If amateur Nick Dunlap wins American Express, what about the money?

LA QUINTA, Calif. — So with amateur Nick Dunlap leading the American Express after 54 holes, a logical question would be what happens to the money?

Dunlap, a 20-year-old sophomore at the University of Alabama, will receive no money at this week’s event wherever he finishes after Sunday’s final round. Amateur players are not allowed to collect any prize money, and there is no avenue for him to retroactively declare himself a pro to collect the $1,512,000 first-place check.

So with that in mind, where does that money go?

Here is the answer.

The money basically just gets paid out as if he didn’t exist.

In other words if, for example, Sam Burns finishes alone in second, Burns would get the entire first-place prize money, and so on down the line.

If there were a tie for second, let’s say between Burns and Patrick Cantlay, the first- and second-place money would be combined and they would split it. In other words, there would be no playoff to determine a solo first-place money winner.

And that, of course, holds true for wherever Dunlap finishes. If he finishes in fifth place, then the sixth-place finisher would get fifth-place money, etc.

FedEx Cup points, on the other hand, do not trickle down. In a scenario where Dunlap wins and Burns finishes second. Burns would get second-place FedEx Cup points (300) and no one would get the 500 FedEx points that go to the champion.

Another caveat for Dunlap is that he does not get the privileges that a winner of this event would get, like entrance into the rest of the season’s full-field PGA events and a two-year exemption on tour.

However, if he were to turn pro at any point during the year, he then would reap those benefits. In other words, if he turned pro in May, he would then be eligible for the rest of the full-field PGA Tour events moving forward if he would win at the American Express.