Sanderson Farms Championship: Nine major champions head to Mississippi

The PGA TOUR returns to the United States this week for the Sanderson Farms Championship.

There are nine major champions in the field in Mississippi, including Sergio Garcia and Stewart Cink, with past FedExCup champion, Bill Haas, being given a sponsor exemption.

Past FedExCup winners Henrik Stenson and Brandt Snedeker feature in a field that also includes past PGA Tour Rookies of the Year Sungjae Im and Scottie Scheffler while Sebastián Muñoz, who finished eighth in last season’s FedExCup standings, will also be in attendance.

Course/Field

Course: The Country Club of Jackson
Length: 7461 yards (Par 72)
Greens: Bermuda
Opened: 1962
Architect: Dick Wilson

While the field is a couple of steps up from last week’s record-breaking poor strength field, we are still a couple of weeks away from the top players making their season debut.

The CC of Jackson is a classical PGA Tour course, an easy par 72 parkland course with little rough, flat generous fairways and fast average-sized Bermuda greens.

The course is somewhat protected by the fairways being treelined and some water hazards but with an average winning score of around -20 the golfers need to go low to get in contention.

With six par 4s in the 400-450 range and three of par 5s measuring over 580 yards, we should see a lot of wedges and short irons into these Bermuda greens.

With Ryan Armour (among the shortest on tour) and Cameron Champ (top 5 in driving distance) winning in back to back years this is a course where you can get it done in different ways.

A good wedge player that doesn’t miss too many fairways and putts well on Bermuda or a bomber who takes apart the par 5s is basically the templates we are searching for this week.

Here are some of the things I will be looking at/for:

Strokes gained approach
Strokes gained off the tee
Par 5 scoring
Proximity 100-150 yards
Birdies or better gaines
Bermuda putting

Picks

Sam Burns
26.00
1.5 pts EW (1/4 the odds 5 places)

We were on Mr Burns last week and had this been a tournament where you could scratch your worst round we would have been right in it, unfortunately, that was not the case and his 78 on Saturday was just awful. He bounced back on Sunday with one of the best rounds of the day with a six under 66 and that is the kind of grit I like to see.

He once again sets up nicely with his strong off the tee game (ranks 1^st in strokes gained off tee and 2^nd in driving distance) combined with being a top 12 wedge player in this field. That he is now back on Bermuda greens where he is one of the best putters in the world and ranks in the top 20 in par 5 scoring is also beneficial.

Henrik Stenson
41.00
1 pt EW (1/4 the odds 5 places)

The Swedish major champion was a surprise addition to last weeks weak field and while he was not in contention, he delivered four rounds under par on his way to a respectable T21.

This is mostly a value play on what is a top 3-5 golfer in this field who is priced as the 10-12 best and who seems to be turning into some form after a longer covid break than his competitors.

He likes Bermuda greens and when on he is one of the best iron players in the world.