Out of the Rough: Sanford International (2026)

Following a week off, the PGA Tour Champions Tour returns to action this week for the Sanford International.

This event debuted in 2018 and has been held every year since. This season marks the ninth playing of the Sanford International.

The Minnehaha Country Club in Sioux Falls, South Dakota has hosted each of the prior eight installments of this event. The historic club will once again play host this season.

The Field

Including this week, there are five events left until the start of the Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs. With that being said, many of the Tour’s best will be teeing it up this week in South Dakota.

Zach Johnson, a four time winner of the season, will headline this week’s field as he makes his Sanford International debut.

Other notable names teeing it up this week include Retief Goosen, Boo Weekley, George McNeill, Ernie Els, Miguel Angel Jimenez and Darren Clarke. 

Fan favorite Michael Block will also be teeing it up this week.

Goosen comes in as the defending champion, having topped Bo Van Pelt by two strokes a season ago.

Steve Stricker is also playing this week. That is of note as he has won half of the eight playings of this event. He won the inaugural playing in 2018 and then won three straight events between 2022 and 2024.

Other former winners of this event playing this week include Clarke (2021) and Jimenez (2020.)

The Course

The Minnehaha Country Club is a historic parkland course that was designed by William Langford and Theodore Moreau. It opened in 1922.

For most of its life, the course was left unchanged. However, in 2010, a major flood prevention civil engineering project took place.

This project required four acres of land to be used for a diversion channel along the nearby Big Sioux River.

Graham Marsh Golf Design led the renovation that required three holes to be moved that were directly affected by the inclusion of the diversion channel.

However, to maintain a uniform look of the golf course, nearly half of the holes were changed. 

It’ll play as a par-70 at 6,747 yards.

The course is known for dramatic elevation changes as the Big Sioux River winds throughout the property.

Off-the-tee golfers will face fairways that are as pure as turf. The fairways here have been described to be like that of greens.

These fairways are tree-lined but are generous in width as the trees offer more of a guidance of the course layout opposed to a defense.

The rough is also rather non-penal here as it is manageable rather than punishably deep.

From there, golfers will play onto some of the purest greens in the entire world. They’re described as “as pure as you’re going to get.”

The greens themselves seemingly blend into the fairways.

They are also described as pure, fast and heavily contoured with sweeping undulations.

The greens are guarded by bold contours, false fronts and severe tiering.

The signature hole here at Minnehaha Country Club is the par-five 12th. It begins at the highest point on the golf course. Both the tee-shot and at the approach require a carry of the Big Sioux River.

The Weather

As of the time of writing this, Friday is calling for a 55-percent chance of a strong evening thunderstorm. Saturday is calling for just a ten-percent chance of precipitation as Sunday calls for a 90-percent chance of thunderstorms. Temperatures will be the highest on Friday at 89-degrees before drastically falling to 75-degrees on Saturday and will finish the week at 67-degrees on Sunday. Winds will be the highest on Friday at 22 miles-per-hour and coming out of the South. Winds will shift to come out of the north-northwest on Saturday at 14 miles-per-hour before finishing the week at 12 miles-per-hour out of the east. In all, the weather is going to have its say at this event this week.

Key Stats

• Ball Striking

• Scrambling

• Putting Average

• Three-putt avoidance

• Bogey Avoidance

• Par-Four Average Scoring

Betting Card

Ernie Els (+1000)

All but one winner (Jimenez in 2020) had played this event prior to winning. I know those numbers are a bit skewed as there are seven events to go off of (ignoring the inaugural event) and the fact that Stricker won four of them, but even his dominance here proves course history is important. Els placed third in both 2025 and 2024. He placed 40th in 2023, third in 2022 and 33th in 2021. He knows his way around this track with three third place finishes across the past five installments. Els last played the Boeing Classic where he placed fourth. Prior to that he placed 17th at the Portugal Invitational, 14th at the ISPS HANDA Senior Open, 23rd at the Kaulig Companies Championship and 11th at the U.S. Senior Open across his last six starts. Of those playing, Els tops my stats based model this week. He is currently second on Tour in both scrambling and bogey avoidance, third in putting average, fourth in ball striking, fifth in par-four average scoring and 11th in three-putt avoidance.

Charlie Wi (+8000)

As I went with one of the favorites, I’ll compliment him with a longshot in Wi. I’m opting for the Tour’s best putter as these greens should be the difference maker here this week. To go along with being first on Tour in putting average, Wi is also second in three-putt avoidance, 20th in scrambling, 22nd in bogey avoidance, 28th in par-four average scoring and 32nd in ball striking. Wi has fallen out of form a bit as of late, placing 46th in his latest outing at the Rogers Charity Classic. He also placed 55th at the Boeing Classic, 30th at the Portugal Invitational, 21st at the ISPS HANDA Senior Open and 36th at the Kaulig Companies Championship across his last five starts. He placed 72nd here a season ago but was 15th in 2024 and 46th in 2023.