Sanderson Farms Championship 2020: Your form stats for this week's event in Mississippi

The Deep South welcomes the PGA Tour to the Country Club of Jackson which hosts this week's Sanderson Farms Championship for a seventh time.

Although the club was established more than 100 years ago, the championship course is a lot younger than that.

Jackson is a typically rural parkland venue which opened in 1962 and is located 160 miles north of the Gulf of Mexico

The layout is actually a composite course, combining the nine holes of Dogwood with the nine from Azalea.

Twelve years ago it was given an extensive revamp by ex-Tour pro John Fought and Mike Gogel.

The normally fast putting surfaces are Bermuda, as are the tree-lined fairways, while water comes into play on seven holes.

Low key event

Unsurprisingly, the PGA Tour is experiencing a slight lull right now, following the US Open which came hot on the heels of the end-of-season FedEx Cup Play-Offs.

The majority of star names are currently taking a rest before focusing their attentions on preparing for November's US Masters - which has had to be re-scheduled because of lockdown.

No members of the world's top 12 have made their way to Jackson, although there are some big names teeing-up in the state capital of Mississippi.

Check out the latest betting ahead of this week's Sanderson Farms Championship

Among America's up and coming young pros is Scottie Scheffler who will be hoping to pick up from where he left off after missing the US Open because he tested positive for Covid-19.

He's ready to go again as he tries to continue the recent run that yielded some great performances in August and early September.

These include a tie-for-fourth at the PGA Championship, as well as posting the second lowest 72-hole total (before handicap) in the Tour Championship. The 24-year-old Texan is up to No 30 in world.

Last year's runner-up Sung Jae Im, who lost a play-off, arrives in Jackson in decent shape, while defending champ Sebastian Munoz is riding high having just completed his best ever season - when he qualified for the Tour finale at East Lake.

For those keen to study course history, Carlos Ortiz, Lucas Glover and Denny McCarthy have better records than most, although few golfers standout.

The same goes for current form. That said, Brian Harman has remained under the radar recently with some decent performances in strong fields - despite a lack of length with the driver.

Room off the tee

Similar to Silverado, which hosted the opening tournament of the 2020/21 season, hitting fairways appears to be less important at Jackson than at many courses.

This is generally a growing trend which is gathering pace as the game's big hitters are driving the ball longer and longer distances.

But even taking this into account, there's certainly a marked difference between the likes of Silverado and Jackson to other layouts when it comes to the importance - or perhaps lack of it - of hitting fairways.

Twitter: Andy Swales@GolfStatsAlive

MC* - Missed Additional 54-Hole Cut

Note: List Contains Leading Reserves