Fantasy Golf Predictions – Sanderson Farms Championship

2018 Sanderson Farms Championship Preview

It’s a rarity, but there is no European Tour event this week, given the co-sanctioned nature of the WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai.

There is, however, an alternate event on the PGA TOUR, the Sanderson Farms Championship, and DraftKings is running a nice juicy slate for it.

Played at the Country Club of Jackson in Mississippi, this parklands layout measures 7,200 yards for its Par 72 and features wide enough fairways that are lined with trees as well as small(ish) Bermuda greens, however these are likely to be receptive given that there’s rain in the weather forecast.

Embed from Getty Images

This is a weak field event, and the fact that winning scores have ranged from -19 (Ryan Armour last year) to -20 (Cody Gribble in ’16) would suggest that this is an easy enough layout to tame.

Armour picked his way around, ranking third for Driving Accuracy and Greens in Regulation last year, which is a strategy that will naturally create chances if you putt well….which he did.

But there appears to be more than one way to skin a cat at CC of Jackson. Chesson Hadley, who finished T2 last year, averaged 303 yards off the tee but only found 63% of fairways. His high GIR count owed much to scrambling, while in T3 Jonathan Randolph found just 63% of GIR but putted like an absolute demon.

The bad news is that there is no obvious template for success here!

The confusion is franked by the sportsbook odds of the most recent winners of this event: none of Armour (100/1), Gribble (80/1), Peter Malnati (175/1) or Nick Taylor (200/1) can exactly be described as a likely candidate.

All of which makes drafting a six-man roster tricky, but nevertheless here’s a half-dozen that we believe in at the Sanderson Farms Championship.

[membership level=”0″]

This Week’s Sanderson Farms Championship Fantasy Picks & Predictions

You must be a Premium Member to view our exclusive fantasy golf picks.

Already a member?  Sign in Here.

[/membership]

[membership level=”1,2,3″]

This Week’s Sanderson Farms Championship Fantasy Picks

Harold Varner III – $9,900 – It really is one of those unusual tournaments where judging the players at the top of the salary cap is pretty tough to do.

The top two, Patrick Rodgers and Sungjae Im, have untapped potential, but the former has ever really gotten the job done on the PGA TOUR and the latter has spent the past couple of weeks in Asia.

It’s a similar reason why we’re happy to swerve Ryan Armour, despite his obvious claims, while the likes of Aaron Baddeley are too unpredictable to have on board as a top tier pick.

Then you have grafters like Kevin Streelman and Lucas Glover; fine players, no doubt, but do we really believe they can win here?

Instead, this might be the week where a player we’ve tracked for a while finally comes to fruition.

Harold Varner III has been on the radar since he banked a top-10 at THE PLAYERS Championship, and while there have been ups and downs since then he was very much in the mix at the Greenbrier Classic before losing out to Kevin Na.

A top-10 at the John Deere Classic followed, as well as a top-20 at the Canadian Open and four rounds in the 60s at the Wyndham Championship.

The 28-year-old finished T14 at the Safeway Open in his last start, ranking the same number for SG: Tee-to-Green, so the basic principles of ball striking appear to be in place. More importantly, his form of the past few months seems to be holding – an advantage he possesses over many others in this field.

Cameron Davis – $8,900 – The career progression of this talented youngster may well be worth following.

He won his home Australian Open at the age of 22, and joined the Web.com Tour shortly after last year. In among a number of fine performances, he won the Nashville Open and finished T4 in the Knoxville Open; he clearly enjoys his golf in the south!

He was T17 at the Safeway Open in his first start as a PGA TOUR pro – solid enough – and with wider greens in Jackson than those of Silverado he can really let his bombs fly off the tee; he averaged 319 yards in that Safeway Open!

But the Aussie is way more than just a bomber, and you wonder if his undoubted potential might show early on in his maiden pro season.

Michael Thompson – $8,700 – Ranking 23rd for the whole of last season on the PGA TOUR, Michael Thompson found more greens in regulation than the likes of Justin Thomas, Rickie Fowler and Hideki Matusyama.

He’s not a bad putter either (14th for SG: Putting last term), and so it’s a mystery why the 33-year-old doesn’t get into the mix for titles.

Perhaps the penny is starting to drop. Thompson has recorded top-20s in his last pair of PGA TOUR starts at the Wyndham Championship and the Safeway Open, so perhaps he heads into the 2019 campaign with renewed vigor.

Presumably, the University of Alabama graduate will enjoy a return to his old stomping ground too.

Hunter Mahan – $8,200 – Back in the big leagues after a period in the doldrums, the confidence must be flowing through Hunter Mahan once more.

Remember, this is a guy who used to ranked in the world’s top ten, and whose most recent win – the 2014 Barclays – came more recently than the prior victories of Keegan Bradley and Kevin Na, who both lifted trophies in 2018. Mahan is the real deal, too, winning three WGC events, a FedExCup series tournament and losing in a play-off to win the TOUR Championship.

And he proved there’s life in the old dog yet, finishing second in the DAP Championship on the Web.com Tour back in September. Now he’s got his playing rights secured, Mahan can relax and play his best golf.

A year ago, Armour picked his way around the Country Club of Jackson, and you could envisage Mahan – who ranked top-10 for both Strokes Gained Tee-to-Green and on Approach at the Safeway Open – to deliver a similar method this week.

Seamus Power – $7,200 – On four separate occasions in the 2017/18 season did Power finish in the teens; narrowly missing out on those top-10 bucks. Here, in a weakened field, he can surely get into the big money places.

The Irishman has length but is occasionally erratic off the tee, so the chance to club down here a la Armour will suit.

The course suitably seems to suit his eye anyway, having sat T3 after 54 holes last year before succumbing to a T18 return.

Power, who spent his college years at Tennessee, missed the cut at Safeway Open but at -2, so that wasn’t the end of the world, and in his two rounds there he found 75% of fairways at an average of 300 yards. If he can bring that tee game with more focused iron play, he will create lots of birdie opportunities this week.

Trey Mullinax – $7,000 – He’s one of the longest hitters in the game, and while hitting outright bombs off the tee won’t get the job done here, Mullinax can temper his natural game with some still rangy irons off the peg.

The Alabama boy tends to save his very best performances for the Deep South, having finished T2 in the Texas Open and T6 in the St Jude Classic last season.

If all goes to plan he does have the ability to shoot low numbers – ranking 44th for Birdie or Better Percentage and 49^th for Par 5 Scoring Average last season. If he can straighten up off the tee in a part of the US he feels most comfortable, we could have a high value sleeper on our hands.

[/membership]

Cover photo via Instagram