Large-Field GPP Breakdown: Sanderson Farms Championship

I guess it’s back to reality for the golf crew. We are done with team golf or other weird formats for the rest of the year, as we are back to a full-field event with a cut this week! While much of the DFS world is focused on the MLB playoffs, NFL, and debating about getting more lineups into the playoffs in best ball, us sickos get to play some fall PGA DFS. Some say that the fall brings a bigger edge because many of the “sharp” players choose to allocate their funds elsewhere, but there’s really no data to prove that. Either way, I like my chances going up against people who I consider to have A LACK of knowledge about DFS in general. For those of you still with us and reading this article, I salute you. It’s going to be a great week.

Ryder Cup – Recap

I won’t recap the Ryder Cup in detail in the spirit of time, but it was a very interesting week as Sky noted in his GPP article last week. It was very clear that the field prioritized players who were playing in the first match and went to correlate those partners. They also wanted to avoid pairing players who were playing against each other in the first match. On my end, I was happy with the way I played, as I actually employed a MIN-1 of any players who were not playing in the first match, which basically got me a lot of Justin Rose, J.J. Spaun, and others based on our projections. I’m happy with that result, and the only thing I regret is I had way too much Harris English with the nut low first-round matchup and partner. Seeing him come in at 30% owned was wild, and this was a miss in my process, as I was around the field.

Sanderson Farms – Preview

On to the Sanderson Farms, where we are about to embark on another interesting fall-season journey. Seeing a $10K Kevin Yu will never fail to shock me. From an overall contest standpoint, I’m a little bit disappointed in DK for bringing the lotto down to a $50K-to-first prize, but I am not one to turn down a potential $50K payout. Maybe we can fill this thing fast and convince them that $100K to first is the way to go. Despite the lotto being a bit of a smaller field this week (only ~12K entries versus the normal ~17K), I will be approaching the contest with the same lens I normally do.

Before we get into the DFS side of it, let’s talk a little about the history of this tournament and fall-season DFS in general. Fall season is typically known for weaker fields, as many of the best players in the world have secured their cards and spots for the next year already. Additionally, we usually see easier courses in the fall swing, where a winning number in the 20s is more common than not. I bring this up because the fall season often provides a ton of variance — the players are worse, the courses are easier, and both of those things combined means we get a lot of winners or top-five performances from players who are below $8K in price. Keep this in mind as you’re building; it’s quite likely that the field is overconfident with the players they know and are priced up.

Speaking of easy courses, let’s take a quick look at Sanderson Farms scoring history:

• 2024: Kevin Yu (-23) def. Beau Hossler in a playoff