THE AMEX Loaded …What We Imagined

The most loaded American Express in several years got off to the start we all imagined it would be; with three top 10 players currently inside the top seven on the leaderboard, including Sam Burns, who currently sits second behind Davis Thompson who shot an astounding 62 on Thursday.

The Leader

Thompson jumped out to an early two-stroke lead over this great field and whether it’s possible he can sustain it over the next three days.

T1. Davis Thompson (-10): The former Georgia star went out in 28 with visions of 59 dancing, but he came home with a 34 to shoot 62 and take over the lead. Thompson is a good young player who won last year on the Korn Ferry Tour and had a pair of top-12 finishes on the PGA Tour in the fall.

“Yeah, that was kind of like my biggest challenge today was staying present minded and trying to put one foot in front of the other,” said Thompson of trying to not think about shooting 59. “Your mind definitely starts to wander a little bit. But I played enough rounds to where I try to teach myself over and over you can’t get ahead of yourself”

Because this tournament is played on three different courses, it’s worth looking at course averages for each one during Round

Here they are:

• Stadium Course — 69.5
• La Quinta — 69.3
• Nicklaus — 69.0

These are all par 72s so there’s not going to be a ton of discrepancy in the scores to par after Round 1. Maybe a bit more surprisingly, the three tracks were separated by just half a stroke so the leaderboard on Thursday is more or less a true leaderboard.

Other contenders

T2. Sam Burns, Matthias Schmid, Taylor Montgomery, Jon Rahm, Tyler Duncan (-8)

Jon Rahm and Xander Schauffele are among the other top stars in the hunt after 18 holes at La Quinta, CA.

T7. Xander Schauffele, Harrison Endycott, Erik Van Rooyen, Denny McCarthy, Dean Burmester, Eric Cole, J.T. Poston, Michael Block, Sungjae Im (-7)

Schauffle is going to be fascinating the rest of the week. He withdrew from the Tournament of Champions to start the year with a bad back but played brilliantly on Thursday with just one bogey in a 7-under 65.

Rahm, on the other hand, is looking for his second consecutive win. I don’t know if he’s going to win this week, but if he does then we could be in for the six-win Rahm season.

2023 American Express updated odds and picks

• Jon Rahm: 12/5
• Taylor Montgomery: 9-1
• Sam Burns: 9-1
• Davis Thompson: 16-1
• Sungjae Im: 18-1
• Xander Schauffele: 11-1
• Scottie Scheffler: 18-1
• Patrick Cantlay: 22-1