Sanderson Farms Championship PGA DFS Stats Preview: Course Fits, GPP Picks, and Values

After a dominating performance by the United States at the Presidents Cup, the PGA TOUR heads to Mississippi for the Sanderson Farms Championship at the Country Club of Jackson.

The course is a 7,461 par 72 with fast Bermudagrass greens. The tournament had been an alternate field event up until the 2019-20 season when it was upgraded to a standalone event that gives the winner 500 FedEx Cup points and an invitation to the Masters.

The field is largely as expected for a swing season event, but there are some talented players teeing it up in Jackson this week. Some notable golfers in the 156-man field this week include Keegan Bradley, Sebastian Munoz, Seamus Power, Davis Riley, Sahith Theegala, and Gary Woodland.

For contests on DraftKings, I will be breaking down the key stats (past 24 rounds) and selecting golfers from different price tiers to provide flexibility for a DFS lineup.

And if you missed it, we added two new metrics in our models — Perfect% and SimLeverage. You can find an explainer on those metrics here.

The cliff notes version is that you can use SimLeverage to quickly find leverage plays in tournaments, while Perfect% is excellent for finding the best price-considered plays for cash games.

For large-field tournaments, you can utilize our Lineup Optimizer to effortlessly create up to 150 lineups, or use our Lineup Builder if you like to hand-build your lineups.

This analysis may reference Strokes Gained, a set of proprietary metrics generated by the PGA TOUR using millions of data points to calculate how many shots, on average, it takes a player to get the ball in the hole from every distance and situation.

Strokes Gained is now available in the FantasyLabs PGA Models.

Strokes Gained: Approach

SG: Approach will be important this week as the club was renovated in 2008 and tried to imitate some classic Donald Ross course features. This means the greens will be relatively small and finding the right level on approach shots will be crucial.

The course will generate plenty of low scores, so it’s important that players give themselves plenty of birdie looks. Sergio Garcia gained 7.0 strokes on the field in his victory two seasons ago, which was third in the field. Sam Burns gained 8.3 last year, which was good for second.

High-end target: Russell Henley— $10,100 (3rd Strokes Gained: Approach)
Mid-range target: Brendan Steele— $7,900 (1st Strokes Gained: Approach)
Value target: Chesson Hadley— $6,800 (4th Strokes Gained: Approach)

Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee

Placing an emphasis on the best drivers of the golf ball is a smart strategy. This stat has driving accuracy built into it, and although the fairways are relatively easy to hit at the Country Club of Jackson, long and straight is always a big advantage.

I am looking for golfers who are going to have the shortest approach shots and are coming in from the fairway. In 2020 and 2021, the winners Sergio Garcia and Sam Burns led the field (+5.5) and (+6.1) in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee.

High-end target: Emiliano Grillo $9,200 (2nd Strokes Gained: Off the Tee)
Mid-range target: Wyndham Clark— $8,000 (3rd Strokes Gained: Off the Tee)
Value target: Hayden Buckley— $7,000 (4th Strokes Gained: Off the Tee)

Driving Distance

The four most recent winners at the Country Club of Jackson all hit it pretty far off of the tee. With the rough not being a major problem this week, the bomb-and-gauge approach should be very successful.

High-end target: Taylor Montgomery— $9,600 (16th in Driving Distance)
Mid-range target: Thomas Detry— $8,800 (3rd in Driving Distance)
Value target: Byeong Hun An— $7,400 (11th in Driving Distance)

Strokes Gained: Par 5

Three of the four par 5s on the course should be reachable by the longer hitters, with the longest par 5 hole measuring 587 yards. Finding eagle and birdie opportunities on the par 5s this week may be the difference in determining a winner.

High-end target: Emiliano Grillo— $9,200 (5th Strokes Gained: Par 5)
Mid-range target: Thomas Detry— $8,800 (4th Strokes Gained: Par 5)
Value target: Brandon Wu— $7,000 (2nd Strokes Gained: Par 5)

SG: Putting (Bermudagrass Greens Fast or Lightning)

Historically, SG: Putting at the Sanderson Farms Championship has weighed as the most indicative score of the tournament winner. While this isn’t necessarily rare in PGA TOUR tournaments, it was 10% more important at Country Club of Jackson than the average course on TOUR.

The greens have been either “fast” or “lightning” in every round the tournament has been played. Whoever wins this week will need to catch a hot putter, so the best putters on Bermuda should have the best chance to do that.

Sam Burns ranked first in this part of the model last season prior to his victory.

High-end target: Scott Stallings— $9,500 (7th SG: Putting (Bermudagrass Greens Fast or Lightning)
Mid-range target: Sepp Straka— $8,900 (1st SG: Putting (Bermudagrass Greens Fast or Lightning)
Value target: Chesson Hadley— $6,800— (4th SG: Putting (Bermudagrass Greens Fast or Lightning)

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