The First Look: Sanderson Farms Championship

Fresh off his Presidents Cup debut, Sam Burns returns to defend his Sanderson Farms Championship, the first of his three wins last season. This is the second event of the 2022-23 PGA TOUR season. FIELD NOTES: Burns is one of three Presidents Cup participants going from Quail Hollow to the Country Club of Jackson. Burns, at No. 12 in the world, is the highest-ranked golfer in the field… Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Sebastian Munoz (who won the Sanderson in 2019) of the International Team are the other Presidents Cup participants in the field… There will be plenty of support for Davis Riley at the Sanderson Farms Championship. Riley, a Mississippi native, returns to tee it up in his home state after a fabulous rookie campaign on TOUR that saw him finish 33rd in the FedExCup, including a runner-up to Burns at the Valspar Championship… This is the second event of the season, so look for most of the Korn Ferry Tour graduates, led by Korn Ferry Tour Championship winner Justin Suh, the winner of the KFT’s season-long points race, to try to make some early noise… Sponsor exemptions include a trio of college standouts: Sam Murphy of Louisiana Tech, Brice Wilkinson of Southern Miss (who won the 108th Mississippi State Amateur in June), and former Mississippi star Jackson Suber, who finished ninth in the 2022 PGA TOUR U presented by Velocity Global… Other notables teeing it up include TOUR Championship qualifiers Sahith Theegala (who finished T8 a year ago after holding the 54-hole lead), and Scott Stallings (the Sanderson champion a decade ago) plus TOUR winners like Sepp Straka, Seamus Power, Harris English, Keegan Bradley, and J.T. Poston, each of whom are ranked inside the top-55 in the world… Four major champions will tee it up along with nine past winners of the Sanderson Farms Championship. FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 500 FedExCup points. COURSE: Country Club of Jackson, par 72, 7,461 yards. This marks the ninth year this Mississippi beauty will host the Sanderson Farms Championship. The course was redesigned in 2008 (the tournament routing includes the Azalea and Dogwood nines) by John Fought and incorporating some Donald Ross signatures – especially around the greens. The club’s history dates all the way back to 1914. Sam Burns utilized an impressive iron game to win the title last season, as he finished T1 in greens in regulation for the week plus first in SG: Off-the-Tee and SG: Tee-to-Green. Keep an eye on impressive ball-strikers this week. 72-HOLE RECORD: 263, Dan Halldorson (1986 at Hattiesburg GC). CC of Jackson record: 266, Sam Burns (2021) 18-HOLE RECORD: 18-HOLE RECORD: 61, Keith Clearwater (2nd round, 1996 at Annandale GC). CC of Jackson record: 62, Roberto Castro (1st round, 2015). STORYLINES: There will be five golfers in the field with Mississippi ties including Riley and TOUR winner Chad Ramey of Fulton, Mississippi. Ramey won the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship earlier this year… Six of the past nine winners in Mississippi were first-time TOUR winners… Sam Burns set the tournament scoring record a year ago, and with the average score the last five seasons hovering around the 20-under mark, birdies will be a premium at The Country Club of Jackson. LAST TIME: Sam Burns captured his second PGA TOUR title in the 2021 calendar year, topping the field in Mississippi on the back of four birdies in a six-hole stretch during his second nine on Sunday. Burns finished with a 5-under 67, good enough to finish ahead of Nick Watney and Cameron Young by one shot. Burns’ back nine on Sunday featured birdies on Nos. 13-15 and when Young made an untimely bogey on the par-5 14th, Burns was able to pull away. Burns won the Valspar Championship earlier in 2021 (a title he would go on to defend in 2022) and his one-shot win in Jackson was his first of three last season. Henrik Norlander shot the round of the day Sunday, an 8-under 64, and finished tied for fourth alongside Hayden Buckley, Andrew Landry, and Trey Mullinax. HOW TO FOLLOW Television: Thursday-Friday, 3:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m. ET. Saturday, Sunday, 4 p.m.-7 p.m. Radio: Thursday-Friday, 1 p.m.–6:30 p.m. ET. Saturday-Sunday, 2 p.m.-7 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com/liveaudio) For outside of the U.S., click here for GOLFTV powered by the PGA TOUR PGA TOUR LIVE PGA TOUR Live is available exclusively on ESPN+ • Featured Groups: traditional PGA TOUR LIVE coverage of two concurrent featured groups

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