The Sanderson Farms Championship, Mississippi's PGA event, will be held Thursday through Sunday next week (September 19-22) at the Country Club of Jackson with a field that includes five winners of Grand Slam tournaments.
With a new place on the calendar, tournament executive director Steve Jenk said it's the strongest field ever for the event. In recent years, the tournament was played in October, the same week as a World Golf Championship (WGC) event in China. The top 50 players in world rankings play in WGC tournaments.
Sanderson Farms has a standalone date this year. “We're excited abut the new date,” Jent said.
The most successful golfer committed to the tournament is Zach Johnson, winner of 26 PGA events, including the 2007 Masters and 2016 (British) Open Championship. Other Grand Slam winners committed to the tournament are Stewart Cink (2009 Open Championship), Lucas Glover (2009 U.S. Open), Jason Dufner (2013 PGA) and Jimmy Walker (2016 PGA).
Also in the field are two winners of the Fedex championship – Bill Haas in 2011 and Brandt Snedeker in 2012 – and Si Woo Kim, who won the 2017 Players Championship, which has been called the fifth major.
Haas is among eight former Sanderson Farms winners in the field, having won the tournament in 2010. Other former winners are D.J. Trahan (2006), Scott Stallings (2012), Nick Taylor (2014), Peter Malnati (2015), Cody Gribble (2016), Ryan Armour (2017) and defending champion Cameron Champ.
Braden Thornberry, the 2017 NCAA champion while an Ole Miss student, received a tournament exemption to play in the tournament.
The purse is $6.6 million, a 50 percent increase from last year. The winner will receive $1.188,000, 500 Fedex points and an invitation to the 2020 Masters. There will be a trophy presentation on the 18th green at the conclusion of the event.
Spectators can park at the back side parking lot of Northpark Mall. Shuttle buses will run between the course and the mall all day. Gates open at 7 a.m. Thursday and Friday and 8 a.m. Saturday and Sunday.
Tickets are $30 for one day or $60 for the tournament, and may be purchased online at www.sandersonfarmschampionship.com or at the Northpark parking lot. Children up to the age of 17 will be admitted free with a ticketed adult.
The Country Club of Jackson became the third host for the tournament in 2014, following the Hattiesburg Country Club and Annandale Golf Club in Madison,
The tournament's primary charity is Batson Children's Hospital in Jackson.
