It does include Tennessean Brandt Sneker, who won 13 times as a pro and shot a 59 at the Wyndham Championship last year. Brooks Koepka (the No. 1 ranked golfer in the world), is not part of the Sanderson Farms field. The world’s No. 1 golfer is not in the Sanderson Farms field. Cameron Champ is included in this list, who hits the ball further and won last year’s tournament. Rory McIlroy will not be playing at the Country Club of Jackson, but K.J. Choi, who has won more then 20 times in the world and eight on the PGA Tour will be playing here. Choi is long considered to be the greatest Asian golfer. We could go on. We should. Dustin Johnson will be absent for this week, but Zach Johnson, a five time Ryder Cup winner who has won The Masters and 12 PGA tournament titles, is expected to play here. The 2016 PGA Championship winner Jimmy Walker will be joined by Jason Dufner (2013 PGA Championship winner), Lucas Glover (2009 U.S. Open) and Bill Haas (2011 FedExCup winner). The field includes 55 of the top 125-money winners on the 2019 PGA Tour, including Chez, who is currently ranked 26th in the world. Steve Jent, executive director of the tournament, said that it was “undoubtedly the best field in our tournament’s history.” “I’m very pleased and I believe we will see it grow in the coming years as word gets out about the course and our hospitality and how well the players who come here are treated.” This will be the first time that the Jackson-based tournament has been a standalone PGA event. The prize pool has increased to $6.6million. The $1,188,000. prize money will be won by the winner. The tournament starts Thursday and ends Sunday. The Sanderson Farms tournament has always been played in opposition to major golf tournaments like The Masters or large, limited-field world championship golf events. This time, it’s different. The only stop on the PGA Tour in Mississippi will be opposite of everything. This week’s tournament will be the last of the Korn Ferry Tour, which is golf’s equivalent to Class AAA. Tournament sponsors hoped that Woods, Koepka, or Phil Mickelson would play here. It didn’t happen. But 17 players who have won PGA Tour tournaments in the past two years will be playing at CCJ. That’s unprecedented. This is where 55 of the Top 125 Money winners on the tour from 2019 will be playing. That’s unprecedented, too. Joaquin Niemann shot 21-under to win a Military Tribute Tournament at The Greenbrier. He had long committed to playing at CCJ. Tom Hoge was second. Jackson will host seven of the top nine Greenbrier finishers. This is a huge step forward for the tournament which started as a $20,000 PGA satellite tour event at Hattiesburg Country Club in 1968. This week is also a huge week for Batson Children’s Hospital, University of Mississippi Medical Center. The event has raised more than $15 million since 1994, with a record $1.25million donation in the past year. Local talent will be showcased. Braden Thornberry, Ole Miss and Olive Branch, was the 2017 NCAA Champion. He has been granted a sponsor’s exclusion into the field. Hattiesburg’s Davis Riley, a three-time All-American from Alabama, and Joe Deraney, the 2019 Mississippi State Amateur champion, have been granted an exemption into the field. Inclement weather has plagued Mississippi’s PGA Tour tournament throughout its existence. The tournament has been cancelled or delayed by hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods. This should not happen. It is expected that temperatures will reach unseasonably highs and there will be little chance for rain. Jent, tournament director, said that “we can handle heat.” “We can live without rain.”