Brendan Steele tees off Thursday, Jan. 16, for his first tournament of calendar year 2014 in the $5.7 million Humana Challenge in partnership with the Clinton Foundation in nearby La Quinta.

Of course, the newly formatted PGA Tour season began three months ago and Steele played in some of those early tournaments. He currently is in 72nd place on the now-all-important FedExCup points list and he needs to finish in the top 125 to qualify for the season-ending playoffs and keep his card for next season.

The October tournaments used to be on the tail end of each season and were referred to as the Fall Finish. But for the first time, they begin a new season, so we could call the events after Jan. 1 the Main Season.

Steele’s Thursday tee time is 9:10 a.m. off the 10th tee at La Quinta Country Club. His remaining tee times will be available each day at www.pgatour.com. Click on the green Humana Challenge logo down the left side, then click on Tee Times near the upper right of the new webpage.

So head on down to the desert to encourage our local Idyllwilder and contribute to good causes. Each weekly PGA tournament raises about $1 million for local charities.

The tournament also will be carried each day, Thursday through Sunday, on the Golf Channel from noon to 4 p.m. our time.