One week after claiming his fifth career PGA Tour victory, Nick Taylor is at again. Playing on the most difficult golf course among the three-course rotation at the 2025 American Express, the Canadian came to life in the California desert carding a 7-under 65. Taylor’s total puts him three strokes off the lead held by J.T. Poston at 10 under, which was shot at the Nicklaus Tournament Course.

“It’s big,” Taylor said. “Stadium is probably the most difficult of the three, so it’s nice to get off to a great start. I managed my rest pretty well the last couple days. I only saw five or six holes at the Stadium, maybe nine at Nicklaus. I haven’t seen La Quinta, but I’ve about been there plenty, so I was not concerned about seeing the course, it was kind of getting some rest, so I did that well.”

While Taylor’s score may not put him in first place through 18 holes, his strokes-gained data does. Taylor’s 65 on the Stadium Course was almost eight strokes better than the field average in Round 1 as the golf course played a hair over par. Meanwhile, La Quinta Country Club and the Nicklaus Tournament Course — where most players on the first page of the leaderboard teed it up on Thursday — both played to an average of almost 4 under.

All golfers will rotate across the three courses through the first 54 holes with the cut coming afterward leading to an 18-hole sprint to finish at the Stadium Course on Sunday.

Although Taylor has turned into a prolific winners (and closer) over the last three years — tallying three victories since the start of the 2022-23 season — the consistency in his game has been missing. His win at last week’s Sony Open represented his first top-10 finish since his last trip to the winner’s circle at the 2024 WM Phoenix. 

Through 18 holes at the American Express, Taylor looks keen on making sure such a gap between quality outings will be no such thing this time around. With the two easier golf courses out in front him, he has plenty of runway to work with and plenty of confidence to go with it.

“I worked a decent amount with the mental game in the off-season,” Taylor said. “Just being aware of the thoughts going through your mind, trying to be in the present moment, just putting the time in for that. Scored really well today; that’s something I feel like you do when you win, so to be able to ride that into this week and continue that, that’s kind of the name of the game, especially at this golf course and this tournament. The scores today, they’re very low, so [I] played smart, capitalized with the putts.”

The leader

1. J.T. Poston (-10): The last time Poston played in the desert, he ended the week raising his third career trophy on the PGA Tour. Only two starts removed from his victory at the Shriners Children’s Open, the smooth-swinging right hander is at it again. Despite missing some birdie looks inside 10 feet and despite making bogey on his 10th hole, Poston still posted 10 under. He played his last eight holes in 7 under to claim the outright lead.

“It was just one of those days where everything was sort of clicking,” Poston said. “I really hit my irons great, drove it good, gave myself plenty of chances, and yeah, believe it or not missed a few putts inside of 10 feet the first nine holes. Just one of those days tee to green it was really good and iron play was really sharp.”

Other contenders

2. Justin Lower (-9)
T3. Jason Day, Chris Kirk, Matthias Schmid, J.J. Spaun, Joel Dahmen (-8)
T8. Nick Taylor, Sepp Straka, Mark Hubbard, Michael Thorbjornsen, Carson Young, Rico Hoey, Charley Hoffman, Harry Higgs, Alejandro Tosti (-7)

Dahmen has become the poster boy of late-season heroics in order to maintain his PGA Tour card in recent seasons, and that will only be exaggerated in 2025. With the tour cutting full-time cards from 125 to 100 this past offseason, Dahmen hopes a faster start can bring a sense of relief come the end of the year. 

In 2024, the one-time PGA Tour winner grabbed just one top-10 finish and finished narrowly inside the top-125 cutoff. While it may not seem like much just the third week of the season, Dahmen’s play on Thursday — and subsequently these next 54 holes — could set the table for the rest of his year, and maybe, the rest of his career.

“It took a while to kind of process that weekend for me probably at RSM, but I definitely tapped into something that I’ve been trying to tap into for a while,” Dahmen said. “Working with a performance coach, and you’re doing all of these things to get better golf, and sometimes it takes a long time for it to click. For it to click — especially that Sunday, for me, was really special. Just trying to tap into that more often. 

“It’s really hard to kind of go into that head space where you just have to get it done and you’re super focused on what you’re doing at hand. It’s always been a struggle of mine to maybe stay on task for all 18 holes, and I’m trying to do that more because obviously when I do that I’m pretty good at golf.”

A first for Finland

Not only did Sami Valimaki make the first hole-in-one of his professional career on Thursday, he made the first hole-in-one from anyone hailing from Finland on the PGA Tour. Playing on the Nicklaus Tournament Course, the PGA Tour sophomore began his day in ideal fashion with a birdie on his second hole, but things got even better when he stepped to the tee on the par-3 12th. Wielding an 8 iron, Valimaki flew his ball just short of the pin and watched it trickle to the bottom of the cup.

“It was good start,” Valimaki said. “I hit a couple good shots before that, and then the number was just perfect. Four paces before the pin, come down, and it came there and just released nicely to the hole.”

2025 American Express updated odds, picks

• J.T. Poston: 15/2
• Nick Taylor: 9-1
• Carson Young: 16-1
• Jason Day: 18-1
• J.J. Spaun: 18-1
• Justin Lower: 20-1
• Jackson Suber: 20-1
• Justin Thoms: 20-1

Straka was a name we liked at the beginning of the week, and he did nothing on Thursday to make us turn away now. The big Austrian fired a round of 7 under on the Nicklaus Tournament Course, and he did so without dropping a shot. Straka sits at 30-1 and should be up to the challenge when he steps onto the Stadium Course.