It was a well-deserved week off for both us and the top golfers in the world last week after a hotly contested U.S. Open the week before. We are back this week as the PGA Tour heads to the Country Club of Jackson in Mississippi for the annual Sanderson Farms Championship.
We will be resuming our weekly PGA Tour preview and betting tips starting this week, which will kick off an important stretch of golf leading up to the Masters in November.
Sanderson Farms Championship Betting Tips
Although most of the top players in the world opted to take the week off, there was in fact a tournament last week, the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship in the Dominican Republic. The tournament was won by Hudson Swafford, his first since his maiden win back in 2017.
It will be a much tougher test for golfers this week, however, as some of the top players in the world are back in action at the Sanderson Farms Championship in Jackson, Mississippi.
The Field
While it’s definitely not a jam packed field for the Sanderson Farms Championship, there is some top line players set to tee it up this Thursday morning in Round 1. Louis Oosthuizen, Henrik Stenson, Sergio Garcia, Si Woo Kim, Sungjae Im and Zach Johnson headline the field in what should be an interesting tournament and a great chance for someone to come from nowhere to win.
Sebastian Munoz won the event last season and will be back to defend his title alongside other previous winners including Ryan Armour, Peter Malnati, Nick Taylor, Scott Stallings and Chris Kirk.
The Course
The Country Club of Jackson is a 7,461 yard, Par 72 that hasn’t posed a lot of problems for professional golfers in recent history. The average winning score in Mississippi is generally in the high teens or low twenties under par and we certainly expect that to be the case again this week in what should be a relatively easy course set up after demanding challenge the U.S. Open posed a few weeks ago.
Originally designed by Dick Wilson and opened in 1914, the club is made of 27 holes, with the championship PGA Tour course a composite of some of the better holes throughout the course. The championship layout can be described as a parkland style course with small greens and tough run off areas. One style of golfer won’t dominate here, instead a player will need to be dialled in on approach and putting to maximise scoring.
Betting Tips
Top Chances
Hard to go past Scottie Scheffler ($11 at Sportsbet) this week. The No.30 ranked player in the world was unfortunately forced to withdraw from the U.S. Open after testing positive to COVID-19 and has not played since the Tour Championship, where he had a fantastic outing, shooting -12 under par throughout the four rounds to jump all the way into fifth place and earn a massive pay-day. That was good for the 2nd best non-handicapped score of the week, and prior to that, Scheffler was coming off a T4 at the PGA Championship, a T4 at the Northern Trust and a T20 at the BMW Championship.
Another we really like is 24 year old Will Zalatoris ($19 at Bet365). The youngster has been an absolute revelation in the Korn Ferry Tour this season and capped it off with an outstanding performance in the U.S. Open, finishing T6 in his first PGA Tour event since the 2018 season. He was good again in the Dominican Republic, recording a T8. His results in the Korn Ferry were off the charts, racking up ten top 10 finishes in 16 events in the 2020 season.
Dark Horse
The dark-horse pick who really tickles our fancy this week is veteran Pat Perez ($61 at Bet365). Perez has made a living, and has been able to retain his PGA Tour card year after year from thriving in these smaller tournaments where the top players are resting. Has been good in the last two weeks, finishing T9 at the Safeway Open and T21 at the Corales.
