Course Preview and Fits: Sanderson Farms Championship

Well, woof. That was not exactly an inspiring performance by Team USA at Marco Simone. At least we got a little excitement out of it on Sunday. I’ll be honest, I had never been a huge Ryder Cup guy, or really watched much of it since it was always kind of a week off for us, but this year I watched a lot, and I’m a convert. It’s one of the coolest events in sports, really. I’m going to Bethpage in 2025, you can hold me to it.

After a little disruption for an international beatdown in Rome, we are back on schedule with three straight weeks of golf, with our first stop in Jackson, Miss. for the Sanderson Farms Championship. Sponsored by a little-known regional chicken company, this event does not exactly attract the biggest stars of the PGA, as you might imagine. But the viewing public’s loss is our gain, as it so often is, as we’ll be treated to a field loaded with grinders and guys like Chris Baker, Brett White, and Greg Sonnier. Who are they, you might ask? Exactly. Even Sam Burns, who lives only a few hours away, is skipping the ol’ chicken shootout this year, as he is perhaps jet-lagged or just misses his tractor.

Playing to a par of 72 and 7,461 yards, The Country Club of Jackson is a bit longer than average, but that’s a little deceiving, seeing as most of that yardage is hidden in the par 5s, with three of them playing at nearly 600 yards. Outside of the more challenging set of par 5s, there’s not a lot of challenge here, and the field has historically gone quite low, with winning scores pushing 20 under par. We shouldn’t expect anything different this week, even with a field that leaves something to be desired. The one place this course shows some teeth is in its fairways, which are among the narrowest on tour at about 29 yards wide, five yards tighter than the tour average. While that has resulted in solidly below-average driving accuracy numbers, it is balanced out by fairly tame rough and one of the more forgiving missed fairway penalties on tour. Guys just don’t really need to hit fairways to hit greens, so you’ll see players push it down there as far as possible.

The greens are pretty generously sized at just about 6,200 square feet, and without much trouble from the rough the field has hit them at a healthy clip of over 70%. Other than rough, there aren’t many dangers on the course, with only five water holes and modest bunkering throughout.