By Doug Milne,
Sanderson Farms Championship Correspondent
When Round One of the 2025 Sanderson Farms Championship got underway at The Country Club of Jackson, sunny skies, warm temperatures, and light breezes served as the green light for a quartet to post some serious red numbers.
Beginning his round on No. 10, South Africa’s Garrick Higgo was 4-under through five holes before signing for a 7-under 65 in his fourth Sanderson Farms Championship start. He followed a third-place showing in his first start of 2022 with a T16 in 2023 and a missed cut last season.
Higgo seeks a third career win on the PGA TOUR this week and his second of the season (Corales Puntacana Championship). In his most recent start before this week, he finished T7 at the Procore Championship in Napa Valley last month.
Playing in the morning wave and still in search of his maiden victory on TOUR, Palm Springs, California native Eric Cole overcame a bogey at the first hole with 10 birdies to open with a 7-under 65. Ten birdies in a single round mark his best on the PGA TOUR.
Following a double-bogey-six at No. 16, Cole rallied with his ninth and 10th birdies of the day on Nos. 17 and 18. The 65 becomes his lowest score in 11 rounds at the Sanderson Farms Championship (previously 66).
“I would say I did a lot of stuff well,” Cole said. “There were a few times I didn’t get away with some bad shots. I made a bogey and a double bogey, so that wasn’t good. But my putting was great, and when I did miss, other than those two holes, I got away with it and scored well today.”
Cole is in search of his third top-10 finish of the season and first in 12 starts (T5/CJ Cup, Byron Nelson).
The 37-year-old Cole is making his fourth start in the Sanderson Farms Championship this week and comes off a T16 in last year’s event, his best of three previous starts at The Country Club of Jackson. His finish has improved with each start in the event.
“These are great greens, some of the best greens we play on TOUR,” Cole said. “For some reason, I struggled reading them in the past. I remember last year, I was really paying attention to a lot of the reads and kind of remembered them into this year. I think that definitely helped today, because having that memory versus seeing it for the first or second time. That’s probably the biggest thing.”
Keeping pace with Cole and Higgo was 35-year-old Florida native, Sam Ryder, also looking for win No. 1 on the PGA TOUR (224th start).
Following birdies on his first two holes of the day, the Atlantic Beach, Florida resident followed with additional birdies on Nos. 4, 10, 15, 17, and 18 to open with a bogey-free 7-under 65.
“I felt like it was definitely the old no-pictures-on-the-scorecard kind of day for me,” Ryder said. “A big key was that I wasn’t really thinking too much about it. I was just trying to focus on the next shot. I felt like things were right there, and even though I wasn’t really hitting it great, I didn’t really lose a lot of confidence.”
En route to his 65, Ryder sank an impressive total of 142’8” of putts.
“I was able to lean on my putter for sure today,” Ryder said. “I know that’s probably not sustainable for four days, but I would like to play three more good ones. I’ll get a good practice this afternoon and try and build on that one round at a time.”
Ryder’s best finish in seven previous starts at the Sanderson Farms Championship was T45 in 2022.
Coming into the week on the heels of seven consecutive missed cuts, Danny Walker birdied his last two holes, Nos. 17 and 18, to reach a share of the 18-hole lead of 7-under 65.
“It’s really hard when you’ve missed a bunch of cuts to not go into a week and all you’re thinking about is hoping you’re going to make the cut…and that’s kind of where it got to,” Walker said. “When all you’re thinking about is just making the cut…it really got in my head. But, going into this week, I finally felt like I had gotten to a place where I wasn’t really worried about that.”
In what is his first start in the Sanderson Farms Championship, Walker needed a total of just 24 putts to sink a total of 152’0” of putts.
“It was really good, the putter got heated up,” Walker said. “That was probably my best putting round of the year. That was really the difference. I just made a bunch of putts.”
Trailing the leaders by just two strokes is defending Sanderson Farms Championship winner, Kevin Yu.
On the strength of five birdies and no bogeys, Yu opened with a 5-under 67. In each of the first three rounds last year, Yu posted 6-under 66s.
Largely credited for today’s 5-under 67 lies in Yu’s accuracy. In Round One this week, he found 11 of 14 fairways off the tee and hit 16 of 18 greens in regulation.
“Everything was smooth today,” said Yu. “I hit a lot of fairways, a lot of greens, and my putting was okay. I just needed to keep giving myself a lot of chances, which is key for this course. I really like the greens and feel that if I hit as many fairways and greens as possible, I’m going to have a lot of chances. I just need to keep a great mindset and let that continue to help me out.”
With a win this week, Yu would be the first player to defend a Sanderson Farms Championship title successfully.
Making his eighth start in the Sanderson Farms Championship and coming off seven straight missed cuts in the event, Matt Kuchar aced the par-3 fourth hole from 183 yards to open in 4-under 68.
Kuchar seeks a 10th career win on the PGA TOUR and first since the 2019 Sony Open in Hawaii.
Prior to Kuchar, Niklas Norgaard aced the same hole in Round One before signing for an even-par 72.
The lone amateur in the field, Michael La Sasso, started his sixth PGA TOUR strong, opening with a 4-under 68.
In his only made cut out of five previous starts this season, the 21-year-old North Carolinian and 2025 NCAA Division I Individual National Champion from Ole Miss finished T44 at the 3M Open in Minneapolis in July.
Additional players of note after Round One: Max Homa (-5/67), Zach Johnson (-3/69), Francesco Molinari (-2/70), Joel Dahmen (-1/71), and Akshay Bhatia (E/72).
