2023 Sanderson Farms Championship Preview
The PGA Tour returns to action at this week's Sanderson Farms Championship.
We've had just one FedExCup Fall event so far, but we'll get another glimpse of what that new series is all about, this week in Mississippi.
The field size stretches to 144 golfers with the low 65 and ties playing their way through the 36-hole cutline.
The Course
The Country Club of Jackson will return to host a 10th straight edition of the Sanderson Farms.
Past champs range from short-and-steady Ryan Armour (2017) to big-hitting Cameron Champ (2018). Mackenzie Hughes will be playing the role of defending champ as he defeated Sepp Straka in a playoff to win last year's edition.
What about course difficulty? The median winning score at the CC of Jackson has been -19 with winning scores ranging from -16 (Nick Taylor in 2014) to -22 (Sam Burns in 2021). That would put this on the easy side of the spectrum when it comes to course difficulty.
Checking out the scorecard, we see a par 72 that plays to nearly 7,500 yards from the tips (7,461). The yardage is a bit misleading though as there are just three par 4s that even play over 450 yards. A big chunk of the yardage comes on the par 5s with three of them listed over 580 yards. Overall, this is not a course that requires distance off the tee. Golfers will take varying approaches on the tee boxes with many of the mid-range par 4s allowing you to club down and still put a wedge or short iron in your hand.
The tree-lined fairways are relatively tough to hit with the field averaging around just 54 percent of fairways hit here. There isn't much of a penalty for missing those fairways as the field still finds greens in regulation at a 69-percent clip which puts them in the "easy to hit" bucket. You can chalk up a lot of that to approach distances as there are more wedges in the 100- to 150-yard range compared to most Tour stops.
Looking at grass types, they are back in Bermuda territory with bermuda fairways, a bermuda/zoysia mix in the rough, and Champion bermuda greens.
Those greens are known to be some of the best they see all year. Emiliano Grillo said this in 2021, "I know you're going to have perfect greens, these are probably the best greens of all year." Denny McCarthy echoed that sentiment as well, "To me these are some of the best greens on TOUR, if not the best."
When looking for correlated success across the PGA Tour, courses like Sedgefield CC, PGA West, Waialae CC, and Port Royal pop up. A common theme would be easy courses with bermuda greens.
Golfers to Watch
Ludvig Aberg
He's still in the listed field at press time but you'll want to keep on eye on the field list because it would be a surprise if he stayed committed to playing in Mississippi just days after helping Europe win the Ryder Cup in Rome. The young Swede would be the tournament favorite, or one of them, if he does end up playing this week.
Alex Noren
Another Swede, this 41-year-old was hinting at late-season form before kicking off the fall series with a missed cut in Napa. He had rattled off a trio of top-25 finishes in his five lead-up starts before that so there is some great play still in the range of outcomes for Noren. He'll be making his course debut at the Country Club of Jackson.
Eric Cole
He missed the cut last year in his tournament debut but he must have liked what he saw because he's back for second helpings at the CC of Jackson. It's hard to keep Cole off the course as he's played 31 Tour events since last year's Sanderson Farms and even tossed in some KFT and mini-tour action along the way. The 35-year-old can be considered a late bloomer by PGA Tour standards and he's trying to cash in while the form is still peaking.
Emiliano Grillo
When someone says a course has the "best greens they see all year" we should take notice. Grillo twirled a trio of top 40s before fully cashing in on those pristine greens, posting a T-5 finish last year at the CC of Jackson. That was his first top-10 finish of the season but he's gone on to add six more, a clear sign of the upside he brings to the table for fantasy gamers. Grillo is one of just five golfers in the field who finished in the FedEx 50 this season, so he's free-wheeling this week, which certainly worked out well for Sahith Theegala in Napa.
Stephan Jaeger
At 56th, Jaeger is in no danger of losing his Tour card but is still playing with some motivation as he's trying to secure a spot in the first two Signature events of the 2024 schedule. He is 4-for-6 at the Country Club of Jackson with a T-14 during th 2018-19 edition being the most notable finish on his course resume.
Ranking the Field
1. Ludvig Aberg
2. Eric Cole
3. Stephan Jaeger
4. Emiliano Grillo
5. Beau Hossler
6. Keith Mitchell
7. Adam Svensson
8. Lee Hodges
9. Alex Noren
10. Alex Smalley
11. Ben Griffin
12. Lucas Herbert
13. K.H. Lee
14. Mark Hubbard
15. Sam Ryder
16. Hayden Buckley
17. Dylan Wu
18. Nicholas Lindheim
19. S.H. Kim
20. Doug Ghim
