This Thursday morning, Draftkings golf fans will be presented with the first round of the 2025 Sanderson Farms Championship. Let’s take a look at the first round of this tournament from a DFS perspective.
Before I discuss my Draftkings player selections for this week’s event let’s review where the first round of the 2025 Sanderson Farms Championship will be played.
The 2025 Sanderson Farms Championship will be played at the Country Club of Jackson in Jackson, Mississippi. The golf course is a par 72 that measures approximately 7,461 yards.
*Kevin Yu won the 2024 Sanderson Farms Championship with a cumulative four round score of 23 under par.
I wanted to emphasize that the purpose of this article is not to provide an exact DFS lineup.
Having stated that, this article will provide multiple player options in an effort to assist the reader in generating a unique lineup that will hopefully have the potential to win a DraftKings GPP (guaranteed prize pool) contest! Keep that in mind as you construct your lineups for this DFS slate.
For those readers that are not aware, the rules and scoring for DraftKings single round showdown contests are vastly different than the traditional classic contests offered by the platform.
If you need to review the specific rules for the single round showdown contests feel free to check out the DraftKings website.
Here are my DraftKings picks for the first round of the 2025 Sanderson Farms Championship.
Draftkings First Round Picks
Michael Thorbjornsen $10,000
Michael Thorbjornsen has accumulated four top 21 finishes in his last six tournaments played on the PGA Tour, including a fourth-place result at the 2025 Rocket Classic in June.
Jacob Bridgeman $9,300
The talented American has amassed four top 27 finishes in his last seven events played on the PGA Tour, including an impressive fifth place result at the 2025 John Deere Classic in July.
Jacob Bridgeman also finished 11th at the 2024 Sanderson Farms Championship.
Garrick Higgo $8,000
Three weeks ago, Garrick Higgo fired a third round 66 at the 2025 Procore Championship en route to an eventual seventh place finish.
It is noteworthy that Garrick Higgo has played well at the Country Club of Jackson in the past. Higgo finished third at the 2022 Sanderson Farms Championship.
Sami Valimaki $7,400
Sami Valimaki has accumulated two top eight finishes in his last three events played on the DP World Tour, including a second place result at the 2025 Omega European Masters four weeks ago.
Due to Sami Valimaki’s quality finish at the 2025 Omega European Masters, I decided to take a hard look at the relevant player statistics for the event to determine how Valimaki fared relative to the field.
Upon the completion of four rounds of competitive play at the 2025 Omega European Masters, in relation to the field, Sami Valimaki ranked 11th in GIR (greens in regulation-80.56%), 15th in strokes gained tee to green (1.68), sixth in strokes gained approach (1.58), eighth in par four scoring average (3.80), seventh in par five scoring average (4.25) and sixth in strokes gained putting (2.01).
In summary, the data just presented clearly indicates that Sami Valimaki is currently playing quality golf on the DP World Tour.
Hayden Springer $7,400
Hayden Springer has tallied three top 23 finishes in his last five tournaments played on the PGA Tour, including a 14th place result at the 2025 ISCO Championship in July.
Additional golfers I like to perform well in the first round of the 2025 Sanderson Farms Championship (Draftkings price noted): Rico Hoey $9,500: Mackenzie Hughes $8,900: Min Woo Lee $10,200: Seamus Power $6,700: Henrik Norlander $7,100.