2023 Sanderson Farms Championship Course Breakdown: Country Club of Jackson
The Basics
- Course: Country Club of Jackson
- Location: Jackson, Mississippi
- Designer: John Fought
- Length: Par 72; 7,271 yards
- Hazards: Water comes into play on five holes
- Fairways: 419 Bermuda-grass measuring 29 yards wide on average
- Rough: Bermuda-grass with Zoysia-grass (two inches)
- Greens: 6,200 square foot Champion Ultra Dwarf Bermuda-grass running 12 on the stimp
The Sanderson Farms Championship has been annually held on the PGA Tour since 1968. It was hosted at a number of courses, including Hattiesburg Country Club and Annandale Gold Club, before moving to its current home in 2014, the Country Club of Jackson. In the past, this tournament was played opposite a major or limited field event. It then became part of the Fall series, went back to being an opposite field event, and switched schedule spots a few more times before finally being upgraded to a full status event as part of the Fall series.
Since debuting as the host venue in 2014, we’ve seen an eclectic range of winners at the Country Club of Jackson. All shapes and sizes can compete here. In 2021 and 2022, we saw two of the best players in the field (and two excellent ball-strikers) in Sergio Garcia and Sam Burns claim victory. Yet last year, Mackenzie Hughes, who is far more known for short game and putting prowess, triumphed in a playoff over Sepp Straka. We should not expect the tournament favorite to have some massive leg up here, as the Country Club of Jackson does not do the best job of separating average from elite tee-to-green play. If we go back a couple of years, we’ve seen players such as Ryan Armour, Cody Gribble, and Peter Malnati, all marginal PGA Tour pros at best, rise to the top of the leaderboard. We can litigate how much distance matters in the stats section, but any tournament that can be won by Ryan Armour and Cameron Champ in consecutive years tells us everything we need to know about the golf course. Any strong opinions should be loosely held.
The golf course itself is a standard par 72, with four par threes, 10 par fours, and four par fives. The par threes in general are probably the toughest aspect of the golf course, and they rank as the seventh, fifth, fourth, and tenth most difficult holes. All of them play right around even par, which I would consider tough compared to the other holes on the golf course. Two of them measure over 210 yards, and none of them feature over a 20% birdie rate.
The 15th hole is a drivable par four, but other than that, six par fours measure between 400 and 450 yards. There are three fairly long ones (6, 16, 18), which all play over 475 yards and rank as the three hardest holes on the course. Due to the three longer par fours, two longer par fours, and four reachable par fives, players may have a long iron in their hands on up to 50% of the holes. The par fives are certainly on the longer side, but all incentivize players to go for it in two. The quartet plays as the easiest, second-easiest, fourth-easiest, and fifth-easiest holes on the course. All feature over a 25% birdie rate, and par five scoring is absolutely a stat that we want to pay attention to this week. There is very strong correlation of success with players who have dominated these four holes. There is some real skill involved with the par fives, mainly in the form of distance and long-iron play. They are excellent opportunities for players to really separate themselves.
Ultimately, what you see is what you get at the Country Club of Jackson. This course features some of the most banal architecture on Tour, which is really saying something. In fact, the Country Club of Jackson might be the flattest and straightest golf course that we see all year, outside of maybe Torrey Pines. In terms of its architectural identity, think of the Country Club of Jackson as a shorter, easier, Bermuda-grass version of Torrey Pines. The course is all out in front of you. There aren’t any tricks to it, and the biggest defense it has is its length, the unpredictability of the Bermuda rough, and the potential for wind. As we know by now, however, sheer length is not what makes a golf course difficult for PGA Tour pros. Firm and fast conditions are, and this course can get challenging if we get some wind and heat to bake it out. It generally ranks as one of the easiest courses on Tour, but it has been trending in the tougher direction. Last year, it ranked 27th out of 41 courses in difficulty, and we did see a bit of spiciness by Sunday. Let’s dive into the stats.
Stats
- Off the Tee
- Last year, the Country Club of Jackson ranked 20th out of 41 courses in strokes gained off-the-tee difficulty, and historically, the course ranks above average in off-the-tee difficulty. At a macro level, it’s slightly harder of a driving course than it is an approach course.
- The Country Club of Jackson does feature the 10th-most narrow fairways on Tour, but similar to what we saw recently at the Fortinet, the penalty for missing the fairway here is not very severe. Last year, the Country Club of Jackson ranked 22nd out of 41 courses in missed fairway penalty. The prior year, it ranked 28th out of 38 courses, and the year before, it ranked 36th out of 40 courses. Historically, it ranks as one of the least penal courses in terms of wayward driving. In this heat, the nature of Bermuda rough is certainly problematic, but nothing these can’t handle.
- Last year, the Fought design ranked ninth out of 38 courses in rough penalty, and the year prior, it ranked 12th out of 38 courses in rough penalty. Still, this has not been enough of an inconvenience to deter players from hitting driver at will. Also, there’s very few water hazards in play off the tee. The Country Club of Jackson ranked 18th out of 38 courses in non-rough penalty, and 32nd out of 38 courses in fraction of missed fairways that resulted in a penalty stroke. Bombs away still works here.
- Average driving distance at the Country Club of Jackson is higher than Tour average, and driving accuracy last year was just 51% compared to the Tour average of 59%. The strategy off the tee is very similar to what was discussed at the Fortinet. We can expect to see a lot of missed fairways, but that will not affect players’ strategy off the tee.
- How important is distance here? Well, Ryan Armour won this event averaging 269 yards off the tee, while Cameron Champ won the following year averaging 334 yards off the tee. Champ stated, “Obviously, driving is the key out here. If I hit driver well out here, like I said, it’s a very scorable course. So I just kept hitting it as much as I could. Even if the fairways were tighter, I felt like if I was further up, even in the rough versus hitting a 3-wood being 40 yards back, I would rather be up there. I guess that’s the game plan.” On the contrary, Ryan Armour stated, “My strength is driving it in the fairway, hitting it on the green, and trying to make putts. I don’t overpower a golf course. I don’t go for many par fives. It’s just about making percentage choices.” We have back-to-back winners essentially discussing opposite tactics. If we go back down the leaderboards, for every bomber, there’s a plodder right behind him. Last year, Garrick Higgo and Dean Burmester were offset by Sepp Straka and Mark Hubbard. In 2022, Cameron Young and Trey Mullinax were offset by Andrew Landry and Henrik Norlander. In 2021, Scott Stallings and Cameron Davis were offset by Peter Malnati, J.T. Poston, and Norlander. The list goes on, and it’s the same deal in terms of driving accuracy. In 2020, Sebastian Munoz won despite losing to the field in driving accuracy percentage. In 2021, Sergio ranked top-10 in driving accuracy percentage, but Malnati and Poston both lost to the field. In 2022, Burns and Landry were top-eight in driving accuracy, but Cameron Young and Nick Watney lost to the field. Last year, Mackenzie Hughes lost to the field in driving accuracy, but Sepp Straka, who lost to Hughes in a playoff, ranked third.
- If I’m landing on a side, I would still favor distance over accuracy. The path to success just feels a touch easier with a ton of length on this specific golf course. It is still worth noting that each of the top six players in driving accuracy last year finished top-25 in the tournament, and there are still plenty of examples of players that are both short and inaccurate competing here. I cannot say I am incredibly high on off-the-tee performance this week in general.
- Approach
- Last year, the Country Club of Jackson ranked 19th out of 41 courses in strokes gained approach difficulty, and every single year, it has ranked average to on the easier end in terms of approach difficulty.
- Last year, it ranked right in the middle of the pack in terms of greens-in-regulation percentage, yet in the prior years, the Country Club of Jackson has featured one of the higher greens-in-regulation percentages on Tour. As previously mentioned, last year provided a bit more carnage due to windier conditions over the weekend, which is certainly worth monitoring. Last year, the Fought design ranked 25th out of 38 courses in approach difficulty inside 150 yards, and 18th out of 38 courses in approach difficulty greater than 150 yards. Fairly straightforward stuff.
- As far as proximity buckets go, the Country Club of Jackson is a wedges and long irons course. 15.9% of approach shots come from 100-125 yards, and 18.9% of approach shots come from 125-150 yards, which are both above Tour average. We’re getting a solid 35% of approach shots from 100-150 yards, but last year, over 30% of approach shots also came from over 200 yards, which is well above the Tour average of 23%. A whopping 18.1% of approach shots come from over 250 yards, which can be explained by the fact that most players are going for it on all four par fives, even given their length. Just one par five measures under 580 yards. Add up the four par fives, two par threes that measure over 200 yards, and three par fours over 475 yards, and it certainly makes sense that half of all approach shots come from over 200 yards.
- The best players from 100-150 yards in this field are Russell Knox, Tom Hoge, Charley Hoffman, Eric Cole, Satoshi Kodaira, Nicolai Hojgaard, Davis Riley, Hank Lebioda, Dylan Wu, and Christiaan Bezuidenhout.
- The best players from 200 yards-plus in this field are Tom Hoge, Augusto Nunez, Eric Cole, Charley Hoffman, Kevin Tway, Luke List, Peter Kuest, Chez Reavie, Davis Riley, and Ryan Palmer.
- Around the Green
- Last year, the Country Club of Jackson ranked 21st out of 41 courses in strokes gained around-the-green difficulty, and each of the last 10 years, it has ranked as one of the easier courses in around-the-green difficulty.
- Last year, the County Club of Jackson ranked 18th out of 41 courses in around-the-green difficulty from the fairway, 19th out of 41 courses in around-the-green difficulty from the rough, and 24th out 41 courses in around-the-green difficulty from the bunkers.
- I do believe at a macro level that chipping on Bermuda courses is more difficult than chipping on Blue-grass courses, but I can’t really make much of a case to factor short game too much into your calculus here. The Country Club of Jackson features a higher-than-Tour-average greens-in-regulation percentage, and any player who is relying heavily on their short game is unlikely to be in contention. The only around-the-green metric that I would recommend looking at is how players have performed around the green on Bermuda-grass courses. The best players in this field around the green on Bermuda-grass courses have been William McGirt, Mackenzie Hughes, Stephan Jaeger, Aaron Baddeley, Tano Goya, Ben Griffin, Jonathan Byrd, Robby Shelton, Scott Piercy, and Brian Gay.
- Sebastian Munoz won here in 2020 losing strokes around the green. Sergio Garcia won here in 2021 losing strokes around the green. Five of the top 12 in 2021 on the final leaderboard actually lost strokes around the green. Four of the top 11 in 2022 lost strokes around the green. Last year, Garrick Higgo, Keegan Bradley, and Emiliano Grillo all finished top-five losing strokes around the green.
- Putting
- Last year, the Country Club of Jackson ranked 24th out of 41 courses in strokes gained putting difficulty. It has ranked harder in previous years, but it often falls right around Tour average.
- Last year, the Country Club of Jackson ranked 20th out of 41 courses in putting difficulty from inside five feet, 24th out of 41 courses in putting difficulty from five to 15 feet, and 27th out of 41 courses in putting difficulty from greater than 15 feet.
- John Fought has spoken about how he wanted to create Donald Ross-like greens in his re-design. I’m not sure that he totally accomplished this, but I at least understand what he was going for. At the very least, they do get these greens running fast, which does accentuate the contours.
- If we zoom out, this course definitely teeters the line of what we could define as a putting contest, although some more moderate winds did cause tougher tee-to-green conditions last year. The prior two years, we also did see Sergio and Burns win here back-to-back while gaining just a total of 0.8 strokes putting. There were two years in a row where the best ball-striker in the tournament simply showed up, and even an easy course cannot not provide enough variance to prevent that. If we look further down the leaderboard, however, there are a lot of players simply getting by on the strength of their putting. Based on the percentage of strokes gained that are coming with the flat-stick, I would still put the Country Club of Jackson in the category of courses that will not weed out the weaker tee-to-green players. Ground can easily be made up with a hot putter. Last year, every single of the top 12 players on the leaderboard gained to the field in putting, and each of the top five all gained over 3.5 strokes putting.
- Overall, we definitely want to weigh Bermuda putting heavily on this golf course. Unless you’re having a peak Sam Burns/Sergio Garcia tee-to-green week, you’re going to have to at least somewhat rely on your flat-stick. The best Bermuda-grass putters in this field over the last two years have been Martin Trainer, Brian Gay, Alex Noren, Ben Taylor, Harry Hall, Ben Griffin, Kelly Kraft, Lucas Herbert, Sam Ryder, and Chesson Hadley.
- Scoring Stats
- It’s absolutely essential to score on the par fives at the Country Club of Jackson. Last year, 11 of the top 12 players on the leaderboard gained to the field in par-five scoring. Each of the top three finished top-15. Straka finished third and Higgo finished first. In 2022, every single player in the top five finished top-10 in par-five scoring. Burns finished fourth in par-five scoring, and Watney finished second. Same deal in 2020. Sergio finished seventh, and J.T. Poston, Keegan Bradley, Kristoffer Ventura, Tyler McCumber, and Denny McCarthy all ranked top-five in par-five scoring and finished top-six on the leaderboard. The best par-five scorers in this field are Davis Thompson, Dylan Wu, Ludvig Aberg, Richy Werenski, K.H. Lee, Stephan Jaeger, Webb Simpson, Kevin Yu, Ryan Palmer, and Ryan Gerard.
- Any time we travel to one of the easier courses on Tour with a large plurality of short-iron approaches, I always look to identify players who can generate the most birdie looks. Opportunities Gained measures the amount of birdie/eagle chances inside 15 feet that a player generates per round. The best players in this field in opportunities gained are Eric Cole, Chez Reavie, Luke List, Ludvig Aberg, Ryan Palmer, Kevin Yu, Tom Hoge, Alex Smalley, Charley Hoffman, and Kevin Roy.
- This is a great stat to compare conversely to birdies or better gained, which can turn into a putting metric. Five of the last eight champions topped the entire field in birdie or better percentage. The players in this field who make the highest percentage of birdies are Eric Cole, Nicolai Hojgaard, Dylan Wu, Emiliano Grillo, Ludvig Aberg, Akshay Bhatia, Stephan Jaeger, Doug Ghim, Kevin Yu, and Peter Kuest.
- From an agronomy standpoint, the Country Club of Jackson features Bermuda-grass from head to toe. It’s still extremely hot at this time of year in Jackson, and there’s something to be said for comfortability playing golf in this part of the country. In handicapping, the industry still spends too much time looking at Bermuda vs. Bent vs. Poa putting splits instead of examining how players perform tee to green on Bermuda courses. The chipping technique is different, and full-length shots out of Bermuda rough can be very tricky to navigate as well. And that isn’t even mentioning the heat. Players who perform well at East Lake and TPC Southwind will experience a very similar climate this week in Jackson. Former winner Cody Gribble spoke openly about part of the reason he was incredibly comfortable here was because he had spent so much time playing golf in this part of the country. The best players from tee to green on Bermuda courses have been Alex Smalley, Adam Svensson, Doug Ghim, Stephan Jaeger, Joseph Bramlett, Tom Hoge, David Lipsky, Keith Mitchell, Kevin Streelman, and Scott Piercy.
- Course History/Comp Course History
- In terms of the predictive nature of course history, the Country Club of Jackson is on the bottom end of all PGA Tour courses. Of course, there are players such as Keegan Bradley, Denny McCarthy, and William McGirt, among others, who just seem to feel very comfortable here. Yet we’ve seen debutants such as Sahith Theegala, Cameron Young, Sergio Garcia, and Cameron Champ, contend or win here on their first appearance. I wouldn’t penalize a player if they have never played here before, or necessarily blindly plug someone in just because of their course history. How a player performs on the greens is simply far too much of the equation. Still, the best players at the Country Club of Jackson in this field have been Cameron Champ, William McGirt, Mackenzie Hughes, Henrik Norlander, Kevin Streelman, Nick Hardy, Charley Hoffman, Garrick Higgo, C.T. Pan, and Hayden Buckley.
- The most correlated courses to the Country Club of Jackson are other driver-heavy par 72s that yield a fair amount of birdies, yet still require elite long iron play. There are several courses that fall into this category, and two Paspalum courses, Vidanta Vallarta and Corales, immediately come to mind. Players such as Cameron Champ, Thomas Detry, Davis Riley, Mackenzie Hughes, and Sungjae Im have excelled at these tracks, as well as the Country Club of Jackson.
- The best players at Vidanta Vallarta in this field have been Brandon Wu, Akshay Bhatia, Cameron Champ, Davis Riley, Emiliano Grillo, Eric Cole, Stephan Jaeger, Adam Long, Ben Taylor, and Beau Hossler.
- The best players at Corales in this field have been Samuel Stevens, Mackenzie Hughes, Chad Ramey, Brent Grant, Nicolai Hojgaard, Alex Smalley, Harry Hall, Ben Martin, David Lipsky, Hayden Buckley, and Luke List.
Model
- Off the Tee (11%)
- Driving Distance (5%)
- Strokes Gained: Off the Tee (6%)
- Approach (31%)
- Strokes Gained: Approach (14%)
- Proximity 100-125 yards (4%)
- Proximity 125-150 yards (5%)
- Proximity 200 yards plus (8%)
- Around the Green (5%)
- Strokes Gained Around the Green: Bermuda Courses (5%)
- Putting (14%)
- Strokes Gained Putting: Bermuda-Grass (14%)
- Scoring Stats (26%)
- Birdies or Better Gained (8%)
- Opportunities Gained (8%)
- Par 5 Scoring (6%)
- Strokes Gained Tee to Green: Bermuda Courses (6%)
- Comp Courses/Course History (11%)
- Country Club of Jackson (5%)
- Vidanta Vallarta (3%)
- Corales (3%)
Model Top 20
- Stephan Jaeger
- Eric Cole
- Peter Kuest
- Davis Riley
- Nicolai Hojgaard
- Kevin Yu
- Alex Smalley
- Dylan Wu
- Tom Hoge
- Doug Ghim
- Akshay Bhatia
- Ryan Palmer
- Ludvig Aberg
- Kevin Streelman
- Mark Hubbard
- Luke List
- Nate Lashley
- Brandon Wu
- Kevin Roy
- Adam Svensson
