The American Express 2025 Best Bets: Norrman’s Fresh Start
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Craig Edwards
- January 13, 2025
Top Golf Pick: Vincent Norrman To Finish Top 10 (+300) at BetOnline (visit our BetOnline Review)
This week at BMR, our golf expert Craig Edwards brings you his best bets for the American Express 2025. Let’s give it a look before heading to the top-rated sportsbooks.
The American Express 2025
January 16-19, 2025
This week’s format is different from a normal week on the PGA Tour, as 156 players go to post with the cut after 54 holes. That is because it is played on a rotation of three desert tracks, the La Quinta Country Club, the PGA West Nicklaus Course and the PGA West Pete Dye Stadium Course.
After the 54-hole cut, the final 18 holes are played around the PGA West Pete Dye Stadium Course to produce a winner.
PGA West Pete Dye Stadium Course Notes:
- Par 72, 7210 yards.
- A typical Pete Dye risk-reward design with water hazards in play on 50% of the holes.
- The course throughout is Bermuda with Poa Annua overseeding.
La Quinta Country Club Course Notes:
- Par 72, 7060 yards.
- Poa Trivialis greens and a real old-style course that gets overpowered with no trouble off the tee.
PGA West Nicklaus Course Notes:
- Par 72, 7147 yards.
- Easy driving test with the Bermuda grass greens and trickier surrounds, requiring more accuracy on approach shots.
American Express Recent Champions
Can Vincent Do a Norrman Conquest in California?
Last week’s Sony Open was the first full-field event of 2025 on the PGA Tour and there were several eye-catching performances, none more so than the effort from talented young Swede, Vincent Norrman.
Twelve months ago, the golfing world looked at the feet of the twenty-seven-year-old after winning the Barbasol Championship late in his 2023 rookie season. Not only did he win on the PGA Tour, but six weeks later won one of the DP World Tour’s premier events, the Irish Open, which was played at the iconic K-Club.
Therefore, 2024 came as a shock to golf fans around the globe when Norrman struggled badly with his game, managing to make only six cuts all year on the PGA Tour with a best finish of 45th at the Texas Open.
Given that context, last week’s 37th in Hawaii was hugely encouraging for Norrman and it is worth considering that there is a small correlation with the Barbasol Championship, because this week’s reigning champion, Nick Dunlap, won both last year. Add into the mix that Norrman played very respectably here in his rookie season with his first-ever cut made on the PGA Tour. Norrman’s confidence this week will be the highest it has been for a long time.
We suggest a small stake bet on huge longshot Vincent Norrman this week.
Golf Pick: Vincent Norrman To Win Outright (+3000) at Bovada (visit our Bovada Review)
Golf Pick: Vincent Norrman To Finish Top 10 (+300) at BetOnline
Back Desert Rat Montgomery To Take Props
The Desert Rats were the nickname for the 7th Armoured Division of the United Kingdom during World War II, a division led by Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery. This week it is the turn of Las Vegas resident and another “Montgomery”, Taylor Montgomery, to excel in the desert.
Readers and followers will remember that last week the twenty-nine-year-old Nevada resident was one of our picks for the Sony Open, and despite not landing the top 20 money, there was enough encouragement in his play to vindicate our bets in equal measure.
Montgomery was 5th on debut at the American Express in 2023, which was not the biggest surprise since he grew up playing this type of desert golf. We suggest taking both the Top 10 and Top 20 place bets.
Golf Pick: Taylor Montgomery To Finish Top 10 (+2000) at BetOnline
Golf Pick: Taylor Montgomery To Finish Top 20 (+1000) at BetOnline
*The line and/or odds on picks in this article might have moved since the content was commissioned. For updated line movements, visit BMR’s free betting odds product.
