As we add data to the experience in PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf presented by PGA TOUR Superstore, it’s clear that this iteration of the game is considerably more exciting than previous versions, and that includes – long-time gamers will remember this – when FedExCup bonus points were worth 50 percent in tournaments that didn’t utilize ShotLink. Back then, round-by-round scoring was way down, so we truly were playing for final position on the leaderboard and the injection of a monster payload following the finale.

Nowadays, every round promises a punch because of the captain.

As a reminder, all points scored by your captain are doubled throughout the tournament as long as he’s among your starters. Unless he misses a cut, withdraws or is disqualified, there is almost no reason to bench him at any time. The exception is if four of your other charges are, say, tied for first entering the final round and your captain is pulling up the rear. It’s an extreme example and it’ll probably come into play for someone at some point, but it’s a good one to prove that the impact of FedExCup bonus points still resonates even if your captain remains alive.

Briefly recapping the first two tournaments, five gamers led The Sentry with a whopping 858 points. For returning gamers familiar with the previous format, that’s an absurd total, but it reflects what the captain can do for you.

At the Sony Open in Hawaii, the highest fantasy scorer paced the site with 566 points.

The fantasy winner of The American Express will land somewhere in between. With three stock par 72s, all of which are among the easiest courses the PGA TOUR reserves, fantasy scoring will be dialed up. The cut will fall after three rounds, so there’s little risk in expanding your focus for potential impact in the field of 156, but the promise of a shootout can dilute the potency of the chalk. I go into more detail about this in the sections below, but in short, the blend is your friend.

Meanwhile, expect the auto-swap feature to be activated for you, if necessary, at the conclusion of the third round. If one of your starters misses the cut and at least one of your bench players survives, the priority among your bench players should auto-swap when the round concludes. Once it does, you can still modify your lineup if you want.

Captain

NOTE: All points scored by this player are doubled. Be aggressive.

When Xander Schauffele withdrew on Monday, this decision probably became more difficult, but the odds that it should benefit you improved.

Not only was Schauffele poised to garner the highest ownership percentage, but he would also have been the captain's top choice. Because there isn’t an obvious Plan B, the push is eliminated and churn is promised. That’s bad news for early front-runners who will guess wrong on their captain at PGA WEST.

Sungjae Im … He was the No. 2 in my Power Rankings when it was published, so he assumed the top spot when Schauffele vacated. Im has been in vintage form since successfully defending his title at the Woori Bank Championship in his native South Korea last April. He podiumed at The Sentry to open 2025 and his profile as a scorer is perfect for the triumvirate of tracks in the Coachella Valley.

Other considerations

• Sam Burns … No. 2 in the Power Rankings. The "Nappy Factor" continues to pay forward, and his firepower remains as reliable as anyone’s.
• Justin Thomas … No. 3 in the Power Rankings. The next obvious choice who isn’t even in my lineup (for purposes of roster management and respect for a shootout) is exactly the kind of elite talent for which this designation was invented.

REMINDER: To designate a captain, select “C” beside the starter you want as your captain.

Rounding out the roster

I alluded to my strategy parenthetically in Justin Thomas’ suggestion above. The American Express can be a crapshoot for which your golfers are basically required to put four rounds together to do damage. If one doesn’t keep pace, you might feel owner’s remorse at some point before the tournament concludes.

I liken this phenomenon to what professional poker players have said about the World Series of Poker, which attracts every kind of player. As a result, there’s a greater likelihood for a pro to be upset by a loose cannon who is riding more luck than he or she realizes. In a single tournament like that, skills sharpened over time can go only so far. It is what it is, which is to say it’s like a shootout in golf.

For our purposes in this setting, I like balancing chalk with sharp angles. That’s in part why you see Tom Hoge and Harry Hall rostered for me. Hoge was the first-round leader in both stops on the Opening Drive, so he’s a no-brainer to go to the post on Thursday. Part and parcel with the strategy is choosing who to holster for the remainder of Segment 1.

Worth mentioning for the persnickety is the course rotation. The Pete Dye Stadium Course should land as the most difficult, but your captain will be able to survive his one turn on it before the cut. If you’re stuck, don’t sweat it. There’s not enough of a deviation to warrant getting cute even though I am.

As I have, you also could construct a lineup that swerves around the Stadium Course for everyone, but your captain as long as you have no more than two golfers in a rotation in which your captain is not included. Obviously, if this is your plan, you’ll be burning a start on all six in your roster. Only the Stadium Course is used for the final round.

My starters

• Sungjae Im (C)
• Sam Burns
• Patrick Cantlay
• Tom Hoge

My bench

• Tom Kim (1)
• Harry Hall (2)

REMINDERS: If you don’t save your lineup, what you’ve selected will time out and go blank. If you don’t choose a captain when you select “Save,” you will be reminded with a pop-up message. If you edit your roster after saving, you must select “Update” to activate changes.

Careful

For almost every tournament, a usually impressive subset of the field warrants avoiding, and it might be represented in my Power Rankings, which are not written in the context of any fantasy golf format. In this section, I will single out who demands pause and why.

Nick Dunlap … The defending champion is No. 6 in my Power Rankings. While he’s a rapidly rising star who added another victory at the Barracuda Championship, this is his first title defense on the PGA TOUR. It’s a thrill but it’s a new experience and it can be disruptive compared to any other week when he’s not filling his agenda.

Cameron Young … Results speak for themselves for No. 14 in the Power Rankings, but his ability to remain focused at times doesn’t always pass the eye test. It’s aggravating for every investor who picks up on it, and he’s still years ahead of when the career bell curve begins to flatten, but it could explain why he hasn’t broken through what presents as a glass ceiling. At the same time, because he makes most cuts and continues to profile as being this close to his coronation, he’s a contrarian.

Christiaan Bezuidenhout … The primary beneficiary of Dunlap’s victory as an amateur – because the South African banked first-place winnings for his runner-up finish – has proven himself at PGA WEST. There’s no doubt about that. However, the conservative that I am is compelled to caution in expecting more of the same because he also finished T11 two years ago. Course success is but one component and remember my point about respecting the shootout. He also arrived with somewhat inconsistent form and nowhere near the heater that preceded last year’s close call.

J.J. Spaun … For some guys, the absence of course success is enough to abstain even after a T3 at the Sony Open where he was the 54-hole leader. After opening 2024 with an illness that he couldn’t shake and a record that didn’t yield a top 25 until a T10 at the Rocket Mortgage Classic on June 30, he’s off to a marvelous start, but he’s just 3-for-6 at PGA WEST with but a personal-best T25 three years ago.

Returning to competition

Michael Thorbjornsen … With a serious back injury, ankle surgery and a sore knee all relatively recent issues, the warning mid-2024 was to beware the occasional DNP. Well, it happened at the 11th hour at Waialae Country Club where he was slated to begin this season. The dark side is that he’s dealt with more than his fair share of physical challenges for an athlete. The bright side is that he’s overcome time and again, and he’s only 23 years of age, so his body can handle it best now. Worth a flier in DFS.

Jake Knapp … After closing out a quiet second half of 2024 with victory (with Patty Tavatanakit) at the Grant Thornton Invitational, he struggled again on his own ball for a 56th-place finish at Kapalua, and then withdrew early from the Sony Open with an injured back. Our plan this week is to observe only. If he gets around OK, then lift him into the mix at next week’s Farmers Insurance Open where he splashed for a T3 as a rookie last year.

Davis Riley … We still don’t know why he walked off Kapalua with only nine holes remaining in his final round two weeks ago. Regardless, we need to see him healthy and put four rounds together before he deserves consideration in all formats.

Brian Campbell … His return to the big leagues didn’t transpire as he had wanted, but he still opened with a 67 at Waialae before withdrawing due to illness. The 31-year-old closed out 2024 with four straight top 25s punctuated by a T2 at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship presented by United Leasing & Finance, so he’s a sneaky play in DFS at PGA WEST. He also finished T25 in his only prior trip as a PGA TOUR rookie in 2017.

Tim Widing … The Swede’s debut was soured first by an opening 74 and then by an illness that forced him out before the second round. It was the latest setback in a string of them spanning five starts, the first four of which concluded his Korn Ferry Tour season in 2024.

Danny Willett … Not a traditional returning competitor because he competed steadily across most of the second half of 2024 – it included three starts in the FedExCup Fall – but this is an ideal time to remind you that he had battled back from shoulder surgery earlier than expected to tee it up at the Masters last year, and made the cut for a T45. Now armed with 23 starts on a Major Medical Extension that wasn’t released until after my full-membership fantasy ranking was published, the 37-year-old Brit is positioned nicely to pay off investors in salary leagues. Just be patient.

Jimmy Stanger … Committed to The Bahamas Great Abaco Classic at The Abaco Club on the Korn Ferry Tour. It’s scheduled to begin on Sunday. Tendinitis in his right elbow thwarted almost all opportunities to compete in the last seven months of 2024, so this is great news as he gets back after it. The 2024 PGA TOUR rookie has 12 starts on a medical extension, and he’s only 46.092 FedExCup points from eliminating the deficit for conditional status, so his fantasy value rises on this news alone. Keep tabs on him.

Notable W/Ds

Xander Schauffele … Bowed out midday on Monday due to a medical reason, according to the Associated Press. Aside from the fact that he’s the world second-ranked golfer, he also had finished T3 in the last two editions of The American Express, so he was an easy No. 1 in my Power Rankings in advance of his decision. It’s just the second time in his career that he’s withdrawn between the commitment deadline and the opening round (2024 WM Phoenix).

Maverick McNealy … With a forgettable record at PGA WEST, we won’t miss him despite his phenomenal last 11 months. That will change in two weeks at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am where PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf gamers will be backing en masse, and we still might get a peek at his form at next week’s Farmers Insurance Open.

Denny McCarthy … Also withdrew early from this tournament last year. Went T46-T16 on the Opening Drive with shares of the first- and second-round leads at Waialae. Given that a putting contest can be disguised in a shootout, it’s genuinely surprising that one of the world’s best with the blade is just 3-for-6 with one top-45 finish at PGA WEST (T6, 2022).

Seamus Power … Sidelined by discomfort in his back yet again. It had knocked him out during his second round of The RSM Classic in November, and he couldn’t overcome the malady at Waialae where he missed the cut by eight strokes.

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