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 - $7.9M
The Preview
Yahoo's DFS lobby was devoid of golf contests this past week as the Presidents Cup provided a rare gap in the PGA Tour schedule. The International Team did their best to create drama down the stretch by ultimately covering the 6.5-point spread that originally favored the Americans, but the U.S. Team successfully defended their soil overall. We're back in action 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 eight years. 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 36.1 percent of the approach shot distribution has fallen here. There doesn't appear to be a weather-split advantage this week as sunny skies are expected to accompany fairly tame winds each day.
Recent Champions
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
Par-5: 550-600 efficiency
Proximity: 100-150 yards
Yahoo Value Picks
Based on $200 salary cap
Cream of the Crop
Sahith Theegala - $41
Theegala rebounded from a disappointing TOUR Championship debut by gaining 4.1 strokes from tee to green and another 4.7 strokes with the flat stick en route to a sixth-place finish at the Fortinet Championship. He's now gained 2.3 or more strokes putting in four of his last five starts dating to the Rocket Mortgage Classic. Theegala held the 54-hole lead here in Jackson last year before ultimately tying for eighth after carding a final-round 71, finishing the tournament with 21 birdies and an eagle to just four bogeys.
Russell Henley - $40
Henley's putter has run ice cold since mid-April, but bermuda has been his preferred surface and he gained at least 2.1 strokes on the greens in each of his first two visits to the Country Club of Jackson. Nonetheless, we target Henley for his ball-striking upside, as he resides second to none among this week's field in SG: Tee-to-Green over his last 12 rounds. Over his past 10 measured events, Henley is gaining a combined 15.6 feet in average proximity on approaches from 75-150 yards.
Glue Guys
Taylor Montgomery - $35
Montgomery posted the lowest final-round score at the Fortinet Championship to backdoor a top-3 result in Napa where he paced the entire field in SG: Putting with 11.2 strokes gained on the greens, racking up 21 total tweeters along the way. The 27-year-old rookie led the Korn Ferry Tour in birdie average this past season, and he's ascended to a career-best 88th in the Official World Golf Ranking with five consecutive top-10s since the KFT's Price Cutter Charity Championship in late July.
J.T. Poston - $32
I've found Poston as short as 16/1 to win as an outright bet, and Yahoo's $32 salary is a significant discount compared to the rest of the DFS market. His course history at the Country Club of Jackson includes a stretch of five straight cuts made from 2016 through 2020, when he notably finished solo-third while co-leading the field in par-5 scoring. Poston hasn't lost strokes putting in a single measured event since mid-June's RBC Canadian Open.
Bargain Bin
Davis Thompson - $26
One of Thompson's three PGA Tour appearances throughout the 2021-22 season came here at the Sanderson Farms Championship where he managed to finish T35 despite losing 1.5 strokes with the putter. He found success on the greens during the 2022-23 opener, however, gaining 2.615 strokes with the flat stick in Round 1 and then another 2.645 in Round 3. More impressively, Thompson ranked T1 among the field in GIR percentage at Silverado.
Taylor Moore - $25
Since the start of July, Moore has gained an average of 2.2 strokes per event with the flat stick across seven starts from the John Deere Classic through the Fortinet Championship. This recent stretch includes back-to-back top-6 finishes at the Rocket Mortgage Classic and the Wyndham Championship, gaining a combined 18 strokes from tee to green throughout those eight rounds alone. Moore tied for 17th at last year's Sanderson Farms Championship in his second career C.C. of Jackson appearance.
Wyndham Clark - $24
Clark's $24 salary is simply too low against such weak competition. While his style of bombing it off the tee and then relying on a formidable flat stick should suit him well in Mississippi, it's a bit strange that he's placed top-50 just once through five appearances here. He's coming off a 43rd-place finish at the Fortinet Championship where he ranked second in SG: Putting, but Clark is also third in SG: Off-the-Tee over his last 24 rounds.
