The Sanderson Farms Championship

The Sanderson Farms Championship

It was a poor start to our 24/25 campaign at the Procore Championship as none of our team ever really threatened to get in the hunt.

Most disappointing was Maverick McNealy who I had beg expectations for coming in to the week and who failed to even make the weekend. In the end our best performer was Adam Svensson who produced a solid Sunday to finish a ‘never nearer’ 13^th but ultimately we were never at the races.

The event itself was won by Patton Kizzire who produced an excellent performance to end a six year winless drought.

So with a two week hiatus, which of course saw the Presidents Cup take place in Canada we head onwards to the second event of the Fall schedule, the Sanderson Farms Championship.

The event has been a part of the tours calendar since 1968 and during this time it has had many different title sponsors including the Southern Farm Bureau Classic, The Viking Classic and the True South Classic, before Sanderson Farms took over duties in 2013.

The tournament has always been played in Mississippi.

From inception up to 1994 it was played in Hattiesburg before then moving to Annandale Golf Club, which hosted the event up to 2013, before the Country Club of Jackson took over from the 14/15 season.

Up until 2019 the event had been an opposite field event running alongside the WGC HSBC Champions in China, however 2019 saw the tournament move forward to September as the second event of the new PGA Tour season and it keeps this slot in the current Fall format.

With the event following straight on from the Presidents Cup there is no surprise that the field is lacking star power.

The market is headed up by Keith Mitchell and Mackenzie Hughes, the one man who does make the trip from Montreal. This duo are then followed by Maverick McNealy, Semus Power and Nick Dunlap.

COURSE

The Country Club of Jackson Course is a par 72 measuring just over 7400yds.

The greens are Champion Ultra Dwarf Bermuda, comparable to that which are found at TPC Southwind, Sedgefield CC, Quail Hollow since 2017 and the Robert Trent Jones Trail host of the Barbasol from 2015-17.

The course was originally opened in 1962 before undergoing a redesign in 2008 under the guidance of John Fought.

With reasonably wide fairways The Country Club of Jackson can’t be seen as a tough test however the main problems can be found on and around the greens with raised surfaces and run of areas proving to be challenging over the years.

As well as strong putting GIR can therefore be seen as significant as it is important to try and find the right spots on greens.

HISTORY

So lets take a look at the winners of the event since it moved to its current home in 2014, The Country Club of Jackson.

2023 – L List

2022 – M Hughes

2021 -  S Burns

2020 – S Garcia

2019 – S Munoz

2018 – C Champ

2017 – R Armour

2016 – C Gribble

2015 – P Malnati

2014 – N Taylor

Until Garcia’s triumph in 2020 the most striking thing about the previous six winners is that their win here was the maiden tour win for each of them.

Looking at the overall profile of the ten champions here and seven of them can be seen as neat and tidy, ‘all rounders’, rather than aggressive bombers, however 2018 winner Cameron Champ literally bombed that theory out of the water as he made mincemeat of the par fives on his way to victory. Meanwhile last years winner Luke List is also known as one of the bigger hitters on tour.

Of the six maiden winners Champ, Taylor & Gribble were rookies in their 20s, while Malnati, also in his 20s at the time of winning, was returning to the tour for a second stint after a disappointing first go in 2014. 2019 winner Munoz, who was also in his twenties, meanwhile was in his third full season on tour.

Armour however was [and still arguably is] a journeyman of the tour in the truest sense of the word when clinching his maiden tour win here at the age of 41, after years of bouncing back and forth between the big league and the lower levels.

If we then look at the form coming in to the event of these winners Armour, Gribble and Munoz, had been in good form coming in to the event.

Armour had posted three solid finishes in the Web.com finals events including a top 5 in the first one, The Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship. In addition he had finished 4^th in his final start of the previous season on the PGA Tour at the Wyndham.

Gribble had finished 5^th in his final start of the year on the Korn Ferry again at the Nationwide event, before finishing 8^th in his first start on the PGA Tour at the Safeway while Munoz had finished seventh at the Greenbrier the week before triumphing here.

On the flip side to this though the previous two winners Malnati and Taylor had been struggling for form coming in with nothing better than a 56^th place between them in their previous three starts.

Cameron Champ had warmed up nicely with a 25^th place at the Safeway the week before however his form prior to that on the Korn Ferry Tour had been fairly uninspiring as he had managed nothing better than 16^th in his last six starts of the 2018 season.

2020 champion Garcia had missed his two previous cuts to start the new PGA Tour season including shooting 81 in his previous round at the US Open. Obviously though he is a class act and in this level of event he showed that cream often rises to the top.

2022 champion Burns was making his first start of the new campaign however he had finished off 20/21 really strongly posting nothing worse than 21^st in his final four starts, a run, which included four top tens.

2022 winner Mackenzie Hughes had played solidly at the Fortinet to finish 25^th, however perhaps more pertinently he arrived with something of a point to prove having been left off the previous weeks Presidents Cup team. Finally and coincidentally while last year’s winner List had also been struggling for form like Hughes and Champ he had also finished 25^th in Napa on his previous start.

If we then look at previous course form this does not give us too much to go on either I’m afraid. Taylor naturally was making his course debut here when winning the first outing at Jackson CC and this was also the case for the 2015, 16 & 18 winners Malnati, Gribble & Champ and 2020 winner Garcia.

2017 victor Ryan Armour meanwhile had played here on two previous occasions and had missed the cut on both while Munoz had played here twice before finishing 50^th and 30^th.

Burns though was playing at The CC of Jackson for the fifth time when winning here and having finished third here in 2018 he had clearly shown he was comfortable on the course.

Hughes had nothing of note on his resume here with just a top 30 and top 40 to his name. However List had finished second here back in 2016.

From a correlating course point of view the last two champions Burns and Garcia are both winners at Colonial over the years while last years champion Hughes has a top ten their while another former champ here Munoz has finished third at Colonial as well so this is certainly worth noting, however in addition for whatever reason there is a link, between some of the past winners/strong performers who have also played well in the United Leasing event on the Korn Ferry Tour [now the Korn Ferry Tour Championship], which is held at Victoria National in Indiana. Armour, Gribble, Power and Randolph have all performed well in both events while in 2021 we latched on to Hayden Buckley here partly due to his strong performance in that event and he duly rewarded us with a full place at big odds. Interestingly Buckley was also fourth at this years Charles Schwab Challenge.

Meanwhile this link struck yet again in 2022 as Dean Burmester posted a top five at Victoria National before finishing fourth here a few weeks later, while last year Carl Yuan posted a sixth place here having been fifth at Victoria National the previous year.

in search of further clues I then took a look at where the recent winners hail from.

As the event has been held in Mississippi for many years prior to moving to its current home I stretched this back a bit further going back to 2010.

This showed that in that time we have had four winners who either hail from/have connections with or are now based in Tennessee, Malnati, Stallings, Kirk and last years winner List who attended college there. Meanwhile another protagonist from last years play off Scott stallings is a Tennessee native. We have then had one Texan winner, Gribble and a Texas based Spaniard in Garcia, two Texas A&M grads Champ & Munoz post victories while another Texas college attendee Aberg was also in last years play off . we then have a Louisiana native in Burns, a Floridian, Woody Austin, two Canadians, Nick Taylor and Hughes and a North Carolinian, Bill Haas.

Furthermore the year Munoz triumphed 2019, the final leaderboard saw three further players with Texas connections, Ortiz, Burgoon & Frittelli finish in the top six and ties.

Clearly then and not surprisingly bearing in mind the event is held on Bermuda greens and this is event is the domain of players with Southern/Eastern state connections.

So there we have it then. In all likelihood we are looking for a maiden winner, quite possibly in their 20s, who hails from or has a connection to southern/eastern states!

WEATHER FORECAST

By and large we look set for a dry week although there is the chance for an occasional shower particularly on Sunday. Temperatures look to be quote low for the area sitting around the 70 degrees and fortunately there do not appear to be any storms in the forecast.

Wind does not look like to be too much of an issue although there is the potential for some gusts of 15mph – 20mph on Thursday and again on Sunday.

As I always say though…this could all change!

PICKS

I have gone with six players this week as follows;

KEITH MITCHELL – 25/1 – 2pts e/w 1/5 odds 1^st 8 - FINISHED 3rd

I’ll start things off this week with Keith Mitchell.

A one time winner on tour at the Honda Classic it is now over five years since that victory and there is no doubt that Keith has been a tough man to follow since.

2024 has seen more of the same from Mitchell as he has bagged three top tens without ever really looking like finding the winners enclosure.

After a disappointing ending to his 2024 full season Keith missed out on the play offs finishing 77^th in the Fedex Cup, however he at least closed on a positive note notching a 12^th at the Wyndham and having also then finished 12^th in his next start at the Procore he arrives here with some momentum.

At 13^th on tour in Driving Distance Keith fits the bigger hitting profile of the likes of List and Champ who have triumphed here while.

Delving further in to Mitchell’s stats and at fourth on tour off the tee, eighth in approach and 150^th in putting, as has been the case over Keith’s career as a whole it is not hard to see where the problem lies. As we know though he is always at his best on Bermuda greens so if he is going to spike with the flat stick this could well be the week.

The elephant in the room here Mitchell’s record in the event, which has seen him miss the cut in all four visits, however as noted earlier past course form here has not really given us too many clues to finding the winner over the years. Furthermore with the correlating form with List who was a runner up at the Honda and his big hitting profile fitting well here this really should be a track that suits him.

In addition as a native of Tennessee like many of our team this week he fits that ‘southern ststes’ profile as well.

All in all then I’m happy to chance Keith to build on his recent solid form and finally bag that long overdue second tour win.

CHANDLER PHILLIPS – 66/1 – 1pt E/W – 1/5 odds 1^st 8 - FINISHED 33rd

Next up this week I will take my chances with Chandler Phillips.

While this week represents Phillips’ debut at the Country Club of Jackson there is a lot to like in his correlating profile that leads me to think he could take to the venue.

Firstly if we look at where Chandler has performed well this year we see that his best performance came when third at the Valspar in the spring and this event does link nicely to here through Sam Burns and Peter Malnati. Furthermore he produced one of his next best efforts at the Charles Schwab Challenge, which as noted earlier, again ties in well here. The icing on the cake is then that Chandler posted a sixth place finish at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship at Victoria National, which time and again has proved a good pointer to here.

Phillips was born and bred in Texas and also attended college there so he is a Lone Star State man through and through therefore ticking the southern states box we are looking at.

With regards to current form Chandler played nicely last time out at the Procore finishing 13^th with his putter particularly strong that week ranking fourth. Returning then to his more favoured Bermuda greens one would hope the flat stick continues to shine for him and if so I can see him producing a big performance.

CAMERON CHAMP – 66/1 – 1pt E/W – 1/5 odds 1^st 8 - FINISHED MC

Next up, call me a glutton for punishment but I will give another chance to Cameron Champ who we were on last time out at the Procore.

That performance from Champ in Napa really summed up the enigma he is. Arriving on the back of two more solid efforts in his previous two starts he made seven birdies and an eagle over the first two days however he mixed that with three bogeys and two double bogeys to post two 71s and miss the cut on the number. Furthermore he ranked fourth off the tee over both days but had a shocker around the greens where he frittered shots ranking 139^th.

With no return at Silverado then Cam finds himself still staring down the barrel with regards to his PGA Tour card at 165^th in the Fedex Standings.

A former champion here though Cameron was 28^th on defence the year after his win, while on his only other trip here last year he was ninth when arriving in no form at all.

Lets take a chance then that this total enigma can recapture the magic once more in Jackson when he really needs to.

GARRICK HIGGO – 100/1 – 1pt e/w 1/5 odds 1^st 8 - FINISHED MC

From one enigma to another in the shape of Garrick Higgo.

With three wins on the DP World Tour and one on the PGA Tour by the age of 22 Higgo seemed to have the golfing world at his feet, however for whatever reason since then things have gone badly wrong for the South African as he has laboured to string any real form together on the PGA Tour.

Still only 25 though there is plenty of time for this hugely talented player to put things right and you have to think it is only a matter of time until he does.

This week though a bit like Champ he arrives in Jackson in serious need of some big results if he is to keep a place in the top 150, never mind the top 125, as he currently ranks 144^th in the Fedex standings.

If Garrick is going to ‘find something’ though this could well be the venue that he does it at as he has finished third and 16^th on his two visits here.

Looking at those two performances and his third place finish in 2022 came on the back of six missed cuts in his previous seven starts on the PGA Tour, while his 16^th last year came on the back of two straight missed cuts. The fact then that Higgo finished 26^th last time out at the Procore ranking 28^th in approach, fifth in good old fashioned GIR and 14^th with the flat stick very much catches the eye.

Again similarly to Champ you really have no idea what to expect from Higgo with his best game being as good as anyone in this field. With his last start delivering his best performance since a 16^th on Bermuda greens at the Cognizant in the spring though I’ll take the hint and take my chances that he delivers the goods here once more.

HAYDEN BUCKLEY – 200/1 – 1pt E/W – 1/5 odds 1^st 8 - FINISHED MC

Moving on and next for me is Hayden Buckley.

It’s been a tough 2024 for Buckley as a whole, however after no top 25 finishes in the first four months of the year he sprang to life with a fifth place at the Charles Schwab Challenge, which as we know ties nicely here, he then struggled again in his next four starts before bagging his second top ten of the year when seventh at the Barracuda. Three subsequent missed cuts see Hayden now at 140^th in Fedex standings and in need of some big results.

If Buckley is to spring to life then this could well be the week. As noted he was fourth here in 2021 when we were onboard based on his correlating form at Victoria National, while he was also 19^th here the following year. A native of neighbouring Tennessee Hayden is clearly comfortable here and of course with him hailing from those parts he certainly fits the profile.

While Hayden missed the Cut in Napa he gained just under two shots off the tee over the first two days so his long game was solid with the putter the culprit.

A player who has knocked on the door of a win over the last few years most notably at the Sony in 2023, I believe Buckley has the game to win out here and with plenty of pointers aligning for him this week I am keen to side with him.

BRANDT SNEDEKER – 300/1 – 1pt e/w 1/5 odds 1^st 8 - FINISHED 16th 

Finally this week at big odds I will take a huge flyer on Brandt Snedeker.

Returning this year after a lengthy injury absence in 2023 Sneds has really struggled. Still only 43 though the nine time tour winner is not ready to call time yet on his career and a trip over to the Czech Republic last month where he finished 12^th seems to have sparked some life in to his game as he then followed that up with a 26^th at the Procore Championship, his best finish on the PGA Tour since a top 20 at the Valero way back in May 2022.

If two good performances and  of course the threat of a career ending slump aren’t enough to get Sneds’ competitive juices flowing again it’s no coincidence in my mind that this upturn in form has come since the world of US team golf came knocking on his door, as his strong showing in the D&D Real Czech Masters came just after he was named a Vice captain for next years Ryder Cup. Brandt was then subsequently brought in as a Vice Captain for last weeks Presidents Cup and you would have to think that he will arrive here buoyed by his involvement in the US win.

A Tennessee man though and through Brandt ticks that box for us well and truly while his 17^th place finish here in 2020, which could have been much better but for a disappointing Sunday, was his best result on tour since pre covid.

Brandt certainly fits the profile of strong putters like Hughes, Gribble and Malnati who have triumphed here and at the odds I am happy to chance him to shine this week.