The Sanderson Farms Championship
DFS PGA Tour Golf Picks
Make the most of the data, predictions, and insights from this article to help with your fantasy golf picks for the Sanderson Farms Championship. Check out our PGA Optimizer to make more informed player selections for your DFS DraftKings lineups. Best of luck this week!
The Sanderson Farms Championship
Preview for the Sanderson Farms Championship: This event has been played since 1968, when Mac McLendon first won the Magnolia Classic in a playoff over Pete Fleming to pocket $2,800. We have known this tournament to be the Sanderson Farms Championship, though since 2013 and the Country Club of Jackson has been used as the venue since 2014. The record at this event and on this course came just last year when Sam Burns shot a -22 to win by a single stroke. Over the last five years, winners of the Sanderson Farms Championship include the aforementioned Sam Burns in 2021, Sergio Garcia in 2020, Sebastian Munoz in 2019, Cameron Champ in 2018, and Ryan Armour in 2017.
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Tournament purse: The prize money for this week’s event is $7.9M; the winner collects $1.422M and also earns himself 500 FedEx Cup points.
Course and key stats: The Country Club of Jackson is 7,461 yards in length, is a par 72, and the greens are Bermudagrass. The winning score at this tournament over the last five years ranges from -18 to -22, and you can expect something similar this week – it’s a birdiefest! Some key stats to keep an eye on this week are, in order, strokes gained: putting, strokes gained: approach, driving distance, strokes gained: around the green, and strokes gained: tee to green.
The field: We get a 144-player field this week, and the top 65 players plus ties after round 2 will move on to play weekend golf. Some notable players include Sam Burns, Keegan Bradley, Russell Henley, Davis Riley, Seamus Power, Justin Suh, and others. On a scale ranging from A to D, I rank the field strength to be a C.
Three questions that are relevant to the Sanderson Farms Championship this week:
- Which 10 players have gained the most strokes total over their last 24 rounds? Dean Burmester, Thomas Detry, Trey Mullinax, Brendan Steele, Sam Burns, Denny McCarthy, Sahith Theegala, Sebastian Munoz, Scott Stallings, and Adam Schenk.
- Which 10 players do my custom model like the most? Scott Stallings, JT Poston, Sahith Theegala, Trey Mullinax, Emiliano Grillo, Taylor Moore, Stephan Jaeger, Patrick Rodgers, Brice Garnett, and Russell Henley.
- Which 10 players have gained the most strokes total here (4 rounds minimum) since 2017? Anders Albertson, MJ Daffue, Nick Watney, Brendan Steele, Keegan Bradley, Denny McCarthy, CT Pan, Stewart Cink, Henrik Norlander, and Sahith Theegala.
DraftKings lineup construction strategy this week: It’s a very average to below average week this week in almost every regard, but what do you expect from Fall-swing golf, right? I’m a consistent subscriber that a hybrid lineup is ideal for these types of weeks since you want players with relatively high floors based on their salary number and value-based ones who can pop to win or at least finish in the top 10. Look at projected player ownership on Wednesday if you have the tools and time to do so, and pivot where possible. I say it almost every week, but leave at least a few hundred dollars on the table since a high percentage of DFS users and lineups spend towards the top limit of $50K.
All the best in your journey to win or at least be in the money in some contests this week – here are 15 DFS golf picks on DraftKings (DK), plus I also include player salaries for DK. I consistently provide recent and seasonal finishes for each of my picks, their performances at the event over the last five years, and add some tasty data.
15 Players Who Are High Value Plays This Week – Get Them Into Your DFS Lineups
Sam Burns (Salary: DraftKings – $10.7K) – Burns has two wins in 2022, which I like since not every player has the ability to close and win, and he has the best win equity of any player in the field this week. His stats haven’t been great lately but he still had three top 24’s in the playoffs last season, and he’s the defending champ here, so he should be plenty motivated to put on a good show this week. Sanderson Farms Championship finishes over the last five years: 2021 – Won, 2020 – Cut, 2019 – T45, 2018 – T3, and 2017 – T43.
Sahith Theegala (Salary: DraftKings – $10.4K) – There are lots to like about Theegala as he can pop in all of the major stat categories, he had several top 10’s last season, and he’s coming off a T6 at the Fortinet Championship in his most recent start. He also had a top 10 here last year, and he has the potential to get his first PGA Tour victory this week. Sanderson Farms Championship finishes over the last five years: 2021 – T8 and 2020 – Cut.
Denny McCarthy (Salary: DraftKings – $9.9K) – He’s one of the best putters in the world, and when his approach game goes off, he scores top 10’s – he had three in four starts last season starting with a T5 at the Memorial Tournament thanks to gaining over 11 strokes combined on approach in that trio of events. He has a solid record at this venue, and I expect that to continue with a top 10 or a top 20 this week. Sanderson Farms Championship finishes over the last five years: 2021 – T17, 2020 – T6, 2019 – T18, 2018 – T7, and 2017 – Cut.
Taylor Montgomery (Salary: DraftKings – $9.6K) – The kid is really rolling right now with five straight top 9’s – four of them were on the Korn Ferry Tour, but he had a 3rd at the Fortinet Championship two weeks ago, problem there was he gained 11.19 strokes putting. He will need to show us some ball-striking chops, but it seems as though he’s capable given he gained 1.86 strokes on approach at last year’s U.S. Open. Sanderson Farms Championship finishes over the last five years: None.
Scott Stallings (Salary: DraftKings – $9.5K) – Stallings has been incredible if you exclude his 29th at the Tour Championship where he lost an insane 15.2 strokes ball-striking. Prior to the final playoff event though he had four top 10’s and a T13 in six starts and was outstanding in every regard. He had a T6 here two years ago, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he nabbed another top 10 this week. Sanderson Farms Championship finishes over the last five years: 2021 – Cut, 2020 – T6, 2019 – T28, 2018 – T39, and 2017 – T43.
Taylor Moore (Salary: DraftKings – $8.5K) – Moore has lots to prove still, but he plays a fairly well-rounded game and he has two top 6’s in his last five starts gaining 15+ strokes ball-striking between those two events. He had a top 20 here a year ago, and I expect something as good or better this week. Sanderson Farms Championship finishes over the last five years: 2021 – T17 and 2017 – T53.
Justin Lower (Salary: DraftKings – $7.5K) – He’s coming off a T4 at the Fortinet Championship where he gained strokes across the board, had a T9 at KFT event the start before that, and has five straight top 36’s – three of those were PGA Tour events. Sanderson Farms Championship finishes over the last five years: None.
Stephan Jaeger (Salary: DraftKings – $7.2K) – Jaeger has four straight top 46’s including a 5th at the Rocket Mortgage Classic; he just needs all parts of his game to align and have a complete tournament to find success. He did that at the RMC and that’s how he landed his top 5. He has been decent at this tournament and can certainly get inside the top 25 if some level of ball-striking shows up. Sanderson Farms Championship finishes over the last five years: 2021 – T26, 2019 – Cut, 2018 – T14, and 2017 – T51.
Thomas Detry (Salary: DraftKings – $8.8K) – We mostly see Detry playing in Europe, but he put up a T12 at the Fortinet Championship thanks to strong off the tee and around the green play. The start before that he had a T5 at the BMW PGA Championship. Some good things are happening with him, so let’s see what he can do this week. Sanderson Farms Championship finishes over the last five years: None.
Sepp Straka (Salary: DraftKings – $8.9K) – Straka turned on the jets for the playoffs season with a runner-up at the FexEx St. Jude Championship, a T28 at the BMW Championship, and a T7 at the Tour Championship. If you like past results then you won’t like Sepp this week, but if you’re a recent form sort of DFS user, then you may want to invest in him this week. Sanderson Farms Championship finishes over the last five years: 2021 – Cut, 2020 – Cut, 2019 – Cut, and 2018 – Cut.
Emiliano Grillo (Salary: DraftKings – $9.2K) – He has been consistently in the top 30’s here since 2019, and has been better than that lately with five top 31’s in his last six starts including two T2’s. His off the tee play and putting have been great recently, and if that continues, he should have a good result this week. Sanderson Farms Championship finishes over the last five years: 2021 – T39, 2020 – T35, and 2019 – T39.
Harris English (Salary: DraftKings – $8.6K) – It will take more time before I decide if English is back yet, but he had a T9 at the Fortinet Championship because of a strong short game play where he gained 7.33 strokes. He had a top 10 here three years ago, and while I won’t say he will do it again this week, the potential is there if his short game remains hot or he rediscovers his good approach play. Sanderson Farms Championship finishes over the last five years: 2019 – T6, 2018 – T38, and 2017 – Cut.
JT Poston (Salary: DraftKings – $10.2K) – Poston won seven starts ago and has five straight top 35’s. I don’t like how he relies on his short game so much, but he’s capable of solid ball-striking also. He has two top 11’s here over the last three years, including a T3 two years ago, so the upside is there. Sanderson Farms Championship finishes over the last five years: 2021 – Cut, 2020 – T3, 2019 – T11, 2018 – T54, and 2017 – T53.
Trey Mullinax (Salary: DraftKings – $8.3K) – He won six starts ago and had a great start to the playoffs last season with a T5 in leg one and a T12 in the second leg. All parts of Mullinax’s game have been surprisingly strong since mid-July, let’s see how he responds to missing the cut at the Fortinet Championship – mostly due to losing 3.8 strokes putting. Sanderson Farms Championship finishes over the last five years: 2021 – T4, 2018 – Cut, and 2017 – WD.
Andrew Putnam (Salary: DraftKings – $7.7K) – Putnam finished last season off fairly well with nine top 46’s in his last ten starts including a T5 at the FedEx St. Jude Championship and a T23 at the BMW Championship. If his short game falters he could be screwed, but in his defense, he has gained strokes ball-striking in five out of his last seven measured tournaments played. Don’t expect too much from him this week but he could put up a 20 or 30-something finish which would be fine given his salary number. Sanderson Farms Championship finishes over the last five years: 2021 – Cut, 2020 – T53, and 2017 – T34.
