The American Express payouts and points: Jon Rahm earns $1.44 million and 500 FedExCup points

Throughout time, La Quinta, California, has been a destination for golfers from all walks of life to find their games in the heart of winter. It’s a fact that includes PGA TOUR membership as it descends on the Coachella Valley for the 60th edition of the Desert Classic. With receptive greens tipping at a friendly 11 feet on the Stimpmeter, the TPC Stadium Course at PGA WEST, the Nicklaus Tournament Course at PGA WEST and La Quinta Country Club will be co-hosting another shootout. Scroll beneath the ranking for information about the courses, the tournament format and other details. Zach Johnson, Si Woo Kim, Pat Perez, Joaquin Niemann and Daniel Berger will be among the notables covered in Tuesday’s Fantasy Insider. The Desert Classic hosts the first of three 156-man fields on the West Coast Swing. Fields are maximized to yield playing time for members deeper in the overall pecking order. To accommodate membership at this latitude in mid-January, multiple courses are utilized for each. Every professional is paired with one amateur this week, and each duo is grouped with another pro-amateur pairing for each of the first three rounds. Every foursome will play each course in the rotation one time before the 54-hole cut of low 70 and ties. If more than 78 pros survive, only the low 60 and ties will tee it up in the final round on the TPC Stadium Course. (In that situation, those who survive the cut but finish outside the top 60 will receive FedExCup points and official earnings.) This is the fourth consecutive edition of the Desert Classic that has utilized the current trio of courses. All three are stock par 72s. Unlike previous combinations, La Quinta Country Club is now the easiest of the set; in fact, it was the easiest among all par 72s on the PGA TOUR in each of the last two seasons. Last year’s scoring average was 68.831. The Nicklaus Tournament Course slotted second-easiest at 69.445. The TPC Stadium Course checked in at 71.181 last year. Because only host courses are lasered by ShotLink technology, it will be the only course this week that will measure distances that contribute to statistics such as distance of all drives, proximity to the hole and all strokes-gained data. There haven’t been any modifications to any of the courses and all returning participants can rely on consistent overseeding on all 54 greens. Two-inch primary rough also will be framing the targets on each. After the threat of inclement weather moves out on Thursday, conditions will improve to the proverbial golf-in-a-dome experience. Light winds the daytime highs flirting with 70 degrees are forecast. ROB BOLTON’S SCHEDULE PGATOUR.COM’s Fantasy Insider Rob Bolton recaps and previews every tournament from numerous angles. Look for his following contributions as scheduled. MONDAY: Rookie Ranking, Qualifiers, Reshuffle, Medical Extensions, Power Rankings TUESDAY*: Sleepers, Fantasy Insider WEDNESDAY: One & Done

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First Tee – Greater Trenton participant Raymond Jin is not the first person who has been impacted by the organization’s programming. He’s one of many. In 2019, Jin participated in the Wells Fargo Succeeding Together contest, in which he submitted an essay with hopes of winning the grand prize – a spot in the Wells Fargo Championship pro-am with any TOUR player of his choosing. “As I progressed through the program, First Tee completely changed me as a person,” wrote Jin. “Because of First Tee, I am able to make a difference in the lives of young people and those in my community. I am passionate about working with people and mentoring.” What was once a dream then became reality. Jin received a video recording from TOUR player Max Homa, sharing the news that he, out of all of the submissions, had been selected as the first-place winner. Two years later, with many top players in the field, Jin chose to be paired with Rory McIlroy in the pro-am. McIlroy, a supporter of First Tee, was able to mentor Jin and share some life advice. “You don’t have to try to make friends; rather, you naturally resonate with certain people and communities; find your people, and you’ll feel right at home no matter where you go,” said McIlroy. Just months later, through the RSM Birdies Fore Love Program, McIlroy earned $50,000 to donate to the charity of his choice for recording the most birdies at the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP. Already a supporter of First Tee and seeing how their programming impacts those like Jin, McIlroy decided to donate his charitable dollars to the youth development organization. The donation has helped to further the mission of growing the game of golf and preparing young adults for their future careers. Like McIlroy, fellow TOUR player Hideki Matsuyama also chose to support First Tee with the $50,000 he earned through the RSM Birdies Fore Love program at the 2020 Houston Open. Matsuyama kept the funds local, donating to the Greater Houston chapter. Although the First Tee – Greater Houston chapter is a newer program, Matsuyama’s donation has helped to ensure it doesn’t miss a beat in recruiting students in the local community. Classes began this year in March with full participation across all levels of programming. With Matsuyama’s donation, more coaches are being trained to expand upon the programming, helping to take more students off the waitlist and into the classrooms. In just seven months, First Tee – Greater Houston now has over 350 students in programs each week, developing their skills in golf and leadership in the community. A year from now, one could imagine how many more Raymond Jins will come through First Tee, all with the support of those with passions for junior golf such as McIlroy and Matsuyama and the RSM Birdies Fore Love program. More about RSM Birdies Fore Love In collaboration with the PGA TOUR, RSM Birdies Fore Love will again donate $1 Million to charitable organizations through an on-course competition over the first ten events of the 2021-22 PGA TOUR Season. In addition to weekly winners, the top three players who accumulate the most birdies (or better) throughout those events will earn $300,000, $150,000 and $50,000, respectively, for children- or family-focused charitable organizations of each player’s choice. Last year, Corey Conners (147 birdies or better) won the overall program, followed by Sepp Straka (141) and Sungjae Im (139). Conners chose to spread the love and donate $240,000 to the Corey & Mallory Conners Family Fund, $50,000 to the Ben Curtis Family Foundation, and $10,000 to Mia’s Miracles.

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The season’s last tournament and the final stop of the FedExCup Playoffs is here. The TOUR Championship will be at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Georgia. The course will play as a par 70, measuring 7,346 yards and be putt on Bermuda greens. This course is a Donald Ross design. Set your DraftKings fantasy golf lineups here: PGA TOUR $1.2M Pitch + Putt [$300K to 1st] STRATEGY The new scoring system implemented three years ago, what the PGA TOUR refers to as a ‘Starting Strokes’, correlates to the FedExCup standings heading into the TOUR Championship. The top 30 in standings will be playing for a chance to win the $18 million first-place check and the FedExCup trophy. With the most points, Scottie Scheffler ($13,600) starts at 10 under, with second place starting two back at 8 under and descending by a stroke to fifth place. Head to the FedExCup page on PGATOUR.COM for a complete list of where the golfers will start. Donald Ross courses are about positioning yourself nicely off the tee and hitting elite approaches from the correct angles into these Bermuda greens. Even though the region has seen more rain than usual, these greens should play fast as they have over the previous three years. While iron play is paramount on a Ross design, Strokes Gained: Putting has proved more crucial over Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green for the winners over the previous five years. When Rory McIlroy ($10,800) and Xander Schauffele ($12,300) are some of the best golfers on a course, total driving should be an important stat to key in on this week. Fading some golfers high on the leaderboard could prove prudent when filling out rosters. The golfers will be starting with their “finishing” position points on DraftKings, but as we’ve seen in the previous two years, those points can go away fast if or when the leaders are no longer where they started. The top of the leaderboard golfers only come in with their starting points, not the birdies or better points they usually get on the path to victory. McIlroy is the only golfer to win the TOUR Championship and be in the winning lineup (2019). Also, over the previous three years, winning lineups in the main tournament haven’t used their entire $50,000 salary. The most used was $49,800 last season, and the least was $49,500 in 2020. GOLFERS TO CONSIDER Rory McIlroy ($10,800) There’s been one golfer who’s been in the winning lineup each of the last three years: Rory McIlroy. The triple bogey on the 15th hole in the first round and nothing going his way on the greens ultimately stopped him from competing last week, but no one was better tee-to-green than McIlroy, gaining 10.56 strokes at Wilmington Country Club. Rory will be a popular pick this week, but rostering chalk at the top of the range for the golfer who’s won the TOUR Championship twice shouldn’t be faded, especially with how he’s playing. We’ve seen the weekend surge from Jon Rahm ($10,900) twice, where he’s started slow and grinded his way to a top-5 finish in FedEx St. Jude Championship and a top-8 finish last week at the BMW Championship. Rahm recorded the lowest gross score last season at East Lake and now starts seven back from Scheffler. Rahm recorded 10 birdies and no bogeys last weekend and ranked second in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee over the entire week. His Bermuda putting could worry some managers off Rahm this week, but we all know his upside is massive. Sungjae Im ($9,100) Im could be a potential daily fantasy golf sleeper this week with a bunch of sentiment going toward McIlroy and Rahm. Sunday’s round last week was chaotic, recording five bogeys and five birdies. He birdied the final three holes on Sunday and has finished inside the top 15 in each round of the Playoffs. Back-to-back runner-up finishes at the 3M Open and the Wyndham Championship this season should give the 19th-ranked golfer in the world confidence coming into a tournament he hasn’t played well in the past. A top-8 finish at this year’s Sentry Tournament of Champions and an eighth place at this year’s Masters Tournament are good signs he could be up for the challenge the TOUR Championship presents. Losing strokes through approach in his past two events is not great, and you never want to bank on another spike putting week. Still, with a week like the TOUR Championship, you need to zig when others zag, and Im has been playing well for the last month; hopefully, he can end on a high note. Aaron Wise ($5,400) Since 2019, there have been five total golfers under $6,000 in the winning lineups. Last season, Daniel Berger and Billy Horschel were at $5,900 and $5,100 respectively, and Wise could fill that role this week. Wise is averaging 3.65 strokes gained through approach in the Playoffs and 2.35 off-the-tee. He finished 15th last week but was in the top 5 on Sunday before suffering a late double-bogey-bogey stretch that took him out of a podium finish. Wise has nothing to lose starting at even par, so he should be attacking each pin and scoring like he has been for the past month. Set your DraftKings fantasy golf lineups here: PGA TOUR $1.2M Pitch + Putt [$300K to 1st] Put your knowledge to the test. Sign up for DraftKings and experience the game inside the game. All views expressed are my own. I am an employee of DraftKings and am ineligible to play in public DFS or DKSB contests. The contents contained in this article do not constitute a representation that any particular strategy will guarantee success. 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