Sanderson Farms

How many times have we seen this story?

A young pro dominates the first 54 holes and then goes flat in the final round. That was the story for Ben Griffin, making his 36th PGA Tour start. Before the final round, he was firing on all cylinders with rounds of 67-63-66. In his first 54 holes, he only made one bogey, 19 birdies, and one eagle and went into the final round with a three-shot lead. The thought was that Griffin would use his experience in last year's Bermuda Championship to help carry him through. In that event, he shot rounds of 65-64-68 and went into the final round tied with Seamus Power. The final round was not good after playing 54 holes with 20 birdies and one eagle. That day, he made four birdies in his first six holes and held a two-shot lead after the 11th hole. But Griffin made four bogeys in a row, then made a double bogey on 16 and finished with a 72 to end the week T-3rd, two shots back of the winner Seamus Power. In a way, the same thing happened to him on Sunday in Mississippi. He made birdie at the 2nd hole and pars until back-to-back bogeys at 8 and 9. Despite having a two-shot lead going into 16, he made bogeys at 16 and 18,

and found himself in a five-man playoff.

The winner was Luke List, who won with a 44-foot birdie putt on the first extra hole.

It was List's second win in 253 PGA Tour starts, and he did it in the same manner as his first win. At the 2022 Farmers Insurance Open, he went into the final round five back, shot 66 to get into a playoff with Will Zalatoris, and won the tournament with a birdie on the first playoff hole.

The key to List winning was playing his final 12 holes in three under. Frankly, it was his only real key. He ranked T-53rd in Fairways hit, T-7th in Greens in Regulation, and 7th in Strokes Gained Putting. He only made two putts over nine feet in the final round, a 24-foot birdie at 7, and then the 44-footer for a birdie in the playoff hole. For the week, he was T-8th in putting inside 10 feet, making 63 of 68 in that range. But the key for List was just like at the win at the Farmers, being in the right place while others faltered.

The truth is that List is a fridge player, that won twice.

He had an impressive amateur career and was a standout player at Vanderbilt University. He earned All-American honors in four years at Vanderbilt. He was a four-time All-Southeastern Conference first-team selection. He was named to the Southeastern Conference Academic Honor Roll his senior season. His biggest accomplishment was finishing runner-up to Ryan Moore at the 2004 U.S. Amateur. In the finals against Moore, List was 3 up after the first 18 holes. Despite List starting the afternoon 18 with a winning par to stand at 4 up, Moore whittled away the lead. Moore was 2 down with four holes to play but won all four holes, three with birdies to beat List 2 up.

When List turned pro in 2007, many thought he'd fit into the PGA Tour. But he struggled, first on the mini-tours and then for three years on the Korn Ferry Tour. In 2012, he played great, winning for the first time, collecting six top-10s to finish 4th on the Korn Ferry Tour, and earning a PGA Tour card. But his rookie year was a disaster; in 24 starts, he only made nine cuts and finished 163rd on the FedExCup, forcing a return to the Korn Ferry Tour. It took another two years before he regained his tour card for the 2016 season, and he has played on the PGA Tour since. He's played well enough to keep his card and has four to six good events a year. One of those just happened to be the 2017 Sanderson Farms Championship. List had a share of the lead going into the final round, but Cody Gribble shot a final round 65 while List shot 70, and he finished T-2nd. List has played seven times at the Sanderson, and other than the runner-up, he only had one other top-20 finish, T-17th in 2022.

So, is there any rhyme or reason to List game that we should watch in the future? Unfortunately, not much. List does hit the ball long but lacks Fairway Accuracy. In all his stats throughout his career, he is middle of the road except for accuracy off the tee and putting. In the last six years on tour, List is in the bottom 15% in Strokes Gained Putting. That is what has held him back. In 253 starts, he has made only half his cuts at 132 and been in the top 10, 24 times. Sure, he has done well financially, winning $14.3 million, but as a player that you can count on to do well week in and week out, List is not your guy. An example is List got zero boost out of his first win at the 2022 Farmers. In the 46 PGA Tour starts since the win, he has only cashed a check in 23 events, and his best finish was T-11th in the 2023 Sentry Tournament of Champions. In the other 23 times playing 72 holes, he has only finished in the top 25 just five times.

If I had a Crystal ball and say which event to watch List in, the only ones he has multiple top 10s is the Sanderson Farms and the Farmers Championship

In 12 FedExCup events, his T-20th at the 2017 BMW Championship is his only top 30, so for the future, there is no reason to watch to see if he will improve. He will be 39 in January, and it's safe to say that List may be walking through the sunset of his career.

What about Ben Griffen?

On the other end of the spectrum, at 26, Ben Griffen is a player to watch. He started playing golf as soon as he could walk and had an excellent junior and college career. He turned pro in 2018, and by the time he got things going, the pandemic hit, and Ben stepped away from the game to work as a loan officer in 2021. At the end of 2021, Griffen finished T-29th at the Korn Ferry Tour Qualifier and got his card for 2022. He played well and, in 22 events, was runner-up three times, once losing a playoff. Maybe that was a preview of struggling in contention. He was a shot back of the winner at the Astara Golf Championship, shot a final round 70 to finish a shot back of Byeong Hun An at the LECOM Suncoast Classic. He shot 66 in the final round at the BMW Charity, ending his day birdie-birdie-par, but lost a playoff to Robby Shelton with a bogey on the second extra hole.

Still, we have seen Griffin find his way into contention many times. If his game has a weakness, it is off the tee. He's not very long and wild off the tee, in 2023, he is 154th in Driving Accuracy. If we can look into the Crystal ball on Griffen, I would say he plays his best on courses with Bermuda greens and in the Southeast. So look for him to play well in Bermuda, the RSM Classic, the West Coast swing, and Florida. After that, he will struggle until the tour moves back to Bermuda grass greens .

Others that showed us promise at the Sanderson Farms

Troy Merritt was T-7th at the Fortinet Championship after opening up with a round of 74. He was T-9th at the Sanderson Farms, and in his last seven rounds, is 27 under par.

Ludvig Aberg is still on a high. He traveled from Rome after a great Ryder Cup, shot 67-69-66-68 on a course he had never seen, and got into the playoff. It's only a matter of time before he wins; it will happen in the weeks ahead.

Mark Hubbard was T-17th at the Fortinet and T-6th at the Sanderson Farms and is 27 under in his last eight rounds.

Chesson Hadley is in the fight for his tour card. Went into the Sanderson 122nd in the FedExCup standings. Shot a bogey-free 64 to open up the Sanderson Farms. But he struggled after that with rounds of 69-73-73 to finish T-35th. Unfortunately, the poor finish dropped to 127th in the FedExCup.

Scott Stallings shot rounds of 68-67-68-70 to get into the playoff and finish T-2nd. With the high finish, he made the second biggest climb up the FedExCup Fall Points list, going from 130th to 98th, and just about guaranteed his Tour Card for 2024.

Akshay Bhatia opened up by shooting a first-round 66, and many thought he would be a person to watch. But he shot 72-72-70 to fall into a T-43rd and gave Golf Channel a very candid interview. Bhatia talked about his struggle with anxiety and how he didn't want to play after winning the Barracuda Championship. He missed the cut at the Wyndham and Fortinet and leaves us with questions on what Bhatia will do about his future.

Check out this interview that Bhatia talks about his problems.

Robert MacIntyre

Another player questioning his future is Bob MacIntyre. After a great Ryder Cup, MacIntyre returned home to Scotland, and Martin Dempster of the Scotsman wrote this piece on how MacIntyre is in the process of making an important decision on his future. He has spent his whole life in the town of Oban, Scotland, which is 100 miles northeast of Glasgow, and realizes that it may be time to move to America, which would mean leaving Oban, which he loves.

Lexi Thompson

Lexi Thompson will become the seventh woman to play in a PGA Tour event next week after receiving a sponsor exemption into the Shriners Children's Open in Las Vegas. Thompson will join the likes of Annika Sorenstam and Michelle Wie West to compete against the men at the Tour level. She's the first to do so since Brittany Lincicome at the 2018 Barbasol Championship.

The goal for Thompson has to be making the cut. In modern times (since Annika played the 2003 Colonial), four different women have never been able to make the cut. Now, Babe Zaharias did play 72 holes in the 1945 Phoenix Open, but back then, there weren't any cuts.

Superbook has released odds for Thompson to make the cut and priced her at +1500 (15/1) to make the cut and -5000 (1/50) to miss the cut at the Shriners Children's Open. The book has also set the over/under line of Lexi Thompson's opening round at 77.5.

Luke Donald back as European Captain in 2025?

It looks like Luke Donald is a shoo-in to keep his captaincy the next time the Ryder Cup is played in 2025 at Bethpage. Rory McIlroy is leading the chant for Donald to have another shot. The thread for Captains getting a second has gone down as the pool of candidates has grown.

But with many of those candidates going to LIV Golf, that has opened up the possibility of Donald becoming the first European Captain to serve multiple Ryder Cups since Bernard Gallacher went three in a row, from 1991 to 1995. Still, a lot has to be worked out, and it will probably take until January before we know if Donald returns.

John Huggan in Golf Digest on how a Luke Donald sequel as European Ryder Cup captain is sounding more and more possible

USA fixes for the 2025 Ryder Cup

Rex Hoggard looks at the items that need to be worked out so that Team USA has a better chance in 2025.

Ryan Lavner also piped in how little play nine of the 12 players had before the Ryder Cup.

Off to Sin City for the Shriners Hospitals for Children:

The oldest running fall event, Shriners Hospitals for Children has all of the glamour of Las Vegas on a course that a lot of players like to play on. For some, this will be a fun week with a little bit of golf mixed in with the fast-paced action of Las Vegas.

Founded in 1983 as the Panasonic Las Vegas Pro-Celebrity Classic, the event has undergone six name changes in the event's history. Frys.Com became the title sponsor for the event in 2006, replacing its former title, the Michelin Championship at Las Vegas. 2007 was the final year of Fry's involvement, and in 2008 Justin Timberlake took on the duties of becoming the tournament presenter with Shriners Hospitals for Children sponsoring the event. Timberlake is no longer associated with the tournament.

At the tournament's inception, the tournament managers prided themselves on running a tournament that stood out amongst the slew of annual PGA events. It was the first event to offer a total purse of $1 million; at the trophy presentation, the winner used to receive his trophy with two showgirls by his side. Though these ideas help separate the event from others, the most drastic deviation from the norm is the tournament's format, which in a way, "borrowed" the format at the Bob Hope Open.

Check out our preview of the Shriners Hospitals for Chidren event

Here is a shot list of the players who are hot going into the Shriners:

Here is a look at my top picks for this week

For those that aren’t members joining us with a simple membership to get all of the stats, notes, previews, performance chart and all the tools so that you can make some good picks for this week.

Finally we leave you with this:

A Question for our readers:

How many of you know what TGL is?

Gosh, I find myself short on knowing much of this new league. It's a venture formed by sports executive Mike McCarley and professional golfers Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, in partnership with the PGA Tour. It will launch in January 2024, with events held on weeknights in conjunction with the PGA Tour schedule.

Now this isn't a golf tournament as we think of it in a traditional way or a new league that will go against the PGA Tour. It will initially feature six teams of three PGA Tour players, competing head-to-head in 18-hole match play on a virtual course with a special short game area. Players will strike full shots both off the tee and approaches into the green into a simulator with short-game shots happening live in front of fans in the SoFi Center, a new arena built on the Palm Beach State campus in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.

Fifteen matches, each lasting two hours and played in primetime on Monday and Tuesday nights, will make up the regular season. The semi-finals and a final match will be held at the end of the season. So will fans think of this as nothing more than an enhanced video game or will fans be able to see the shot value from the best players in the world?

It won't be played on your computer, but will be be on the ESPN networks and will have a stellar list of players from Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, to Matt Fitzpatrick, Rickie Fowler, Max Homa, Billy Horschel, Collin Morikawa, Jon Rahm, Justin Rose, Xander Schauffele, Shane Lowry, Tommy Fleetwood, Tom Kim, Tyrrell Hatton, Adam Scott and Justin Thomas.

TGL starts with a preview show which will air on ABC on December 30th. The first match will be on January 9th and air the night after the College Football title game. The second match will air on January 16th and then on Mondays after that.

The question we have for you, how interested in this series will you be?

Will you watch these matches, which will air at night?

If you can bet on this, will you?

So send in your thoughts to us at [email protected] / [email protected] and we will publish your thoughts and feelings in next week's GolfStats Insider.

Sal and Jason