This article is part of our Yahoo PGA DFS Picks series.
Sanderson Farms Championship
Jackson, Mississippi
Country Club of Jackson - Par 72 - 7,461 yards
Field - 144 entrants
Purse - $8.2M
The Preview
Golf returns to Yahoo's DFS menu after the lobby was devoid of contests during the Ryder Cup this past week, while Team Europe controlled the action from the jump in Italy. The PGA Tour's new FedExCup Fall resumes this week at the Country Club of Jackson with a 144-man field that lacks starpower, though scoring opportunities won't be scarce in Mississippi as the average winning score sits right around 19-under-par throughout the past nine years since this venue became the tournament's host site.
The C.C. of Jackson is a straightaway tree-lined course with narrow fairways and lightning-quick bermuda greens, but the surrounding rough isn't very penal. We should see plenty of wedges into these short par-4s and long par-5s, emphasizing proximity from 100-150 yards where 36.2 percent of the approach-shot distribution has fallen here. There might be a slight advantage for the AM/PM wave if the rain pours Thursday afternoon into Friday morning, but it's only a situation to monitor and probably not severe enough to consider for lineup construction at this point.
Recent Champions
2022 - Mackenzie Hughes
2021 - Sam Burns
2020 - Sergio Garcia
2019 - Sebastian Munoz
2018 - Cameron Champ
2017 - Ryan Armour
2016 - Cody Gribble
2015 - Peter Malnati
2014 - Nick Taylor
Key Stats to Victory
SG: Putting (Bermuda)
Birdie or Better percentage
SG: Approach
Driving distance
Yahoo Value Picks
Based on $200 salary cap
Cream of the Crop
Ludvig Aberg - $43
It's totally understandable to fade Aberg in cash games after the 22-year-old traveled from Rome to Mississippi this week upon finishing with a 2-2-0 record and a European victory in his Ryder Cup debut. However, his raw DFS scoring upside and win equity against such a feeble field makes it difficult to arrive underweight on Aberg in GPPs, especially given he's the betting favorite by a decent margin. He won the Omega European Masters in early September, and over his last 24 measured rounds on the PGA Tour, Aberg ranks second in SG: Off-the-Tee, second in Birdies or Better Gained, fifth in driving distance and sixth in eagle rate.
Eric Cole - $41
Overtaking the aforementioned Aberg atop the BoB Gained rankings over their last 24 rounds, Cole also paced the Fortinet Championship in SG: Tee-to-Green during his most recent outing in Napa. He hasn't missed a single cut since the Charles Schwab Challenge in May, likely coasting to 2023 Rookie of the Year honors with a solid FedExCup Fall showing.
Glue Guys
K.H. Lee - $34
Rebounding from three consecutive missed cuts, Lee tied for 14th at the Fortinet Championship where he gained 8.9 strokes from tee to green en route to finishing top-4 in both SG: Approach and GIR percentage. Examining a broader view of Lee's potential course fit without much recent form to use, he ranks fourth among his peers in P5: 550-600 Efficiency over his last 50 rounds, and all four of the C.C. of Jackson's par-5s measure between 554-612 yards.
Doug Ghim - $32
Sticking with the 50-round overview, Ghim is third in P4: 400-450 Efficiency, fourth in Prox: 125-150 yards, sixth in BoB Gained and 14th in SG: Approach, ultimately landing in the No. 4 spot of my custom model at this larger sample. He's gained an average of 5.4 strokes from tee to green per event throughout his last 10 starts, and he hasn't lost strokes with his irons since the Wells Fargo Championship in early May. Ghim has made the cut in three of four trips to the Sanderson Farms Championship, notably placing top-25 here in 2020 during his only C.C. of Jackson appearance that included a positive SG: Putting effort.
Lucas Herbert - $30
I typically avoid Herbert in most formats due to his relatively awful iron play, but he's become a capable driver, and if this turns into a putting contest, you might want his flat stick somewhere in your player pool. He fired a first-round 63 at the Fortinet Championship where he went on to rank third in total putts, fourth in SG: Putting and sixth in putts per GIR. A few starts prior to that he gained 6.7 strokes on the greens at the Travelers Championship, so the possibility for spike weeks is evident. The Aussie lands right around 30-1 in the outright betting market this week, so I'd expect plenty of other gamers to agree that a $30 Yahoo salary is a touch low, though he's not generally a popular click due to the aforementioned ball-striking concerns.
Bargain Bin
Cameron Champ - $26
Champ's brutal 2023 campaign makes it pretty impossible to consider him for cash games, but he's an interesting selection in GPPs not only because he's a past champion here, but also because he ranks second in driving distance and 11th in SG: OTT over his last 50 rounds. Upon digging further into Champ's form, I was shocked to see that he's actually been on the positive side of SG: Approach in seven of his last eight starts dating back to the AT&T Byron Nelson, so there's a little bit more hope from a ceiling perspective if he can just roll the rock at closer to a field-average level.
Garrick Higgo - $25
I don't blame Higgo for missing the cut at the Fortinet Championship so soon after his wedding, and he's still not too far removed from the T33-T21-T19-T13 stretch that he posted from the Rocket Mortgage Classic to the 3M Open. Higgo's off-the-tee prowess is the main reason we'd target him, but he's also gained strokes putting in six straight tournaments. Additionally, he finished third in his Sanderson Farms debut last year, rattling off three rounds of 68 or better as he ultimately led the field in both total birdies and par-5 scoring.
Nate Lashley - $25
Lashley might not carry as much upside as the Champ/Higgo types, but the former has made the cut in 10 of his last 12 starts dating to the RBC Heritage. Aside from being at a slight disadvantage in terms of driving distance, Lashley doesn't really do anything else at a below-average level, while his mid-$20s salary provides relief in cash-game lineups.
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