How to watch the PGA Tour’s Arnold Palmer Invitational on ESPN+

Even when the narrative of wind coming to the defense of a golf course is promoted into the headline, it’s still relative. Legitimate inclement weather tore the dome off last year’s CareerBuilder Challenge. Early-tournament rain was followed by moderate-to-gusty winds throughout the tournament. Daytime high temperatures settled in the low 60s. Yet, Hudson Swafford still manufactured 20-under 268 en route to his breakthrough victory and runner-up Adam Hadwin spun a 59 at La Quinta Country Club in the third round. This week’s field of 156 may need an additional layer of clothing in the morning, but it won’t be annoyed further. More on the forecast, the three courses in the rotation and other nuggets beneath the ranking. Power Rankings: CareerBuilder Challenge RANK PLAYER COMMENT Concluded 2017 with victory at the DP World Tour Championship and began 2018 with a runner-up finish in his debut at the Sentry TOC. Second appearance at CareerBuilder (T34, 2017). Knock knock! The red-hot lefty has four top fives and a solo eighth in five starts this season. Since 2016 at CareerBuilder, he’s finished a respective T11 and T3, both at 18-under 270. What’s not to love about his form? Atop the FedExCup standings with two wins and another two top 10s. Third appearance at CareerBuilder, so familiarity is another asset. Scored 63-65 on the weekend at Waialae and placed T4 for his fourth top 10 and seventh top 20 since August. Most recent of four top 20s at the CareerBuilder was a T17 in 2016. Bracketed holidays with a T4 at RSM and a T10 at Sony where he co-led with an opening 63. Seeking redemption at CareerBuilder. Sat T8 through 54 holes last year but finished T21. Won here in 2016 and finished T25 in his title defense. Opened 2018 with a T11 at Kapalua and T18 at Waialae, ranking a respective fifth and 18th in strokes gained: putting. Opened and closed a 4-for-4 fall with top 10s. Has seven top 10s since a career-best-matching T3 at last year’s CareerBuilder; placed T14 the year prior. Third on TOUR in strokes gained. The 2014 champ is in his sixth straight appearance; last year’s T12 is his second-best finish. Polished off 2017 with a T10 at DP World, a T5 at the Hero and the birth of his second child. Off since a T15 at the WGC-HSBC Champions in late October. Opened 2017-18 with a T3 at the Safeway. Two-time CareerBuilder champ; T3-T21 here on current rotation. Perfect in six starts this season with three top 10s. T4 at Waialae; led the field in fairways hit and ranked second in strokes gained: putting. Top 10s at CareerBuilder in 2013 and 2014. This event rolls around at a time when the scuffling 35-year-old can really use it. All-time earnings leader here has two wins among eight top 20s, including in each of the last four editions. Settled for a T32 at Waialae despite four red numbers. Launched into this season with a pair of top 20s and a T4. He’s gone T11-T12 at the CareerBuilder since 2016. The 36-year-old continues to glide in a groove. Last week’s T18 was his seventh consecutive top 25 and 12th in his last 16 starts. T17 (2016) and T12 (2017) at CareerBuilder. A 62 on Sunday at Waialae was just one round but it was impeccably timed. Now carries disappointment-fueled motivation of a P2 into CareerBuilder where he’s 3-for-3 with two top 20s. First start as a father after son was born on Dec. 22 and does so in an event where he’s 5-for-5 with a pair of runner-up finishes. Closed out the fall with a T17 at the RSM. Defending champion Hudson Swafford, Kevin Kisner, Austin Cook and Zach Johnson will be among the notables in Tuesday’s Fantasy Insider. For the third straight year, PGA WEST’s Stadium Course, PGA WEST’s Nicklaus Tournament Course and La Quinta CC share duties as hosts of the CareerBuilder Challenge. They comprise the 13th combination of 12 courses used for the tournament since 1987. This is the seventh edition since the 90-hole competition was abandoned. Every golfer in the field pairs with an amateur. Together with another pro-am combo, the foursomes will play each course once until the 54-hole cut of low 70 and ties falls for the professionals. If more than 78 survive, only the low 60 and ties will play the final round held at the Stadium Course. (The leading three low-net and low-gross amateurs also will tee it up in the finale to determine their champion.) In 2016, the cut fell at 9-under 207, but in the more challenging conditions last year, those at 5-under 211 and lower advanced. Going back to the fourth edition of the tournament in 1963, all courses in the rotation have been par 72s. Each of the current trio features the standard four par 3s and four par 5s. La Quinta is the shortest at 7,060 yards, but length doesn’t distinguish one course from another. This tournament is always about piling up scoring opportunities and converting on those chances. However, La Quinta has undergone some enhancements that will toughen its test a bit. Fairway bunkering at the par-4 first and 17th holes have been updated; they should generate pause off both tees. Over four dozen trees planted across the property create new sightlines as targets and the potential for modified shot shapes into greens. And the green at the par-3 15th hole may appear the same to those who are returning, but it was rebuilt entirely since last year. Years ago, La Quinta usually yielded the highest scoring average among the tracks in the rotation, but the Stadium Course has assumed that role and with ease. Tuesday’s Fantasy Insider will examine how scoring has evolved and advise how gamers should adjust. It also will include how the weather here shapes our strategy. After a Chamber of Commerce opening round, a bit of energy will impact play on Friday. Winds will kick up a bit before abating on the weekend, but daytime highs will be stuck in the 60s. ROB BOLTON’S SCHEDULE PGATOUR.COM’s Fantasy Columnist Rob Bolton will be filing his usual staples leading up to this week’s event. Look for the following columns this week. MONDAY: Rookie Ranking, Qualifiers, Reshuffle, Medical Extensions, Power Rankings TUESDAY*: Sleepers, Fantasy Insider, Facebook Live WEDNESDAY: One & Done; Champions One & Done primer * – Rob is a member of the panel for PGATOUR.COM’s Expert Picks for PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf presented by SERVPRO, which also publishes on Tuesdays  

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BLAINE, Minn. – Cameron Champ isn’t scared of the bright lights of final-round contention on the PGA TOUR. The Texas A&M alum has won three times on TOUR, most recently at the 2021 3M Open, a title he’s set to defend this week at TPC Twin Cities. Champ, 27, has other matters at hand as he readies to compete in Minnesota. He stands No. 157 on the FedExCup standings with three events remaining in the regular season, currently on the outside looking in regarding a spot in the FedExCup Playoffs. The top-125 upon the conclusion of the regular season-ending Wyndham Championship will earn Playoffs berths. Champ suffered a wrist injury last fall and has struggled to find contention upon returning to competition in January. He recorded back-to-back top-10 finishes this spring at the Masters Tournament and Mexico Open at Vidanta, but he commences his 3M Open title defense on a string of five consecutive missed cuts. The California native, well regarded as one of the game’s longest hitters, leads the TOUR this season in driving distance and is No. 9 in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee. He ranks No. 181 for the season in Strokes Gained: Putting, as well as No. 115 in greens in regulation, but he believes he is turning a corner, while admitting he would understand those who meet this belief with skepticism. “If you want to look at my stats and how I’ve been playing, you would think I’m crazy,” Champ said. “I’ve had a lot of stuff going on in my personal life mixed in with me breaking my wrist in the fall. That was a whole unknown for quite a while, if it was going to be serious or if it was not serious. Luckily, it wasn’t too serious.” Champ spoke of the challenges of finding the proper work-life balance, investing adequate time in both his relationships and his craft. Feeling good about his personal life allows him to find the proper head space, he said, which in turn allows him to excel on the course. “When things are going good back home, it just calms you down, it makes you not have to stress about things,” Champ said. “You can just enjoy yourself, and out here it just gives me that extra drive and force to just want to continue to get better. The last 10 months were pretty rough for me personally, honestly. I had to get over a lot of things and get through some things, but like I said, now we’re on the up and up and we’re just going to get after it.” He’ll aim to channel that perspective into a late-season push for the Playoffs. Here’s a look at five players outside the top-125 on the FedExCup standings with three events remaining in the Regular Season – after the 3M Open, the TOUR proceeds to next week’s Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit before the Wyndham Championship. Stephan Jaeger currently holds the all-important No. 125 spot with 318 points. Rickie Fowler (No. 129) Starts: 18 Cuts made: 11 Top-25 finishes: 3 Best finish: T3, THE CJ CUP @ SUMMIT FedExCup points: 309 Fowler currently trails the No. 125 position by nine points, the equivalent of a solo 49th place-finish or better. Regardless of whether he qualifies for the Playoffs, the five-time TOUR winner is fully exempt through 2023 via the tournament winner category. He’ll aim to make amends, though, for a streak of 11 consecutive FedExCup Playoffs appearances, which ended last season after finishing No. 134 on the season-long standings. The Oklahoma State alum enters the 3M Open having made five cuts in his last six starts, including a T23 at the PGA Championship. Fowler was seen in a jovial mood early-week, chatting with Wesley Bryan as he practiced bunker shots on a windy Tuesday, and he’ll aim to carry those vibes into competition days at TPC Twin Cities. Martin Trainer (No. 139) Starts: 28 Cuts made: 10 Top-25 finishes: 3 Best finish: T5, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Houston Open FedExCup points: 267 Trainer currently trails the No. 125 position by 51 points, the equivalent of a solo 17th-place finish or better. His three top-25 finishes this season are all T11 or better, demonstrating a propensity for taking advantage of his hot weeks, and he’ll aim to produce that type of week down the final stretch of the regular season. The University of South California alum won the 2019 Puerto Rico Open as a rookie to earn a two-year TOUR exemption, which was extended a year due to COVID-19. Finishing outside the top-125 would require a return to the Korn Ferry Tour Finals (he would maintain some TOUR status regardless as a past champion), and he admitted at the Mexico Open at Vidanta (T11) that the top-125 bubble was very much on his mind as the season progressed. “It’s always on my mind, unfortunately,” Trainer said at the time. “It’s pretty unhealthy, actually. You think about it, but ultimately you do your best and just see what happens.” Harry Higgs (No. 142) Starts: 27 Cuts made: 12 Top-25 finishes: 3 Best finish: T9, THE CJ CUP @ SUMMIT FedExCup points: 257 Higgs trails the No. 125 position by 61 points, the equivalent of a two-way T12 or better. The affable Kansas City native is coming off a T11 finish at the Barracuda Championship, his best finish of the 2022 calendar year. He also finished T14 at the Masters. Higgs, 30, won the 2019 Price Cutter Charity Championship on the Korn Ferry Tour to cement his first TOUR card, and he found a quick knack for the TOUR level of competition, finishing top-70 on the FedExCup in each of his first two TOUR seasons. He doesn’t shy away from the knowledge that he’s fighting for his job over the closing stretch of the regular season, and he looks forward to putting his game to the test under the circumstances. “There comes a time when talk is cheap, and now you’re going to have to show it,” Higgs said at the Barracuda Championship. “More so to myself; I don’t really care to show it to anybody else. I feel like I’m way better than the position that I’m in, but that’s also the beauty of the game.” Cameron Champ (No. 157) Starts: 16 Cuts made: 6 Top-25 finishes: 2 Best finish: T6, Masters Tournament FedExCup points: 200 Champ trails the No. 125 position by 118 points, the equivalent of a two-way T4 or better. If he fails to gain Playoffs entry, though, he will remain fully exempt on the 2022-23 PGA TOUR due to his two-year tournament winner exemption. He’s confident he can make a push toward the Playoffs this week. “This is just one of those places where it doesn’t matter if I play good or bad, I’m just very comfortable with it,” Champ said of TPC Twin Cities. Scott Gutschewski (No. 179) Starts: 20 Cuts made: 7 Top-25 finishes: 2 Best finish: 5th, Barracuda Championship FedExCup points: 136 Gutschewski trails the No. 125 position by 182 points, the equivalent of a two-way T3 or better. The 45-year-old is trending upward, though, having jumped from No. 204 to No. 179 in the standings after a career-best, solo fifth place finish at last week’s Barracuda Championship. The Barracuda finish assured Gutschewski, a father of four, a top-200 position on the FedExCup, which ensures a spot in the Korn Ferry Tour Finals at minimum (another opportunity to regain TOUR status). Across the next three weeks, he’ll set his sights higher, on either a top-125 spot – to gain a FedExCup Playoffs berth and fully exempt 2022-23 TOUR status – or a top-150 position to ensure conditional TOUR status next season.

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Editor’s note: The Presidents Cup is not part of the official PGA TOUR Fantasy game. However, our experts from PGATOUR.COM made their predictions for the Presidents Cup which takes place this week at Quail Hollow.

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