Sanderson Farms: Leaderboard tightly packed after one round

The Sanderson Farms Championship is one of the toughest tournaments to project, and after 18 holes, the picture is still muddled.

One round in, five players are tied for the lead and 17 are within two shots. The betting odds aren't too much clearer than they were before things started.

Andrew Landry (10-1), JJ Spaun (16-1), Ryan Armour (16-1), Conrad Shindler (25-1) and Wyndham Clark (28-1) are all in first at 6-under. Pre-tournament favorite Chesson Hadley dropped from 18-1 to 11-1 after opening at 4-under.

I'm making one add to my card after the first day with Patton Kizzire at 140-1 for a quarter unit. He's off the pace at 1-under, but I'm not too concerned about that. He fits the course well and took second a couple years ago. His primary weakness is his inaccuracy with the driver, and this is one of the places where that can be hidden. We saw last year with Cody Gribble, who opened at 1-over 73 in his win, that players can come from way off the pace.

Looking back at my bets on Thursday, I placed 1.5 units down on first-round leaders, but none of them were among the tie at the top. The closest was Aaron Wise at 100-1, who got to 5-under with four holes remaining but couldn't find another birdie. My first-round leader plays are up on Twitter late Wednesday night because I'm usually looking for a weather advantage to target either the morning or afternoon wave. So I'll wait as long as possible to look at the forecasts.

I've got a quartet of 3-ball plays for Friday's second round. Sticking with my strategy of fading hot putters and backing cold ones, I've targeted the following golfers for a unit each.

I'll be keeping a closer eye on this tournament throughout the week compared to the HSBC Champions in China, but keep an eye out for my writeups in the morning on that one and on my Twitter for any additional plays there.

Joshua has spent the last five years writing about sports and the last 10 years betting them, mostly on golf. He's one of approximately five people who will watch the PGA over the NFL in November. Follow him on Twitter @JoshuaPerry22

Photo: © Spruce Derden-USA TODAY Sports

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