greenside bunker, and the iconic par-3 17th, known as “Alcatraz,” with its island green.
Nicklaus Tournament Course
Designed by Jack Nicklaus, this course combines visual intimidation with playability, featuring deep bunkers, water hazards, and undulating mounds. It played to a scoring average of 68.08 in 2024, indicating its relatively player-friendly nature. Key challenges include the par-5 15th with its island green and the demanding par-4 9th and 18th holes, which share a double green complex.
La Quinta Country Club
Established in 1959, La Quinta Country Club is a traditional course characterized by tight fairways, mature trees, and strategically placed bunkers. Despite its shorter length by modern standards, it yielded the lowest scoring average among the three courses in 2024, at 67.903. The course offers scoring opportunities, particularly on the back-to-back par-5s at the 5th and 6th holes, measuring 516 and 527 yards, respectively.
Overall, these three courses offer some of the easiest scoring on the PGA Tour. It is not uncommon for the event to be won by a score between -25 to -30. Key statistics this week are: SG: Putt, SG: APP 50-125 yards, and SG: ATG. If you are looking for similar golf courses TPC Summerlin, TPC Craig Ranch, TPC Deere Run, and prior course form here can be a good guide for either desert golf and low-scoring facilities.
Here are Win Daily Sports Experts’ picks for this week’s tournament:
.  David Bieleski |  Spencer Aguiar |  Steven Polardi | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Outright Winner | All E/W, check Golf Bets channel in WinDaily Premium Discord for staking plan and odds Burns Zalatoris B Griffin Hoey J Svensson Whaley Mouw | Justin Thomas | Harry Hall |
| Top Finishes Markets | Top 20 Zalatoris B Griffin Hoey J Svensson Whaley Mouw Top 40 Hoey J Svensson Whaley Mouw | Patton Kizzire +700 T20 | Hall Meissner Highsmith Schmid Echavarria |
| Match-Ups | Kitayama over Greyserman (-110 BetMGM) | Kitayama -110 over Greyserman (BetMGM) Cam Davis -115 over Nick Taylor (FanDuel) | Hall Over C Young Dunlap Over Kitayama |
| First-Round Leader | None due course rotation | Greyserman | |
| DFS Plays I ❤️ | Cantlay Finau Clark Zalatoris Cam Davis J Svensson Cauley Smalley Whaley Mouw | Clark Kitayama Finau | Hall Dunlap Meissner Echavarria Bridgeman |
| DFS Chalk I'm playing | Sungjae Burns Hall B Griffin Poston Hadwin Straka Bezuidenhout Hoey Schmid | Thomas | Greyserman |
| DFS Chalk I'm fading | Greyserman Kitayama Hoge Meissner Mitchell Glover Suber Capan III Carson Young | Greyserman | JThomas |
| Last Updated | 45692.315006076 |
