The American Express third-round preview, best bets, free golf betting tips

Golf tips, best bets and player analysis for third round of The American Express on the PGA Tour.

Where to watch

Sky Sports Golf, 8pm Saturday

Best bets

Jason Day to win the American Express
2pts each-way 16-1 general

Sam Burns to win the American Express
1pt each-way 50-1 general

Adam Hadwin to win 5.58pm twoball
2pts 6-5 Betfair, Paddy Power

Story so far

Former amateur world number one Davis Thompson leads the way after the first 36 holes of the American Express but the Alabama native will be all too aware that red-hot Jon Rahm is lurking in behind in California.

Thompson, a 300-1 chance pre-tournament, opened up with a 62 at La Quinta on Thursday and followed up with a 64 at the Nicklaus Tournament Course on Friday to move to 18 under for the event.

Rahm is two shots adrift following back-to-back 64s and both will play their third round at PGA West's Stadium Course - the third course in the Amex rotation which is also the scene of the final round.

Thompson is now 4-1 to win a maiden PGA Tour title with Rahm just 6-5 to bag a fourth title in his last six starts having also claimed victory at the Spanish Open, the DP World Tour Championship and the Tournament of Champions in recent months.

Leaderboard
-18 Davis Thompson
-16 Jon Rahm
-13 Tom Kim, JT Poston, Sungjae Im, Jason Day, Tyler Duncan
-12 Patton Kizzire
-11 Xander Schauffele, Scott Piercy, Justin Rose, Scottie Scheffler, Taylor Montgomery
-10 Kevin Tway, Andrew Landry, Patrick Cantlay, Beau Hossler, Si Woo Kim, Sam Burns, Robby Shelton

Best prices
6-5 J Rahm, 4 D Thompson, 10 S Im, 12 T Kim, 16 J Day, S Scheffler, 20 JT Poston, 33 P Cantlay, X Schauffele, T Montgomery, 50 bar.

Third-round preview

While Korn Ferry Tour graduate Thompson is two shots clear, there is no doubt that Rahm is the one to beat heading into the final 36 holes in California.

The Spaniard won this event in 2018 and has rediscovered his mojo in spectacular fashion in recent months, but he's faced with the most difficult of the three courses on Saturday, which is also the case for Thompson.

Because this pro-am takes place across three courses over the first three days, Thompson will not have to play alongside Rahm, which could benefit the maiden. However, the Stadium Course played a shot tougher than the other two courses on Friday and that could quickly bring the rest of the field into play.

Take on the top two in the market with Jason Day, who is five back, and Sam Burns, who is eight adrift but a big price as a result.

Day opened with a 67 at the NTC then followed up with a brilliant
bogey-free 64 at the Stadium Course, where he led the way in strokes-gained approach and ranked eighth in putting.

The former world number one, who tackles La Quinta, is a two-time California winner and he could quickly make inroads if he resumes in the same form.

Burns, meanwhile, shot 64 at the Stadium on Thursday and would have been a little disappointed with a Friday 70 at La Quinta, but a third-round outing at the Nicklaus offers him a chance to recover.

The Louisiana man is a four-time PGA Tour winner who was sixth in this tournament in 2020. He is a top-class putter capable of going super-low in round three.

Third-round threeball punters are pointed towards course specialist Adam Hadwin, who looks a value outsider against fellow Canadian Taylor Pendrith at 5.58pm UK & Ireland time.

Hadwin has enjoyed four top-six finishes in this event and while he's off the pace in 46th through 36 holes, he has averaged 68.4 in his last ten rounds at the Stadium Course while Pendrith fired 72 on tournament debut last season.

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