J.T. Poston goes 10-under to take narrow lead

The American Express R1

J.T. Poston carded a 10-under 62 featuring an eagle at the par-5 7 and nine birdies as well as a bogey at the par-4 1st at the Nicklaus Tournament Course to take a one-shot lead at The American Express, one stroke shy of his career-low round of 61.

“It was just one of those days where everything was sort of clicking,” said Poston. “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.

“I don’t want to say I didn’t make anything on front, but I just knew I was hitting my irons good, and I knew that I was going to have plenty of chances coming in. Definitely had some bonus ones there, and stole a few, making a long eagle putt on 7 that you’re not really expecting to make. Then 8 hitting it as close as I did is kind of a bonus, making 2 there. So I just told myself after the bogey I was going to just keep plodding along and try and give myself as many looks as I could.”

Fellow American Justin Lower closed with a bogey-free 63 at La Quinta Country Club, equaling his low round on the PGA Tour and became the first player to record back-to-back eagles in the 2025 season, at the par-5s 5th and 6th. Five players achieved the feat in the 2024 season.

“There’s a couple holes you have to be careful of, for sure. Pretty benign conditions, very little wind, and probably the softest of the three courses green-wise, so you can be pretty aggressive into the greens. You just had to be a little wary about how far the ball was going in the morning. Eventually it warned up, so started going normal distance eventually,” said Lower.

“We had back-to-back par-5s,” he said of his eagles, “hit two really good tee shots, had basically the same yardage on each hole. No. 5 I hit it to about three feet, which was perfect 5-iron.

“Then hit a perfect 5-iron on the next hole as well and hit it to about 20 feet, luckily made the putt.”

Germany’s Matti Schmid closed with a bogey-free 64 at the Nicklaus Tournament Course to take a share of third place at 8-under alongside Australia’s Jason Day, who matched his tournament low-round score at La Quinta.

Also tied in third place are Americans Chris Kirk and J.J. Spaun at La Quinta who both stayed bogey-free while Kirk also made two eagles at the par-5s 11th and 5th.

Defending champion Nick Dunlap who made history last year becoming the first amateur to win on the PGA Tour in 33 years, sits at T28 after recording a 67 at La Quinta Country Club.

Pos.PlayerTo ParR1
1J.T. Poston(NT)-1062
2Justin Lower(LQ)-963
T3Chris Kirk(LQ)-864
T3J.J. Spaun(LQ)-864
T3Matti Schmid(NT)-864
T3Joel Dahmen(NT)-864
T3Jason Day(LQ)-864
T8Michael Thorbjornsen(LQ)-765
T8Carson Young(SC)-765
T8Nick Taylor(SC)-765
T8Jackson Suber(SC)-765
T8Sepp Straka(NT)-765
T8Mark Hubbard(NT)-765
T8Charley Hoffman(LQ)-765
T8Harry Higgs(NT)-765
T8Rico Hoey(LQ)-765
T8Alejandro Tosti(NT)-765
T18Will Zalatoris(LQ)-666
T18Ryan Palmer(LQ)-666
T18Harry Hall(NT)-666
T18Ben Griffin(NT)-666
T18Ben Martin(NT)-666
T18Billy Horschel(LQ)-666
T18Keith Mitchell(LQ)-666
T18Beau Hossler(NT)-666
T18Quade Cummins(LQ)-666
T18Lee Hodges(NT)-666
T28Nick Dunlap(LQ)-567
T28Sam Ryder(LQ)-567
T28Justin Thomas(LQ)-567
T28Ryo Hisatsune(NT)-567
T28Chris Gotterup(NT)-567
T28Ryan Gerard(NT)-567
T28John Pak(LQ)-567
T28Trevor Cone(NT)-567
T28Rikuya Hoshino(LQ)-567
T28David Skinns(NT)-567
T28Sami Valimaki(NT)-567
T28Henrik Norlander(NT)-567
T28Antoine Rozner(NT)-567
T28Chad Ramey(NT)-567
T28Michael Kim(NT)-567
T28Taylor Moore(NT)-567
T28Francesco Molinari(NT)-567
T28Isaiah Salinda(LQ)-567
T46Patrick Cantlay(LQ)-468
T46Brandt Snedeker(LQ)-468
T46Si Woo Kim(LQ)-468
T46Rafael Campos(LQ)-468
T46Jeremy Paul(LQ)-468
T46Brian Harman(NT)-468
T46Sam Burns(LQ)-468
T46William Mouw(NT)-468
T46Daniel Berger(NT)-468
T46Danny Walker(NT)-468
T46Matthew Riedel(NT)-468
T46Matteo Manassero(LQ)-468
T46Eric Cole(LQ)-468
T46Doug Ghim(LQ)-468
T46Trey Mullinax(SC)-468
T46Chesson Hadley(NT)-468
T46Alex Smalley(SC)-468
T46Jesper Svensson(SC)-468
T46Vincent Norrman(SC)-468
T65Max Greyserman(LQ)-369
T65Brice Garnett(NT)-369
T65Davis Thompson(LQ)-369
T65Zach Johnson(LQ)-369
T65Cameron Young(NT)-369
T65Tony Finau(LQ)-369
T65Kevin Yu(SC)-369
T65Adam Hadwin(LQ)-369
T65Cam Davis(SC)-369
T65Frankie Capan III(NT)-369
T65Victor Perez(NT)-369
T65Kurt Kitayama(LQ)-369
T65Will Gordon(NT)-369
T65Greyson Sigg(LQ)-369
T65Noah Goodwin(LQ)-369
T65Tom Hoge(NT)-369
T65Nico Echavarria(LQ)-369
T65Rickie Fowler(LQ)-369
T83Hayden Buckley(NT)-270
T83Tim Widing(LQ)-270
T83Ben Kohles(LQ)-270
T83Vince Whaley(LQ)-270
T83Harris English(SC)-270
T83Matt McCarty(SC)-270
T83Kaito Onishi(LQ)-270
T83Kevin Streelman(LQ)-270
T83Jacob Bridgeman(SC)-270
T83Max McGreevy(NT)-270
T83Chandler Phillips(NT)-270
T83Jason Dufner(NT)-270
T83K.H. Lee(NT)-270
T83Mackenzie Hughes(SC)-270
T83Norman Xiong(NT)-270
T83Brian Campbell(NT)-270
T99Braden Thornberry(LQ)-171
T99Bronson Burgoon(SC)-171
T99Nate Lashley(NT)-171
T99Kevin Kisner(LQ)-171
T99Jhonattan Vegas(NT)-171
T99Lanto Griffin(SC)-171
T99Adam Svensson(NT)-171
T99Aldrich Potgieter(LQ)-171
T99Kevin Roy(SC)-171
T99Matt Kuchar(SC)-171
T99Taylor Dickson(LQ)-171
T99Chez Reavie(SC)-171
T99Danny Willett(NT)-171
T99Mac Meissner(NT)-171
T99Wyndham Clark(LQ)-171
T99Peter Malnati(LQ)-171
T99Erik van Rooyen(SC)-171
T116Mason Andersen(SC)Par72
T116Sam Stevens(SC)Par72
T116Patrick Fishburn(LQ)Par72
T116Luke List(SC)Par72
T116Ricky Castillo(SC)Par72
T116David Lipsky(NT)Par72
T116Taylor Montgomery(SC)Par72
T116Patton Kizzire(SC)Par72
T116Takumi Kanaya(SC)Par72
T116Patrick Rodgers(SC)Par72
T116Kris Ventura(SC)Par72
T116Camilo Villegas(LQ)Par72
T116Ben Silverman(SC)Par72
T116Blades Brown(LQ)Par72
T130Andrew Putnam(SC)+173
T130Anders Albertson(SC)+173
T130Steven Fisk(NT)+173
T130Nick Hardy(SC)+173
T130Bill Haas(SC)+173
T130Tom Kim(SC)+173
T130Jake Knapp(NT)+173
T130Lucas Glover(SC)+173
T130Zac Blair(SC)+173
T139Aaron Baddeley(SC)+274
T139Christiaan Bezuidenhout(SC)+274
T141Will Chandler(SC)+375
T141Andrew Novak(LQ)+375
T141Joe Highsmith(SC)+375
T141Chan Kim(SC)+375
T141Wesley Bryan(SC)+375
T141Cristobal Del Solar(NT)+375
T147Brendon Todd(SC)+476
T147Emiliano Grillo(SC)+476
T147Paul Peterson(SC)+476
T147Kevin Velo(SC)+476
T147Kyle Mendoza(SC)+476
T152Thomas Rosenmueller(SC)+577
T152Sungjae Im(SC)+577
154Philip Knowles(SC)+678
155Davis Riley(SC)+880
W/DAdam Schenk-74
Updated: January 17, 2025
The American Express 2025
Date: 16th January - 19th January, 2025
Location: La Quinta CC(LQ)/Pete Dye Stadium Course (SC)/Nicklaus Tournament Course (NT)
Purse: $8,800,000