Sanderson Farms Championship Preview

Sanderson Farms Championship 

Country Club of Jackson MS

October 5 to 8, 2023 Par 72

Purse $8.4M +$300K 4%

This is the second tournament of 7 fall events with an average purse of $8M+.  Only a few top players will be involved in this field of 144 which will be made up of players trying to qualify for the PGA 2024 PGA Tour and the first 2 signature events.  The winner will be eligible for the 1st signature tournament of 2024, “The Sentry”.   

The Trophy pictured above is one of the most unusual on the PGA Tour.  It was designed by Marcom DeMill who also designed and produced trophies for The Valspar Championship and John Deere Classic.

FAVORITE ODDS

Ludvig Aberg 12/1 #79 OWGR in only 4 months, a star in the making.

Eric Cole 20/1 #62 OWGR A top rookie last year at 35.

Emiliano Grillo #35 OWGR 20/1 He has only 2 PGA wins since 2015. 

Stephen Jaeger 22/1 #92 OWGR This is his 7th appearance, so he knows the course. 

LONGSHOTS

Nick Hardy 55/1 #149 OWGR he and Davis Riley won the Zurich Classic in 2023.

Lee Hodges 40/1 #53 OWGR won the 3M Open in July last year going wire to wire.

Akshay Bhatia 50/1#103 OWGR he had 4 top 10 finishes last year at only 21 years of age.

MacKenzie Hughes 55/1 #96 OWGR won in a playoff with Sepp Straka last year.

Christiaan Bezuidenhout 66/1 from South Africa with 3 DP wins but has not done well on PGA.

Harry Higgs 1000/1 is always on my longshot list.

RYDER CUP HANGOVER

I hope everyone enjoyed my 5 blogs on this years Ryder Cup, won by Europe 16 1/2 to 11 1/2.  The 5 point difference was the closest since 2014 when Europe won at Gleneagles Hotel 16 1/2 to 11 1/2, and Phil Mickelson trashed Tom Watson for the loss.

This years was not that close, the USA fell behind by 5 points after the first day.  If they had split the 4 points in the AM session and not blown 3 leads on the 18th hole in the PM session they would have been 1 point down instead of 5.  If they made up that 1 point and finished as they did the match would be a tie and they would retain the cup.  

Bottom line is it was lost on the first two sessions of the first day.

Five of their big guns Scheffler, Koepka, Scheffele, Thomas and Spieth managed only 3 wins between them.  Most of the team took a long layoff from the Tour championship.   This could have been the reason why they played so poorly the first day and a half.  

They will get a chance to win the cup back at Bethpage Black in Flemington NY in 2025, and break the 32 year European losing streak in Limerick Ireland in 2027.