BlogSanderson Preview and Picks

The Buzz:

So while the bulk of marquee players are China playing in the WGC-HSBC, those that couldn’t get into that event are in Mississippi for the Sanderson Farms Championship.  It’s a good week to earn of few dollars more and add up some FedEx Cup points to your total.  In the past this event has been in July opposite of the British Open, now it’s changed to November.  Along with the change is a new course, after 19 years at Annandale Country Club in Madison, Miss., the Sanderson Farms Championship moved locations to the Country Club of Jackson last year. Prior to that, the tournament spent eight years in Hattiesburg, Miss.

Here are some tournament and course information:

This event has been played in Mississippi since 1968.  In the beginning it was an unofficial event and became an official event on the PGA Tour in 1986.  In it’s first year and until 1993, it played opposite to the Masters.  It was called the Deposit Guaranty and was played at Hattisburg C.C. in Hattiesburg, Miss.  Not only did the date change to July and opposite the British Open, in 1994 the event moved to Madison, Miss and the Annandale Country Club.  It again was moved in the schedule in 1999 when  it was opposite the Tour Championship, the Ryder Cup and the Presidents Cup.  In 2011 it switched back to July and the same week as the British Open with Sanderson Farms taking over in 2013.  Not only did the date change but the course will be different for the first time in 20 years as it is moving to The Country Club of Jackson.

The course wasn’t the whole reason for the change, Unlike Annandale the the country club offers more than 120,000 square feet of roofed infrastructure which means more money will be donated to charity.  The course is also terrific and has gone through a lot of changes since the summer.  The biggest change is the fairways have been narrowed and a second cut added with the rough being allowed to grow in.

The course is a John Fought design that features “Golden Age” architectural features with pushed up greens and closely mown run off areas. If the course stays dry, the greens will be treacherous and could make things interesting.

The site had an interesting history because it was better know in Mississippi not for golf but were in 1966 it was the site of a famous raid that caused liquor to be legalization in the state.  So the Country Club of Jackson will this week be remembers as the site that changed the last dry state in the United States instead of for the Sanderson Farms Championship.

• With a new course it’s always up for grabs, nobody has any history and it will take a few years before we see who gains an advantage playing here.  But we learned a lot from last year, first that hitting greens is importnat. C.C. of Jackson ranked 38th hardest of the 52 courses so players tended to hit lot’s of greens. Of those that finished in the top-ten last year, eight of them were in the top-13 of those that played 72 holes, with Nick Taylor finishing T-3rd in that stat and runner-up Jason Bohn finishing T-1st. So to do well, you have to hit lot’s of greens.
• On the face of it we’re looking at a pretty long golf course, with the par-five fifth hole able to stretch beyond 600 yards before the difficult-looking sixth at close to 500. Holes 14 and 15 would look to offer up birdie opportunities before a tough closing stretch, on the Dick Wilson design course in which the finishing hole is a 505 yard, par 4.  Oh, for the record there is no let-up on the par-4s, only one the 15th is under 400 yards so maybe a power hitter is the player to look for.  The par 5s played tough last year as they were the 8th hardest par 5s on the PGA Tour.  The 612 yard fifth hole played almost to par at 4.983. So by winner Nick Taylor playing them at 9 under par with only one player better (Justin Thomas, 10 under finished T-4th) you can see that playing well on the par 5s is important in scoring low.
• This is also one of those courses that you have to hit it long and straight.  Last year it ranked 11th in both driving distance and driving accuracy.
• Unfortunately the weather is going to be terrible this week.  In looking at the long range forecast each day is going to have rain and over the weekend it will be a bit cold.  So those that play well in rain and poor weather will be players to look for.