The PGA Tour returns following a terrific Presidents Cup with a fun Sanderson Farms Championship to kick-start the rest of the last fall as we know it for the foreseeable future. The tournament in Jackson, Mississippi, has become a fun fall staple — the type of throwback PGA Tour event that doesn’t really define the Tour anymore but provides a great launching pad for young talent and a nice landing spot for old stalwarts.

Sam Burns, fresh off his first Team USA event, rolled in as the defending champion and he played nicely on the first day at the Country Club of Jackson. However, he still trails the leaders — and there are a lot of them — after 18 holes.

Let’s take a look at his round as well as who else is in the hunt this week.

The leaders

T1. Davis Riley, Will Gordon (-6)

Riley is somebody who has been talked about as a potential future Presidents Cup or even Ryder Cup participant, and perhaps this is the beginning of that march toward Rome next year. That sounds ridiculous given the depth the U.S. has, but Riley is a terrific talent, and we often see 3-5 players drop off year over year on these U.S. teams. 

“I feel like I played really solid,” Riley said. “I feel like it was hard to get really, really close to a lot of pins just because the greens were rolling out, the wind up there. It’s hard to have a ton of opportunities, but yeah, I felt like I had a really solid day. The way I was playing, I feel like if I just kept going on, I would be pretty close to up there. To keep it stress-free was really nice.”

One thing to keep an eye on is that though Riley hit it well, he also rode a really hot putter in Round 1 (5th in the field) to that 6-under score. He has the tee-to-green chops to back it up, but it’s worth considering as we roll into the next three rounds.

Other contenders

T3. Andrew Putnam, Brandon Matthews, Kevin Yu, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Mark Hubbard, Thomas Detry, Trevor Cone (-5)

T10. Nick Taylor, Kevin Roy, Russell Knox, S.H. Kim (-4)

Keep an eye on Matthews. He got married on Saturday and joked that his wife always dreamed of honeymooning in Jackson. He’s one of the longest good players in the world off the tee, and he gained nearly three strokes from tee to green Thursday. Matthews winning this week would be a great feel good story.

“I consider myself one of the luckiest guys in the world to be able to do this for a living because I love it so much,” Matthews said. “To have fun over the next three days, not put a ton of pressure on myself and just go out and enjoy it.”

Burns returns

A three-time winner a year ago, Burns is easily the class of this field, and he played well enough with a 2-under 70 on Thursday to stay in the top three of the betting odds (see below). The good news for Burns a week after he hit a bevy of long putts to help the U.S. to its win at Quail Hollow is that he didn’t putt well at all and has a lot of room for improvement (and perhaps a second straight win here) over the next three days. 

“This tournament means a lot to me, like you said,” Burns said. “It’s close to home, and I enjoy coming back here. I look forward to seeing a lot of familiar faces this week. I’ve gotten to know a lot of the Sanderson Farms family really well, and it’s been great coming back here. I’m excited for the next few days.”

2022 Sanderson Farms Championship updated odds and picks

• Davis Riley: 11/2
• Will Gordon: 10-1
• Christiaan Bezuidenhout: 11-1
• Thomas Detry: 12-1
• Sam Burns: 14-1
• Andrew Putnam: 18-1

Riley is compelling as a winner but not necessarily at this number. Bezuidenhout, on the other hand, is an interesting pick given that he’s coming off a successful Presidents Cup and led this field from tee to green Thursday. Burns, too, is a nice number, given his firepower and how poorly he putted (105th in the field) on Thursday. Those are the two guys that I would be on ahead of Riley.

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Following its counterpart’s announcement on Tuesday, the United States team revealed its six captain’s selections for the 2022 Presidents Cup at Quail Hollow in two weeks. Captain Davis Love III dealt with twists and turns of his own as presumed pick Will Zalatoris bowed out of consideration following his withdrawal from the 2022 Tour Championship due to two herniated discs in his back.

In his place, Love’s selections of Jordan Spieth, Collin Morikawa, Max Homa, Billy Horschel, Cameron Young and Kevin Kisner will don the red, white and blue in Charlotte. They join the six automatic qualifiers of Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffele, Sam Burns, Scottie Scheffler, Justin Thomas and Tony Finau, and make up the 12 men responsible for defending the dramatic 2019 triumph at Royal Melbourne led by Tiger Woods.

Burns is the lone automatic qualifier who will be making his team-competition debut, but he is joined by a number of rookies among the captain’s selections. While Spieth is set to compete in his fourth Presidents Cup and eighth team event, this marks the first Presidents Cup for four of the selections. Only Kisner has any prior Presidents Cup experience under his belt, while Morikawa was an integral part of the U.S. Ryder Cup team last fall.

Morikawa collected a 3-0-1 record in the 2021 Ryder Cup victory at Whistling Straits and Kisner was a member of the 2017 Presidents Cup team at Liberty National where he garnered a 2-0-2 record. A native of South Carolina and a staple at the WGC Match Play, Kisner was the likely the last man selected and the beneficiary of Zalatoris’ injury.

“There are a lot of great players who excel in match play, but Kisner thrives off of this format and I know he is eager to compete at Quail Hollow,” said Love. “As a South Carolina native and one of the more popular players on Tour, he will bring some vocal fans with him and help to build an atmosphere that our team embraces.”

Homa enjoyed the strongest season of his PGA Tour career in 2021-22. Winning the Fortinet Championship and the Wells Fargo Championship, he was one of nine multiple-time winners on the season and gained strokes in each area of the game for the first time in his career. Known to play his best golf on long, classical golf courses, the return to Quail Hollow — the site of his first career victory in 2019 — should bring a sense of comfort for the rookie.

Horschel brings a fieriness to the U.S. side that is typically reserved for the likes of Thomas. Not receiving a phone call last fall for the Ryder Cup, the former FedEx Cup champion harnessed this disappointment into a victory at the DP World Tour’s flagship event, the 2021 BMW PGA Championship, the following week. A player capable of making putts in bunches and having won at Muirfield Village this past summer, 35-year-old Horschel will be ready for his debut.

As will Young, who appears to be wise beyond his years. Likely to be bestowed the honors of PGA Tour Rookie of the Year, the former Wake Forest Demon Deacon returns to state of North Carolina with plenty of confidence and game. The 25-year-old finished inside the top three on seven different occasions in his first season on the PGA Tour, including his T3 finish at the PGA Championship and runner-up result at The Open.

2022 Presidents Cup teams

With half the U.S. team boasting zero experience in this particular competition, it will need to lean on their form — of which there is plenty. All but one player — world No. 26 Kisner — find their names inside the top 20 of the Official World Golf Rankings and are led by world No. 1 Scheffler, who will be making his Presidents Cup debut.

This is a stark contrast to an international team that boasts only two top 20 players in the world and featured zero top 40 players in its captain’s selections. With the recent dismissal of Cameron Smith and Joaquin Niemann from the team, the international side has seen its chances dwindle without sticking a peg into the ground.

Previously listed as -330 favorites at Caesars Sportsbook, the U.S. team can now be found at -500. Having won each edition of the Presidents Cup on home soil, oddsmakers believe this one will be no different.

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