The Country Club of Jackson is the star of the show this week as they ready to host the Sanderson Farms Championship.
This modern design with classical features has been a longtime host of the event so there is plenty of history to lean on.
A part of that history is the fact that we consistently hear how good the greens are. Golfers mention how fast and pure they are while also talking about comfort on bermuda being a big positive. I would certainly consider giving a bump to any golfers that are born and bred Southerners with a lot of experience on the grainy grass.
With that being said, here are a few that catch my eye when scouting the matchup betting market.
Harris English over Wyndham Clark - Tournament Matchup (+110)
Clark crushed English in head-to-head matchups last season (6 to 2) but it would be foolish to expect the same results from English now that he is healthy.
English looked good in the season opener, posting a T9 in Napa. He also posted a top 10 at this event last year. English has gained strokes tee-to-green in all three trips to Jackson so it’s a course that suits his eye.
As for Clark, he managed a T17 in his SFC debut but has returned to settle for finishes outside of the top 50 in each of his four starts since. He opened his season with a T43 in Napa despite catching fire with the flat stick.
The last piece of the puzzle is the Southern comfort as we’ve heard time and time again from English over the years that he is so comfortable playing in the South, on bermudagrass. That is what he’ll see this week at the Country Club of Jackson.
Davis Riley - Tournament 3-Ball (+160)
The Mississippi native will start his week alongside Chris Kirk and Taylor Moore so that is who we are going again here.
For Riley, he called this his “fifth major” in his presser today and the event will be one he circles on his calendar year after year. We’ve seen Sam Burns use his local knowledge in recent years to contend and eventually win the event. I think we see the same kind of progression from Riley who has all of the tools to be a star on TOUR.
If we compare tournament stats from last season, Riley got the better of Kirk in 9-of-17 overlapping events and he split 10 and 10 when playing in the same tournament as Taylor Moore.
Using those baseline stats this is a relatively even match but I think the best is yet to come for Riley with a potential breakout campaign on the way and I think that big season starts this week as he readies to play a home game in Jackson, Mississippi.