My two-star rating for the Sanderson Farms Championship is relative to other tournaments on the PGA…read moreTour schedule. If The Masters and other majors are five-star events then I can only consider a lower-tier event like this one two stars. This tournament has been around for a long time, since 1968, but it didn't become an official PGA Tour event until 1994. Since that time, this has traditionally been a fall event.
Most recently, the tournament was played in September 2019, the second event of the 2019-20 season. It was won by Colombian Sebastian Munoz who beat Korean Sungjae Im. Munoz birdied the 72nd hole to force a playoff. On the first and only playoff hole, Im hit his drive near the grandstands, allowing Munoz to get up and down for par and earn his first PGA Tour win.
The Sanderson Farms Championship was many times an "alternate" event, meaning it was played opposite a major championship, a WGC event, a team event like the Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup, etc. Therefore, golf's best players typically haven't played here. However, that might change because starting last year (2019), the PGA Tour elevated this tournament's status. It's now a standalone tournament with full benefits such as FedEx Cup points and an invitation to the Masters for the winner. The latest purse was $6.6 million, a significant increase from the previous year, but still towards the bottom of non-alternate Tour events.
Some of the bigger names to win this event include Cameron Champ (2018-19 season), Bill Haas (2010), Luke Donald (2002), Payne Stewart (1982), and Craig Stadler (1978).
Since 2014, the tournament has been played at the Country Club of Jackson on CCJ's Dogwood and Azalea nines, redesigned in 2008-09: https://www.yelp.com/biz/country-club-of-jackson-jackson-2. Since becoming an official Tour stop, the tournament has been known as the Deposit Guaranty Golf Classic (1994-98), the Southern Farm Bureau Classic (1999-2006), the Viking Classic (2007-11), and the True South Classic (2012). Fortune 1000 chicken company Sanderson Farms has been the title sponsor since 2013. The tournament's trophy is a rooster which is both funny and cool.
Money raised from the Sanderson Farms Championship goes to the Batson's Children's Hospital in Jackson: https://www.yelp.com/biz/batson-childrens-hospital-jackson.