Sunday Showdown with Splits: Sanderson Farms Championship
After another scorching-low round from a majority of the field, PGA Tour rookie Sahith Theegala leads the Sanderson Farms Championship at 18-under par heading into Sunday. 22 players shot 5-under or better, including two established and talented players sitting one shot back in Sam Burns and Cameron Tringale. Tringale had the top round of the day with a 10-under par 61. While he is still looking for his first Tour victory, Burns will bring some win equity to the mix on Sunday as he recently won the Valspar Championship and is one of the best up-and-coming young players in the world. My choice to win is easily Sam Burns. He has the highest “Strokes Gained Rating” in the field for tomorrow’s round, and I fully expect him to rise above his mostly inexperienced competitors on Sunday. If you are new to this article, here is the link from a couple of weeks ago where I explain the data, including the SG RTG (Strokes Gained Rating), and how its objective is to show how players are performing at the moment related mainly to their ball-striking and putting metrics at the current event. I have also made a few tweaks to the rating, including adding in a metric based on my pre-tournament ranking for each player to account for a player’s class, recent form, and overall course fit.