The PGA TOUR heads to Mississippi this week for the Sanderson Farms Championship.
For DFS gamers, that means a return to stroke-play format after last week’s team event. That puts the emphasis back on finding cut-makers with upside instead of trying to calculate how many matches a golfer will play.
The longtime host course is the Country Club of Jackson. It’s a par 72 with lots of beefy par 5s and fast, bermuda greens. Let’s hover over that last angle and look at top performers on courses with bermudagrass greens.
Bagging Birdies on Bermuda
If you listen to the pros at this event, it’s clear that the grass matters.
“It fits my eye and it’s Bermuda. You know, I live in Florida for eight years, so I know what I’m going to find and I know what I have to do” -Emiliano Grillo
“Living down in Florida the last five or six years I’ve gotten really comfortable with Bermuda greens. To me these are some of the best greens on TOUR, if not the best. Very similar to my home course I play Medalist and Turtle Creek down in Jupiter. So I’m just really comfortable on Bermuda.” -Denny McCarthy
“I think these are probably some of the best greens we play all year. I like the golf course, I like the Bermuda grass, similar to kind of what I grew up on home” -Sam Burns
That’s just a small sampling but the list goes on and one of players talking about their comfort on bermuda being a key around the Country Club of Jackson.
Let’s look at previous events played on bermuda greens and see who has the highest strokes gained per round, over the last two years:
Sam Burns
Russell Henley
Dean Burmester
Chris Kirk
Keegan Bradley
Christiaan Bezuidenhout
Gary Woodland
Denny McCarthy
Emiliano Grillo
Stephan Jaeger
Alex Smalley
Harris English
Michael Thompson
Thomas Detry
Taylor Moore
We can also look at performance versus baseline to see who shows the largest increase in performance compared to their typical scores:
Garrick Higgo
Andrew Landry
Max McGreevy
Nick Watney
Stephan Jaeger
Gary Woodland
Michael Thompson
Chesson Hadley
Chris Kirk
Erik Barnes
Harry Higgs
Paul Haley II
Russell Henley
Trey Mullinax
Denny McCarthy
Overlap List: names that show up on both lists include Russell Henley, Chris Kirk, Gary Woodland, Denny McCarthy, Stephan Jaeger, and Michael Thompson.
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Jaeger flashing hints at a big finish in Jackson
The Tennessee-Chattanooga is comfortable in the South, on bermudagrass turf. He’s proven that in the past with a T14 at the 2018-19 Sanderson Farms Championship which is the fifth-best finish on his PGA TOUR resume. He was also T7 thru 36 holes of last year’s edition. Jaeger ($7,200 DK) has proven he can post low rounds at the CC of Jackson, now he just needs to string them all together. He’s a high-upside value option to consider when building a DFS roster this week.
Burmester back on track in the States?
The South African caught fire this summer with four top 11s in a five-event stretch before missing the cut at the DP World Tour’s flagship event (BMW PGA Championship). He fits the mold of recent big hitters who have feasted at the CC of Jackson. He’s also proven that he can handle bermudagrass so there is no worry there. Burmester ($7,600 DK) is sitting in the value range despite his run of stellar form this summer.
