Tournament History
The Sanderson Farms Championship was first staged at the Hattiesburg Country Club in 1968. In 1994 it moved to the Annandale Country Club and then eight years ago it moved to the Country Club of Jackson. The event also changed its position in the PGA Tour schedule in 2014, moving to the autumn from the July slot it had occupied over the previous three years.
Originally played opposite the US Masters in April, it's also been played opposite the Tour Championship, the Ryder Cup, the Presidents Cup, the WGC-American Express Championship, the Open Championship and for the five years between 2014 and 2018, the WGC-HSBC Champions tournament in China.
This is the fourth year in-a-row that the Sanderson Farms Championship isn't playing second fiddle to another PGA Tour event.
Venue
The Country Club of Jackson, Jackson, Mississippi.
Course Details
Par 72, 7,461 yards
Stroke Index in 2021 - 69.87
The Country Club of Jackson was founded over 100 years ago but this week's host course only opened in 1962. It's a composite of two Dick Wilson-designed nines called Dogwood and Azalea and the 18 holes have been extensively remodelled a number of times. On the last occasion, in 2008, by the heavily Donald Ross-influenced, John Fought.
The course is Bermuda and the greens vary in size and are often perched up with tricky looking run-off areas. They're usually set to run at 13 on the Stimpmeter.
This is the ninth time the Country Club of Jackson has hosted the tournament and it's always averaged under-par.
TV Coverage
Live on Sky Sports all four days - starting with Red Button coverage at 13:00 on Thursday
Last Seven Winners with Pre-event Exchange Prices
2021 - Sam Burns -22 20.019/1
2020 - Sergio Garcia -19 70.069/1
2019 - Sebastian Munoz -18 75.074/1 (playoff)
2018 - Cameron Champ -21 70.069/1
2017 - Ryan Armour -19 110.0109/1
2016 - Cody Gribble -20 110.0109/1
2015 - Peter Malnati -18 500.0499/1
What Will it Take to Win the Sanderson Farms Championship?
Although three of the last four winners have ranked inside the top-ten for Driving Distance, bombing it off the tee isn't essential. The 2015 winner, Peter Malnati, ranked 65th for DD and the 2017 champ, Ryan Armour, only ranked 69th.
Although last year's winner, Sam Burns, ranked eighth for Driving Accuracy, finding fairways isn't crucial either. The first three course winners ranked 40th, 35th and 38th for DA, the 2019 winner, Sebastian Munoz, ranked only 36th and the 2018 winner, Cameron Champ, only 65th. Champ's DA percentage in round three was only 42.86% but his Greens In Regulation percentage was 83.33% and it was a similar story in round four. He had a DA percentage of just 35.71% but his GIR percentage was 61.11% and that looks like an important stat.
Cody Gribble, the 2016 winner here, only ranked 29th for GIR but the other seven course winners have ranked inside the top-ten and the last two winners, Sam Burns and Sergio Garcia, both hit more greens in regulation than anyone else.
Finding the greens with regularity alone is not enough, you need to putt well here to win. The first three home ranked 11th, first and fourth for Putting Average last year and the first five winners at the track ranked fifth, second, first, second and first.
The last three winners putted fractionally poorer than the first five winners and that resulted in slightly fewer birdies being made. Burns made one less birdie than Cameron Young in second so he ranked second, Sergio ranked tied second for birdies and the 2019 winner, Munoz, ranked sixth, whereas the first five winners all made more than anyone else so the picture's quite clear, you need to find plenty of greens and putt the lights out to win and events like this are always hard to predict given it's almost impossible to know beforehand who's going to have a great week with the flat-stick. Which will go some way to explaining why outsiders have a very fair record.
Is There an Angle In?
There are almost too many course correlations to consider here but the three strongest appear to be Detroit Golf Club, Sedgefield Country Club and Victoria National.
Although they fell back over the weekend, Sanderson winners, Cameron Champ, Peter Malnati and Ryan Armour were all inside the top-ten of the inaugural Rock Mortgage Classic at the Donald Ross designed, Detroit Golf Club, and last year's RMC winner, Cameron Davis, was tied for the lead here with a round to go in 2020. And that renewal of this event provided plenty of evidence to suggest there's a strong link to another Ross-designed course - Sedgefield - home of the Wyndham Championship.
Sergio Garcia won the Wyndham ten years ago and two other Wyndham winners pressed the Spaniard on Sunday. Brandt Snedeker, the 2018 winner, was matched at a low of 3.55/2, and J.T Poston, the 2019 Wyndham winner, hit a low of 2.526/4.
At first glance, it's perhaps odd that two Donald Ross tracks appear to link but it stands to reason considering Jackson was extensively remodelled in 2008 by the heavily Ross-influenced, John Fought.
Quite why the Bentgrass Tom Fazio designed Victoria National in Indiana should correlate with the Bermuda grass Country Club of Jackson in Mississippi is a bit of a mystery but there are results to suggest it does.
The 2016 Sanderson Farms Championship winner, Cody Gribble, finished second to Seamus Power in the United Leasing Championship at Victoria National on the Korn Ferry Tour in May '16. Power contended at the SFC again in 2017, having been in the thick of the action early on in 2016 on debut, and alongside Gribble in second in Indiana was Jonathan Randolph, who finished third here four years ago.
Smylie Kaufman, who finished fourth here in 2017, won the United Leasing Championship six years ago and the 2016 SFC runner-up, Greg Owen, won the 2014 edition of the United Leasing Championship, with the 2017 SFC winner, Ryan Armour, finishing second!
The last edition of the United Leasing Championship was in 2018 but the Victoria National is now the host course for the Korn Ferry Tour Championship.
And finally, the Barbasol Championship links strongly to the Wyndham so that's another event to consider.
Is There an Identikit Winner?
Now that it's a standalone event, the calibre of the winners may increase over time and the last two results appear to back that up.
Prior to Sergio's success two years ago, all six course winners had - had far more experience on the Korn Ferry Tour than on the PGA Tour so whether young or old, looking to recently graduated Korn Ferry Tour players looks a good angle in.
Prior to three years ago, Luke Donald had been the only player from outside the States and Canada to win this title in more than 50 years so that's something that might be changing too but players from the southern states do particularly well in this event as a rule.
Ryan Armour comes from Ohio, so he's a bit further north but last year's winner, Burns, is from Louisiana, Gribble comes from Texas and the 2015 winner, Peter Malnati, is from Tennessee, where he won on the Korn Ferry Tour.
Although Burns went off favourite last year, this has been a good event for outsiders. The first four course winners all went off at triple-figure prices and the next three winners were fairly unfancied too, going off at around 70.069/1.
With form figures reading MC-MC-MC-MC-56th, it was just about impossible to pick out Malnati before the off six years ago and in Taylor's first three PGA Tour events in 2014, he'd finished MC-56-MC before winning. It's perhaps not that surprising that they were both matched at 1000.0999/1 before the off!
Woody Austin caused a huge shock in 2013 too, when he was matched at more than 400.0399/1 before the off, so this doesn't look like an event to put too much faith in the market leaders.
As many as seven of the last ten victors were winning for the first time on the PGA Tour.
We haven't seen a triple-figure outsider win on the PGA Tour since KH Lee defended the Byron Nelson Championship way back in May so we might be due one!
Winner's Position and Exchange Price Pre-Round Four
2021 - Sam Burns - trailed by one stroke 4.216/5
2020 - Sergio Garcia - tied for the lead with two others 4.94/1
2019 - Sebastian Munoz led by one stroke 3.39/4
2018 - Cameron Champ led by four strokes 1.51/2
2017 - Ryan Armour led by five strokes 1.684/6
2016 - Cody Gribble trailed by one stroke 13.525/2
2015 - Peter Malnati trailed by one stroke 13.012/1
In-Play Tactics
It's been a mixed back here so far. Both Champ and Armour won wire-to-wire and the very first course winner, Taylor, sat second after round one and he was always on the premises thereafter but given Gribble sat ten off the lead and outside the top-100 places after round one in 2016, and that Malnati overcame a slow start in 2015 (sat tied 42nd and seven off the pace after day one and he was still six adrift at halfway) this is a venue at which a fast start isn't essential.
Burns crept into the event nicely, trailing by four after round one, three at halfway and just a stroke with a round to go. The two winners before him both trailed by five at halfway before strong third rounds propelled them to the front with a round to go but like every other winner here, they were inside the top ten through 36 holes.
Market Leaders
Th defending champ, Sam Burns, heads the market but he might be worth swerving. It's never easy to defend a title and he may well be somewhat fatigued after last week's Presidents Cup.
The second favourite, Sahith Theegala, will surely get off the mark on the PGA Tour sooner rather than later and he led here 12 months ago before eventually finishing eighth after a disappointing 71 on Sunday.
He arrives in fair form having putted nicely to finish sixth in the Fortinet Championship two weeks ago but he's not a great price at 20/1 for someone who's yet to win.
Selections
This is a tricky event so I'm more than happy to take it easy before the off, but I can't let the tournament start without a wager on the classy 25-year-old, Justin Suh, who was a popular pick two weeks ago when he missed the cut at the Fortinet Championship.
Prior to that, he won the Korn Ferry Tour Championship at the aforementioned Victoria National Golf Club, after a string of good results on that Tour, and he surely has a future on the bigger stage. He's a very fair price at 70.069/1 and whatever he does this week he's one to keep an eye on.
Selection:
Justin Suh @ 70.069/1
I'll be back tomorrow with the Find Me a 100 Winner column.
*You can follow me on Twitter @SteveThePunter