HP 🍑 for the American Express 2024

First Look: Stadium Course @ PGA West, La Quinta, CA

Check out DB’s full Course Breakdown for everything you need to know about this week’s venue including in-depth stats and data from Bet The Number.

And just like that, we’re onto the California Swing®. The PGA TOUR heads to the desert for the American Express after a thrilling opening stretch in Hawaii capped off by a playoff victory from everyone’s favorite mule… Grayson Murray. An unusually strong field has committed to this week’s event as 22 of the world’s top 50 including No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffele and others will tee it up across the three different courses that make up the host venues for the ‘Amex’. That’s right, we’ll see three different 18s this week, so be sure to check out DB’s Course Preview for some intel on each and how they compare. Let’s get into it!

Welcome to the Show:
Get to Know the 2024 PGA Tour Rookies

Thanks to recent eligibility changes from the PGA Tour, 45 newly minted Tour Cards were handed out ahead of the 2024 season. Each week, we’ll spotlight a few up-and-comers whose names will be important to know as the year progresses.

• Joe Highsmith - Lakewood, WA

  The former Pepperdine standout finished his first full season as a pro with a flourish last fall. He secured his TOUR Card via the Korn Ferry Tour points list after posting top-5 finishes in his final two events highlighted by a T-3 in the KFT Championship. Highsmith has an all-around solid game that starts with above-average accuracy off the tee. The 23-year-old ranked 3rd in Total Driving on the KFT last season, and with an average of 311 yards off the tee, he’s got the length required to compete on the biggest stages on the PGA TOUR.

• Tom Whitney - South Lake Tahoe, CA

  One of the coolest stories among the 2023 class of rookies (and one you'll certainly hear about on the broadcast this week) is 34-year-old Tom Whitney. After a collegiate playing career at the Air Force Academy, Whitney fulfilled his service requirement with a four-year term in the Air Force as a nuclear missile operator! With a job like that, I think it’s safe to say he has the steady hands required by a tour pro… He’s from the La Quinta area, so expect a large local following for him this week on home turf. What he lacks in power off the tee, (no. 102 on KFT in Driving Distance) he makes up for in accuracy (top 30 in Driving Accuracy and GIR%).

• Jimmy Stanger - Tampa, FL

  The 28-year-old finally earned his breakthrough to the big leagues in 2023 after five consecutive seasons on the KFT. The former Virginia Cavalier had plenty of ups and downs last season but made the most of an in-form stretch last summer racking up nine top-25 finishes including a win in Oklahoma. An above-average driver and putter of the ball, Stanger has a well-rounded game despite slightly below-average approach play. He ranked 5th in Total Driving and 20th in Putting Average, while finishing 35th in GIR %.

1. SG: Off the Tee Leaders last 30 rounds: 1. Pereda  2. Scheffler  3. Semikawa  4. Yu 5. Duncan  6. Jaeger 7. Cantlay  8. Vegas  9. Tosti 10. Champ

2. SG: Approach Leaders last 30 rounds: 1. Scheffler  2. Ryder 3. Reavie 4. Smalley  5. Schauffele  6. Poston  7. Cole  8. Moore  9. Cantlay 10. Thomas

3. SG: ARG Leaders last 30 rounds:  1. Springer 2. Knapp  3. Baddeley  4. Merritt  5. Long  6. Bridgeman  7. Silverman 8. Kim, S.H.  9. Scheffler 10. Crowe

4. SG: Putting on Overseeded Greens Leaders last 30 rounds:  1. Lee, M.W.  2. Montgomery  3. Ryder  4. Kuchar  5. Echavarria  6. Noren  7. Suh  8. Burns  9. Griffin, Ben 10. Novak

5. SG: APP from 80-150 in Fairway last 30 rounds: 1. Greyserman  2. Taylor  3. Moore  4. Cole  5. Hossler  6. Ryder 7. Lindhelm  8. Putnam  9. Hadwin  10. Blair

6. Leaders in SG: Putting from 6’-15’: 1. Furr  2. Poston  3. Semikawa  4. Montgomery  5. Hadley  6. Higgo  7. McNealy 8. Moore  9. Pavon 10. Pereda

7. SG: APP from 175-250 last 30 rounds: 1. Hoey  2. Reavie  3. Hisatsune  4. Jaeger  5. Lipsky  6. Champ 7. NeSmith 8. Hoffman  9. van Rooyen  10. Dahmen

8. SG: Total (Per Rd vs Field) at PGA West last 30 rounds: 1. Schmid  2. Higgo  3. Schauffele  4. Yu  5. Endycott  6. Montgomery  7. Burns  8. Kim, S.W.  9. Cantlay 10. Smalley

9. Leaders in Birdie-or-Better Percentage last 30 rounds: 1. Cole  2. Poston  3. Bhatia  4. Scheffler  5. Suh  6. van Rooyen  7. Schauffele  8. Cantlay  9. Pereda  10. Ryder

10. Top 10 in Data Golf Positive Course History vs. Expectation: 1. Schmid 2. Higgo 3. Endycott  4. Young, Carson  5. Yu  6. Burns  7. Kim, S.W.  8. Montgomery  9. Griffin, Lanto 10. Hadwin

We’re thrilled that Underdog chose to launch Season Long PGA TOUR Best Ball Drafts starting on 2/8 with the Waste Management and ending at The Open. There’s plenty of strategy involved in drafting your 10-man teams, but the beauty of Best Ball is the joy of drafting and then sitting back and enjoying the sweat for 22 weeks!

DB will be doing LIVE drafts regularly between now and the contest starting on 2/8. Plus, we’ve got a dedicated thread in the DISCORD talking about strategy and rankings. Check out DB’s 1st draft to see how it works, and click the banner above to get a 100% deposit match on your first $100 deposited.