The Lions were busy making roster moves in advance of Sunday’s game against the Vikings
Saturday was a busy one in Allen Park as the Detroit Lions prepare for the Week 14 matchup with the Minnesota Vikings. The Lions made a series of roster moves related to injuries that have hit the team recently.
The Lions signed center Ross Pierschbacher off the practice squad to the active roster. With reserve OL Kayode Awosika out and right guard Evan Brown doubtful with injuries, Pierschbacher provides some much-needed depth to the 53-man roster.
To make room for Pierschbacher, Detroit placed rookie CB Chase Lucas on injured reserve. Lucas suffered a hamstring injury during practice on Thursday and was quickly ruled out for Sunday’s game in Ford Field. The move to IR almost certainly ends Lucas’ rookie campaign. He played just six total defensive snaps in six games on the season.
The Lions also elevated LB Jarrad Davis and CB Jarren Williams from the practice squad. Davis helps replace injured Derrick Barnes, who will miss the game with a knee issue. Williams will provide needed depth at CB, where Lucas is now gone and starting slot CB Will Harris is out for the Vikings game.
JACKSON, Miss. – Don’t blink, you’ll miss another birdie.
Moving day lived up to its mantra on Saturday at the 2022 Sanderson Farms Championship at The Country Club of Jackson. From the opening tee shot to the final cup rattling in the hole, there were plenty of birdies in the third round, leading to numerous players making big moves up the leaderboard. The scoring average has dropped every day through the first three rounds.
Among those at the top include a past champion, one looking to end a winless drought and someone looking for their first PGA Tour win.
Here are five takeaways from the third round of the Sanderson Farms Championship.
JACKSON, Miss. – The first time Brandon Wu went to The Country Club of Jackson last year, he was scared of the greens.
When he arrived at the Sanderson Farms Championship, he’d heard plenty about the putting surfaces. How fast they were. How punishing they could be if you were in the wrong spot. Making only his second start as a PGA Tour member, Wu was intimidated.
A year later, his thoughts on the greens have changed. They have also gained his respect.
“I think they’re just perfect,” Wu said. “They’re super pure, so if you are hitting good putts, they’re going to break the way you think they are and they’ll go in. These are some of the best on Tour, for sure.”
The Sanderson Farms Championship is the second event of the PGA Tour’s 2022-23 schedule. Hosted at The Country Club of Jackson since 2014, the tournament has a knack for producing first-time winners, but it has also built a reputation for having tremendous greens. As many players put it, arguably the best on the PGA Tour.
When thinking of courses known for their greens, Augusta National comes to mind. Other venues get thrown out there, too. But The Country Club of Jackson has earned the respect of the best players in the world, and it’s one of the reasons many enjoy playing Mississippi’s lone Tour event.
“I’ll bet you could walk across that whole putting green and ask guys about this course, and they’ll tell you some of the best greens all year,” said Davis Riley, who grew up in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. “It’s an awesome place.”
Golfers play the ninth green during the Sanderson Farms Championship at the Country Club of Jackson in Jackson, Miss., Friday, Sept. 30, 2022. (Photo: Barbara Gauntt/Clarion Ledger)
So, what makes a good green for the best players in the world?
Stanley Reedy has been the golf course superintendent at The Country Club of Jackson since 1997. He has been in charge of play and course conditions for not only the Tour event but also day-to-day outings for members.
There are numerous things that it takes to make the course’s greens as popular as they are, but Reedy said it’s all about his team’s attention to detail.
“They have to be built right,” Reedy said. “And then it’s the weekly maintenance. We may do things a little bit different, but our membership also has to let you do those things. And ours does.”
Monday is the normal maintenance day for the course, but if it happens to rain, Reedy said he will push it back to later in the week. It takes away a day of play for members, but it allows him and his staff to properly manage the course.
The greens are Champion bermuda grass, and many players say they’re so good because of how true putts roll.
“The greens are obviously really fast, but I think if you get in the right spots, you can make a lot of putts,” defending champion Sam Burns said. “The greens roll so pure.”
Part of the reason for the pureness is how they’re cut. Reedy said The Country Club of Jackson doesn’t use a vertical mower, instead using a groomer, which has tighter blades. When mowing, Reedy and his crew will never cut in the same pattern twice, which helps eliminate a noticeable grain pattern. After using the groomer mower, they use a walk mower that also has a groomer.
The green complexes for the Sanderson Farms Championship are fairly flat, so the strong, quick greens are the course’s natural defense. Reedy said someone who is a strong putter or has a good week on the greens is more likely to raise the trophy come Sunday.
The greens at The Country Club of Jackson reward good shots and penalize bad ones. They roll pure, require a good read and a solid strike, but those who manage the tricky complexes will find their way to the top of the leaderboard.
Every year, more and more of the best players in the world come to agree on one thing: the greens at the Sanderson Farms Championship are some of, if not, the best on the PGA Tour. And it brings a smile to Reedy’s face for each compliment he gets.
“It’s gratifying,” Reedy said. “You work your butt off all summer long. For your members, too, but when the best players in the world tell you your greens are in the top three or whatever, with Augusta National and U.S. Opens, it’s good.”
He earned an exemption after winning the PGA 2021 Gulf States E-Z-GO Section Championship last September.
JACKSON, Miss. – Scanning through a leaderboard at a PGA Tour event can lead to many different stories.
You have your stars trying to add another sentence to their legacy. You have rookies trying to break out. You have amateurs trying to prove they belong on the big stage.
If you scrolled to the bottom of the leaderboard of the 2022 Sanderson Farms Championship and saw the guy at the bottom by a mile, well, his name is Joseph Hanko. He’s not a Tour pro. He’s the director of golf operations at Elm Lake Golf Course in Columbus, Mississippi, near the Alabama border.
So, how did he get into his first PGA Tour event with the best players in the world? He won a qualifier more than a year ago. Hanko earned an exemption after winning the PGA 2021 Gulf States E-Z-GO Section Championship last September in Madison, Mississippi. He shot a 2-under 70 in the second and final round to take first place.
“I was prepared, for the most part,” Hanko told Golfweek. “The pro here let me come down a lot. I came down a lot and knew the golf course. My game kind of fell apart, honestly, like eight days ago.”
Don’t let Hanko’s score fool you, he’s better than most golfers on the planet. He shot 84 on Thursday and 82 on Friday. He recorded three birdies during his 36 holes, including consecutive circles on Nos. 3 and 4 on Friday.
Joseph Hanko plays a shot on the 14th hole during the Sanderson Farms Championship at The Country Club of Jackson on September 29, 2022, in Jackson, Mississippi. (Photo by Raj Mehta/Getty Images)
But being inside the ropes for the week helped give him a different perspective on what it’s like to be a Tour pro, even if he waited more than a year to tee it up.
“It was too long to wait,” Hanko said while laughing. “You exhaust the emotions of the moment. It didn’t really hit me until Wednesday night when we started talking about what time we wanted to come to the golf course, and that’s when I couldn’t sleep.
“It took me until the 11th hole (Thursday) for my insides to stop moving.”
Hanko’s caddie was Drew Spradley, a 25-year Air Force veteran who’s a member at Hanko’s course. He also had about 10 members and a handful of colleagues come out and watch him.
That doesn’t even include his family, some of whom flew down from Wisconsin to watch him compete while others drove two hours from Starkville. As the sun set behind the 18th grandstand on Friday night, Hanko’s group was the last on the course, yet it was one of the biggest galleries of the week.
That’s why, regardless of score, the week was a memorable one for Hanko.
“It didn’t get to me,” Hanko said. “I was playing really good until a week ago, just didn’t this week. I think I did good preparing as far as the emotions until it came to sleeping. I still enjoyed it.”
Here’s what you missed from the second round of the Sanderson Farms Championship.
JACKSON, Miss. – If the first two days were any indication, fans are in for a treat come the weekend at the 2022 Sanderson Farms Championship.
Friday’s second-round action from The Country Club of Jackson was filled with tons of low scores. Players are positioning themselves for a run at the trophy in the second PGA Tour event of the 2022-23 season. Emiliano Grillo shot 7-under, and one of his best shots of the day came after he threw his club.
There’s a duo tied at the top, but six golfers are within two shots of the lead. There are 10 within three shots.
Here’s a look at five things to know from the second round of the Sanderson Farms Championship.
The first two rounds of the 2022 Sanderson Farms Championship at The Country Club of Jackson are complete. It’s the second event of the PGA Tour’s 2022-23 season. Scores were lower during the second round, as numerous players climbed up the leaderboard to put themselves in position ahead of moving day.
Thomas Detry fired his second consecutive round of 5-under 67, and he leads at 10-under 134. Mackenzie Hughes caught fire Friday, shooting 8-under 64, and he’s one back of Detry. Sepp Straka is tied with Hughes after his round of 6-under 66.
The cut was 2-under 142. There are 78 players moving on to the weekend.
Here’s a look at a few notable names who missed the cut at the Sanderson Farms Championship:
Will the event stay in Jackson through its contract?
JACKSON, Miss. – The sale of Sanderson Farms to Cargill and Continental Grain Co. was finalized in July, creating Wayne-Sanderson Farms in the process. The sale of the poultry farm, along with Jackson’s ongoing water crisis, creates some questions ahead of Thursday’s first round of the Sanderson Farms Championship, the second event of the PGA Tour 2022-23 schedule.
What happens this week looms large for the event’s future. Tournament executive director Steve Jent will welcome Wayne-Sanderson Farms’ new executives to Country Club of Jackson to see Mississippi’s lone PGA Tour event for the first time. The original contract with Sanderson Farms to sponsor the tournament runs through 2026.
“There’s still five years left in the original agreement,” Jent said. “Their executives are focused on combining two companies into the country’s third-largest poultry company. What we’re excited about is … (we’re) hosting all their new executives who have not been here. They haven’t seen the tournament.
“That’s really our immediate focus. We really want to get this year behind us, and it’s still too early to talk about an extension. You talk about that when there’s maybe two or three years left. We know we’ve got five years. We’re excited about having them come and see it for this first year as their new title sponsor.”
Pic Billingsley, the executive vice president of retail for Wayne-Sanderson Farms, declined to answer whether the original Sanderson Farms contract was transferable to the new company.
“I can’t answer that question,” Billingsley said.
The tournament impacts the children’s hospital at University of Mississippi Medical Center, along with a variety of other charities throughout the state. In collaboration with Century Club Charities, which promotes golf and philanthropic interests in Mississippi, proceeds from the 2021 Sanderson Farms Championship led to a $1.5 million donation to UMMC.
Jent is confident in new leadership continuing to support Century Club Charities, along with the children’s hospital. Phillip Carpenter, president of Century Club Charities, is prepared to continue the company’s contract through 2026 with Wayne-Sanderson Farms.
The tournament is also a massive economic boost for the Jackson area, with about a “$40 million impact,” according to Carpenter. Jackson’s ongoing water crisis, which took a turn for the better Sept. 15 after Jackson’s city-wide weeks-long boil water notice was lifted, never threatened this year’s championship. The Country Club of Jackson has its own well system that provides irrigation and water to the grounds. Jent was also assured by city and state officials that the crisis would be solved in time.
The focus in the short term is showcasing the event to the new leadership and continuing to support charities across the state.
Defending champion Sam Burns is the headliner, fresh off a victory for the United States over the International team in the Presidents Cup. Burns, and a field including former major winners, gives the tournament something to build on.
“There is a totally new group of leaders that have come about because of the merger and that will be their first time to be able to see it and be involved in it,” Billingsley said. “It’s going to be exciting for some of us old timers at Sanderson Farms that are in leadership roles with a new company to be able to showcase Mississippi and showcase what this tournament ultimately does for the people in the state.”
The Clarion Ledger’s Wicker Perlis contributed to this report.
Heisman Trophy finalists were announced today and the list didn’t have any surprises. Joe Burrow (Quarterback, LSU), Chase Young (Defensive End, Ohio State), Justin Fields (Quarterback, Ohio State) and Jalen Fields (Quarterback, Oklahoma) will make …
Heisman Trophy finalists were announced today and the list didn’t have any surprises. Joe Burrow (Quarterback, LSU), Chase Young (Defensive End, Ohio State), Justin Fields (Quarterback, Ohio State) and Jalen Fields (Quarterback, Oklahoma) will make their way to New York to find out who wins the prestigious award. Burrow is the odds on favorite to walk away with the award and he may end up being the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL draft.
The NFL MVP race doesn’t work that way but right now the favorites to win the award essentially comes down to two players: Lamar Jackson and Russell Wilson. No one else really has a shot.
That brings up an interesting scenario. For the first time in history, the Heisman Trophy winner could be older than the NFL MVP winner.
Burrow is in his fifth year of college after redshirting his first year at Ohio State. He turns 23 tomorrow on December 10th — happy birthday, Joe! — and is going to win the Heisman Trophy unless something crazy happens with Chase Young becoming the first defensive player since Charles Woodson to win the award.
Jackson is the favorite to win MVP unless Wilson goes on a complete tear in the final three games. Even then, Jackson’s season and story may be too hard for voters to pass up. Jackson doesn’t turn 23 until January.
So, it’s only a few months difference but that means the Heisman Trophy favorite — Burrow — is older than the NFL MVP favorite — Jackson. If things play out as most expect them to, history will be made this year.
