SANDERSON FARMS CHAMPIONSHIP
Purse: $6M
Winner's Share: $1.08M
FedEx Cup Points: 500 to the Winner
Location: Jackson, Miss.
Course: The Country Club of Jackson
Yardage: 7,461
Par: 72
2024 champion: Kevin Yu
Tournament Preview
In the immediate aftermath of the Ryder Cup, it's a little hard to recalibrate our golf minds and bodies to get excited over a regular ol' PGA Tour event. Especially a weak fall-season event.
But, bet you didn't know that the Sanderson Farms Championship is the biggest professional sporting event in Mississippi.
So it's all about perspective and your vantage point. It's a very big deal in the Magnolia State.
(But wait until they see this field!)
Max Homa, Akshay Bhatia, Min Woo Lee, defending champion Kevin Yu and even one Ryder Cupper head a field of 132 that features just four players among the top 50 in the world rankings. Besides Bhatia and Lee, they are Sam Stevens and J.T. Poston.
For those of you scoring at home, Homa is not in the top 50. Not even close. He has plummeted all the way to 120th in the OWGR, but he still is the biggest name in town -- a multiple-time winner and former Ryder Cup star. Rasmus Hojgaard was not a Ryder Cup star last week -- in fact, he was the only player on either side who didn't score a point -- but he is in the field, along with twin brother Nicolai Hojgaard.
There are two more Ryder Cupper, of sorts, on hand: Francesco Molinari, one of Europe's vice captains, and Brandt Snedeker, a Team USA vice captain.
Other names of note include Tom Kim and Mackenzie Hughes; three recent college standouts in Luke Clanton, Gordon Sargent and David Ford; current Ole Miss star and 2025 NCAA Division I individual champion Michael La Sasso; and former Ole Miss star Kye Meeks, now playing on PGA Tour Americas (combining the old Latin America and Canadian tours).
Local pride is strong this year 🌽🐓
The reigning NCAA Individual Champion and Ole Miss's own Michael La Sasso is in the field at the 2025 Sanderson Farms Championship! pic.twitter.com/r53MshQwoi
— Sanderson Farms Championship (@Sanderson_Champ) September 27, 2025
As a reminder, 30 PGA Tour cards for next season are still up for grabs through The RSM Classic at the end of the 2025 schedule, with dozens of golfers still battling to stay or get inside the top-100 in the point standings. Players who finish from No. 51 to No. 60 in points get into two early 2026 Signature Events at Pebble Beach and Riviera, so even those with Tour cards secured have a lot to play for.
The Sanderson Farms has had a nearly six-decade history unlike any other PGA Tour event. It has undergone incredible change through the years and faced enormous obstacles just to still be standing today.
The history of the Sanderson Farms is mind-boggling. It has been known by many names since its inception way back in 1968 as the Magnolia Classic. For almost half its existence, until 1994, it wasn't even considered an official PGA Tour event; it was embarrassingly called a "satellite" tournament -- the money was real but the results were "unofficial." Then it became an opposite-field event.
Along the way, it has been moved around more than an army brat, having been played in seven different months: April, May, July, August, September, October and November. It has been an opposite-field event the same weeks as -- and how's this for a heavyweight lineup of competition -- the Masters, the Open Championship, the TOUR Championship and multiple WGCs, plus the Ryder and Presidents Cups. Until 2018, the tourney was played the same week as the WGC-HSBC Champions but then was elevated to the top tier of tournaments.
Of course, tournament organizers likely are thankful just to be a full-status event, now for the seventh year, so life is good, even a week after the Ryder Cup and opposite the NFL and college football deep in the heart of SEC country.
This will be the 12th year at the Country Club of Jackson. The course is a 1962 Dick Wilson design, with a John Fought/Mike Gogel renovation in 2008. The course has occasionally showed some teeth but not often. Yu won last year at 23-under in a playoff with Beau Hossler. It's a moderate length for a par-72. The tree-lined fairways are largely flat, wide and straight, allowing everyone to let fly. Even on narrower holes, there's little impediment to taking out driver.
The tournament likely will be decided from the second shot on in, notably on the greens. They are bermudagrass and average 6,200 square feet. The key is, they are set up super fast, 12-13 on the Stimpmeter. There are only 56 bunkers on the entire course and water comes into play on five holes. One of the five is the 479-yard 16th, which is considered the signature hole and normally plays as the hardest hole on the course. It is part of an odd closing stretch of four straight par-4s that begins with the drivable 330-yard 15th and ends with the 505-yard 18th, which often plays as the second- or third-hardest hole.
As for the weather, it will be very hot all week with high temperatures in the upper 80s. But there's little chance of rain and wind is forecast to be mostly in the single digits mph.
Sanderson Farms factoids: Former NBC announcer Roger Maltbie won it back in 1980 when it was called the Magnolia Classic. He shot an opening 65 and then saw the final three rounds all rained out. They gave him only $4,500 and he reportedly joked that it might not even cover his bar tab. ... For the second straight PGA Tour event, we've seem a dip in the purse. Last year, the Sanderson doled out $8.2 million and this year it's a mere $7.6 million.
Key Stats to Winning at the Country Club of Jackson
The most important indicators every week are current form and course history. "Key Stats" follow in importance.
• Strokes Gained: Approach/Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green
• Strokes Gained: Off the Tee/Driving Distance
• Approach from 125-150 yards
• Strokes Gained: Putting
• Birdie Average/Birdie or Better Percentage
Past Champions
2024 - Kevin Yu
2023 - Luke List
2022 - Mackenzie Hughes
2021 - Sam Burns
2020 - Sergio Garcia
2019 - Sebastian Munoz
2018 - Cameron Champ
2017 - Ryan Armour
2016 - Cody Gribble
2015 - Peter Malnati
Champion's Profile
Yu broke through for his first PGA Tour win a year ago, shooting 66-66-66-67 for a 23-under score and a one-hole playoff win over Hossler.
He ranked 19th in SG: Off-the-Tee, 24th in Approach, 51st in Around-the-Green and, notably, second in Putting. Yu is not a great putter, and neither are two other guys who finished in the top-5 a year ago: Lucas Glover and Keith Mitchell. Hossler also putted well, ranking 14th in the field on the weak. Hossler is traditionally a good putter.
Most years, a high finish is predicated on hitting the ball far, not necessarily straight, gaining strokes on approach and navigating the lightning-quick greens. Yu didn't hit the ball far, but he was fairly straight. Hossler hit it far and straight. Both players finished top-25 in SG: Approach -- decent but not elite.
The over/under on this year's winning score is 266.5 per golfodds.com -- 17.5 under par.
DRAFTKINGS VALUE PICKS
Based on Standard $50K Salary Cap
$10,00 and up
Akshay Bhatia - $10,100 (Winning odds at the DraftKings Sportsbook: +2000)
Bhatia is the only guy with a five-figure price and deservedly so. He didn't have the greatest season on Tour, but he's one of only five players in the field who reached the second playoff event. He finished T26 at the BMW, after a top-10 at the FedEx St. Jude. Bhatia even played the Procore, so he's been active recently. He tied for 11th there.
$9,000-$9,900
Michael Thorbjornsen - $9,500 (+2200)
Any time a course lets you bomb and the penalties for missing the fairway are not severe, Thorbjornsen shows up in models. In fact, he's No. 1 in our model, ranking second in this field over the past 24 rounds in birdie or better. He is an aggressive player, and the Country Club of Jackson let's you be aggressive. All that explains how Thorbjornsen tied for eighth here a year ago.
Emiliano Grillo - $9,300 (+3500)
Grillo isn't the most aggressive player, but he is very strong tee-to-green and has putted far better this season than he's historically done. At 68th in points, Grillo still has lots to play for during the fall season. He tied for 11th here a year ago and for fifth three years ago.
Jacob Bridgeman - $9,200 (+4000)
Bridgeman is one of the best players in the field, someone who played in two playoff events this season and might be a bit underpriced. He finished in the top-20 in both the FedEx St. Jude and BMW but has been idle since. Bridgeman debuted at the Sanderson a year ago and tied for 11th.
$8,000-$8,900
Mackenzie Hughes - $8,700 (+4000)
Hughes is not a long hitter, but he's had great success here and ultimately that's what matters most. He was the 2023 winner and, after missing the cut the next year (it's always harder as the defending champion), he tied for eighth last year. Hughes currently sits 65th in the point standings, and he'll be striving to move into the top-60 during the fall. He got off to a good start with a T7 at the Procore.
Max Homa - $8,400 (+4000)
Homa continues to show glimmers (specks??) of hope that his game is rebounding into form. He tied for 19th at the Procore and, with 10 U.S. Ryder Cuppers in the field, that wasn't bad at all. Homa hasn't played the Sanderson since 2018, but there's not a big learning curve at the Country Club of Jackson. Of all of Homa's on-course issues this season, driving accuracy may be tops. He will get a break here in that regard with the wide fairways.
Matt Wallace - $8,100 (+4000)
Wallace has not played on the PGA Tour in a couple of months -- since the Wyndham. But he's been active on the DP World Tour, playing four times since then, including a runner-up at the Omega Masters in which Matt Fitzpatrick and Rasmus Hojgaard were in the field. (Thriston Lawrence, who won that that tournament, is also in the Sanderson Farms.) Wallace has made 10 straight worldwide cuts and is up to No. 70 OWGR.
Mark Hubbard - $8,000 (+5500)
Hubbard finished fifth at the Sanderson n 2023 and sixth in '24 before a down tournament last year. Back in August, he agonizingly missed the FedEx Cup playoffs despite tying for third at the Wyndham; he's currently 77th in the point standings. Hubbard is ranked in the top-70 on Tour in driving accuracy, SG: Approach, greens in regulation and SG: Putting, collectively outstanding numbers in relation to the rest of the field.
$7,000-$7,900
Patrick Fishburn - $7,800 (+5500)
If you look at Fishburn's seasonlong stats, it's a bit curious why he sits 95th in the point standings. That's inside the top-100 but far from a sure thing to keep his card. But then then you see he's missed the cut in half of his 24 starts, many of them weaker events (not as weak as this week, though). Fishburn has had four very high finishes this season, all in the top-8. But back to the stats. He's top-85 in every strokes-gained metric and some far better, plus seventh in greens in regulation. That's all a roundabout way of saying there's a lot to like about Fishburn.
Pierceson Coody - $7,500 (+6000)
Coody has made only 12 starts, not enough to be ranked statistically. He has three top-25s and one top-10, and that was a T3 at the 3M Open, where he got to 20-under. That's certainly something to consider this week: Can a guy go low, has he shown us that before? If the $7,000s are starting to sound like we're trying to sell you a used car when your instincts say you shouldn't buy, you wouldn't be wrong. But that's most of the $7,000s and just wait until we get to the $6,000s.
Matti Schmid - $7,400 (+5500)
Schmid sits 67th in points. He made the playoffs. His card is secure. And yet he is all the way down here. He hasn't missed a cut since June, albeit with only one top-30. But Schmid does have four top-10s on the season. He's ranked top-50 in SG: Putting and GIR. His biggest weak spot is driving accuracy, which shouldn't bite him so bad this week.
$6,000-$6,900
Chandler Phillips - $6,800 (+12000)
Phillips got it to 18-under in tying for 13th at the Rocket Classic. So we know he can go low. He also shot 15-under at the Byron Nelson. Phillips is ranked 15th on Tour on approaches from 125 to 150 yards and first in that stat in this field over his past 24 rounds.
Kris Ventura - $6,800 (+11000)
Ventura is not a very good player. But he's among the better $6,000s. Over his past 24 rounds, he's actually quite good in relation to the rest of the field. Which is crazy since he's missed his last three cuts (although that's only six of the 24 rounds). He's a long hitter, often a good putter, top-50 on Tour in GIR and in the upper half in birdie average. Five years ago, Ventura played his lone Sanderson Farms to date and tied for sixth.
Norman Xiong - $6,300 (+25000)
It's a vast wasteland down here under $6,500. Xiong has been out since the Rocket Classic in late June, yet there are still almost 25 guys priced cheaper. We don't know the reason for Xiong's absence. He withdrew from two Korn Ferry events in late May and early June before the Rocket. Xiong does have two top-25s in six PGA Tour starts this season, though they were in opposite-field events.
Scanning Len's picks for the Sanderson Farms Championship? See how they look in RotoWire's PGA DFS Lineup Optimizer.
