Horse For The Course: PGA DFS - Sanderson Farms Championship

Thanks for joining me here at RotoBaller PGA DFS family! Playing on a major-medical exemption, Hudson Swafford scored a much-need victory at the Corales Puntacana Championship last week. With the win, Swafford earns exempt status on the PGA Tour, as well as entry into the 2021 Masters and many other high-profile events.

While we didn't highlight Swafford in this article last week, we were oh-so-close to a victory with our Horse, Mackenzie Hughes, who finished in third place. We also had nice production from a couple of our Ponies, as both Xinjun Zhang and Patrick Rodgers scored T11 finishes for us.

Horse For The Course is an article that highlights players in this week's field with elite course history and is part of our free PGA DFS content here at RotoBaller. For my favorite DFS plays of the week check out my Core Four article here at RotoBaller every Wednesday. It's part of our amazing PGA Premium package that includes an all-new PGA Research Station, Lineup Builder & Optimizer, and some of the best articles in the PGA DFS industry! You can sign up now using Promo Code: NICE for an extra discount at checkout!

Sanderson Farms Overview

Last week's Corales Puntacana event was a tough one, as its weak field tossed lots of volatility our way. Things aren't quite as ugly in this week's Sanderson Farms Championship. We head to Mississippi and the Country Club of Jackson for an event that has become a staple on the fall schedule.

While this week's field is by no means strong overall, it is without a doubt an improvement over last week's Corales entry list. Last year's Sanderson Farm winner Sebastian Munoz will be back to defend his title and he'll be joined by a few strong players, with the likes of Scottie Scheffler, Sungjae Im, and Louis Oosthuizen (*NOTE: Louis Oosthuizen has Withdrawn) electing to tee it up this week. Last week's DFS darling Will Zalatoris will be in the field this week thanks to his T8 at Corales and some familiar names like Benny An, Sergio Garcia, and Si Woo Kim will also be in action in Jackson. While the field is nowhere near the strength of many we saw after the restart this summer, it is fairly stout by "Swing Season" standards. This should be a fun week, let's tee it up!

You can also find out who the smart money is on by checking out Spencer Aguiar's PGA DFS: Vegas Report every week. And be sure to read all of our other top-notch weekly PGA DFS articles to help you win big!

The Course: Country Club of Jackson

Par 72 - 7,421 Yards, Greens: Bermuda, Designed By: John Fought

This will mark the seventh time the Country Club of Jackson has hosted this event. Yes, this course is long at just over 7,400 yards, but I'm not necessarily putting all my eggs in the 'bomber' basket this week, as a ton of that yardage is accounted for by the layouts four Par-5s. So, while I won't be strictly targeting length off the tee, I will definitely be focused heavily on a player's ability to score on the Par-5s. It seems like ballstriking is always important, and that is once again the case this week, as CCJ presents players with lots of approach shots from 200-plus yards. There will be plenty of birdies this week (Munoz won at 18-under par last year, Champ won at 21-under par two years ago), so I'll give a long look to birdie makers when constructing rosters.

Recent Champions & Winning Scores

• Sebastian Munoz (-18)
• Cameron Champ (-21)
• Ryan Armour (-19)
• Cody Gribble (-20)
• Peter Malnati (-18)

The Horse

Sungjae Im

DraftKings: $10,500
FanDuel: $11,700
Notable Course History: 2nd ('20), MC ('19)

It’s been a rough road for Sungjae and his DFS backers since the restart, as everyone’s favorite grinder struggled through a stretch of head-scratching play that saw him lose strokes with his irons in six consecutive starts at one point. 

However, our hero appears to be headed in the right direction now, as he’s gained strokes on Approach in each of his last two starts (+4.5 & +5.7) en route to strong finishes at both the Tour Championship (11th) and the U.S. Open (22nd). In addition to his trending iron play, the young Korean returns to his favorite putting surface this week at the Country Club of Jackson. His putting splits on Bermuda greens are stark when compared to other surfaces and he gained 4.4 strokes putting on these greens en route to a runner-up finish in last year’s Sanderson. 

Despite his rocky summer, I have the feeling that Sungjae is certainly heading in the right direction. Throw in the fact that he played well on this layout last year and will return to Bermuda greens, and he's one of the strongest plays available on this slate.

The Ponies

Scottie Scheffler

DraftKings: $11,400
FanDuel: $12,300
Notable Course History: T16 ('20), T45 ('19)

It really is a shame that we didn’t get to see a trending Scottie Scheffler tee it up in the U.S. Open. Unfortunately, Scheffler was forced to W/D from Winged Foot due to being exposed to a family member with COVID-19. This week will mark the first time he’s played since a top-five outing at the Tour Championship.

His great finish at East Lake was just the latest in a string of strong outings from the former Texas Longhorn. Scheffler closed out the season with six consecutive top-25s against ultra-elite competition, including a T4 at the PGA Championship. 

He’s set to make a knock-the-rust-off start at the Sanderson this week, a tournament where he’s posted a T16 and a T45 in starts the previous two years. The layoff is slightly concerning, but Scheffler is undoubtedly the class of this week’s field, grading out first in SG: Total, T2G, Ball Striking, and Approach over the last 24 rounds. He sits atop the DK salary scale this week, but sticks out in this field for those of you that are paying up. 

Carlos Ortiz

DraftKings: $8,300
FanDuel: $9,600
Notable Course History: T4 ('20), T3 ('19)

The statistics that we normally want aren’t present with Carlos Ortiz, but from a pure course history perspective he definitely warrants a mention this week, as he’s posted back-to-back top-five finishes at the Sanderson over the last two years. 

Ortiz is what I refer to as a “spike” player, meaning we’ll see a ton of missed cuts from him, but then - seemingly out of nowhere - we’ll see a strong “spike” in his play and results. Obviously, these guys are tough to predict - and even harder to trust in DFS - but they are the type of “boom or bust” players that can help us take down large-field GPPs. 

There’s no recent form that indicates a spike is coming from Ortiz. Outside of a top-25 at the BMW Championship last month his results have been poor - and his statistics indicate as much - but he has displayed intriguing upside, both on this layout and in other tournaments throughout his career. His $8.3k price tag on DK is pretty gross, though he's an intriguing GPP option this week. 

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Lucas Glover

DraftKings: $8,000
FanDuel: $9,800
Notable Course History: MC ('20), T14 ('19), T5 ('17), T39 ('16)

Full disclosure: I no longer play Lucas Glover myself. It might sound crazy - and I know it definitely doesn't sound very analytical - but I'm just snakebit with the guy. That said, I can respect Glover as a solid option this week. His course history certainly demands attention...though he missed the cut here last year (I'm sure I probably had him), he had went T14-T5 in his two previous Sanderson starts. He heads to Mississippi on the heels of his best finish in months, a T17 at the U.S. Open a couple of weeks ago. Despite posting some ugly results down the stretch of the season, Glover has actually gained strokes on Approach in 10 of his 11 starts since the COVID-19 layoff, but has been derailed by horrible putting.

Cameron Percy

DraftKings: $7,200 
FanDuel: $8,600
Notable Course History: T11 ('20), T34 ('18), T42 ('17), T15 ('16)

Cameron Percy isn’t a player that knocks our socks off with excitement, but the Aussie has consistently gotten it done at the Sanderson. He’s logged four-straight made cuts at the Country Club of Jackson with two top-15 finishes in this event since 2016. Percy heads to Mississippi on the heels of two strong outings...a T23 at the Safeway Open and a T8 last week in the Corales Puntacana. He gained over eight strokes T2G in the Dominican Republic last week and is a nice salary saver on this slate.

Adam Schenk

DraftKings: $6,700
FanDuel: $8,500
Notable Course History: T36 ('20), T7 ('19), T43 ('18)

It's not unusual to see some sicko DFS price tags in these Swing Season events (there are definitely some of those on this slate), but Adam Schenk sticks out as a player that feels grossly underpriced this week at just $6.7k on DK. Schenk is certainly no world beater, but he's played some solid golf over the last couple months and heads to the Sanderson with a made-cut streak that stands at seven straight. In addition to his decent form, he's been good at the Country Club of Jackson and has made the cut in this event in each of the last three years, with a T7 coming two years ago. Schenk ranks inside the top-25 of this week's field in both Par-5 Efficiency and Birdies or Better Gained over the last 12 rounds.

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