2015 Sanderson Farms Championship Discussion Thread

[mvmac]

The 2015 Sanderson Farms Championship is being played at the Country Club of Jackson in Jackson, Miss. Utilizing the Dogwood and Azalea nines, the course will play as a par-72 measuring 7,354 yards for the event.

The field this week includes Smylie Kaufman, the 23-year old who picked up his first PGA Tour victory this season at the Shriners Open, Ollie Schniederjans, Tommy “2 Gloves” Gainey, Brendan Todd and Graham DeLaet.

Also in the field is defending champion Nick Taylor, who won last year’s Sanderson Farms Championship with a final-round 66 to eclipse Boo Weekley and Jason Bohn by two strokes.

http://www.clarionledger.com/story/sports/columnists/kellenberger/2015/11/04/sanderson-farms-pga-sign-10-year-title-sponsor-deal/75149040/

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Sanderson Farms will remain the title sponsor of Jackson’s PGA Tour event for at least another 10 years.

Joe F. Sanderson Jr., the company’s CEO and chairman of the board, said Wednesday at the Country Club of Jackson that it’ll be the Sanderson Farms Championship long-term.

Tuesday’s announcement will make it the Sanderson Farms Championship through 2026. It is the longest PGA Tour sponsorship deal, PGA Tour Chief of Operations Andy Pazder said. It's a dramatic change for the event, which has had four title sponsors in the last 10 years.

 

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For Sanderson this deal is as much about the golf — he joked that he is a "golf enthusiast" — as it is the resulting charity work. In 2014, the Sanderson Farms Championship generated $1.4 million for charity, with $1.1 million going to Friends of Batson Children's Hospital and the other $300,000 to other Mississippi charities.

"I’m fully aware of everything at the hospital and the children’s hospital and their needs, and I know the expansion they’ve announced," Sanderson said. "It just fit for us. We feel good about everything about it. We don’t do short-term deals. Everything we do with our customers and employees, our growers, a city is long-term. So when we discussed this we had no fear of a 10-year commitment."

The length of the contract was negotiated, Sanderson said. The event is expected to remain in the fall, opposite a World Golf Event in China, for at least the foreseeable future.