The 58th Sanderson Farms Championship, the 13th and apparently final with America’s third largest poultry producer as a sponsor, tees off Thursday at 7 a.m at Country Club of Jackson.

Mississippi’s only PGA TOUR Tournament, which faces a cloudy future with no sponsor beyond this year and no assured dates from the tour next year, will feature a strong field of players, including an impressive list of golfers with Magnolia State ties.

With the golf world still buzzing over last weekend’s Ryder Cup matches, the Mississippi tournament will feature several players with Ryder Cup notoriety, including Denmark’s Rasmus Hojgaard, a member of this years victorious European team, and his twin brother Nicolai, who played on the victorious European team in 2023. The twins are the first brothers to ever win back-to-back on the DP World Tour and the first identical twins ever to play in the Masters together. They will be joined by Italian Francisco Molinari, vice captain of the European team and  a three-time Ryder Cup standout, who in 2018 became the first European player in history to win all five of his matches.

Otherwise, six-time PGA TOUR winner Max Homa, the top U.S. points winner in the 2023 Ryder Cup with a 3-1-1 record, will play at CCJ, along with Brandt Snedeker, a U.S. assistant coach, and a nine-time winner on the PGA TOUR.

The field will include five of the top 50 players in the world golf rankings, including No. 34 Akshay Bhatia, the top ranked player in the field. Bhatia made his professional debut at CCJ in 2019 at the age of 17.

Defending champion Kevin Wu, who set a scoring record last year, returns, along with a strong contingent of Missisippians, including:

• Hattiesburg native Davis Riley, a two time PGA TOUR champion and winner of nearly $11 million in career earnings.
• Tupelo’s Hayden Buckley, who has won on both the Korn Ferry Tour and PGA TOUR Canada.
• Fulton native and former Mississippi State golfer Chad Ramey, a winner on both the Korn Ferry and PGA tours.
• Former Ole Miss golfer Braden Thornberry, who won the 2017 NCAA Championship, and is a rookie on the PGA TOUR.
• Former Ole Miss golfer Jackson Suber, a tour rookie already with over $1 million in earnings and three top 10 finishes.
• Walnut native Kye Meeks, another former Ole Miss golfer and PGA TOUR rookie.
• Ole Miss golfer Michael LaSasso, the reigning NCAA Champion, who is making his sixth PGA TOUR start while still an amateur.

The Sanderson Farms Championship field includes 28 players who have won PGA TOUR tournaments over the past two years.

The Sanderson Farms/Lyle Machinery Pro Am will be played Wednesday beginning at 7 a.m.

Since 2013 when then-Sanderson Farms CEO Joe Sanderson saved the tournament, the event has raised nearly $19 million for Children’s of Mississippi and additional $2.75 million for various Mississippi charities.

Players will be competing for $6 million in prize money and a first prize of $1.08 million.

READ: Sanderson Farms Championship: If this is the last one, thanks for the memories