Rory McIlroy, loaded field chase Truist title at unfamiliar course

As the golf calendar crescendos to the second major of the year, the PGA Tour's best get one more tune-up on an unfamiliar course.

Quail Hollow, usually the site of the Truist Championship, will instead host next week's PGA Championship. Subbing in this week is the Wissahickon Course at the Philadelphia Cricket Club, the venue's PGA Tour debut.

The 72-man signature event formerly known as the Wells Fargo Championship tees off Thursday.

"I kind of think of (Philadelphia) similar to like in Scotland or Ireland. ... There's no bad golf courses it seems like you can play, you know what I mean?" Justin Thomas said. "They all look so unique. They have the old templates, the old kind of architecture and the crazy green complexes, the bunkering. ... It's cool that we get to come to a new place like this and experience it and play it."

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler is taking the week off after torching the CJ Cup Byron Nelson in a PGA Tour record-tying 31 under par. But the rest of the world's top 10 and 43 of the top 50 are in the field, headlined by World No. 2 Rory McIlroy.

The Northern Irishman will play in his first standard tournament since winning the Masters on April 13; he competed in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans team event with Shane Lowry of Ireland, only because they were the defending champions.

‘It’s good to be here’

McIlroy admitted he's been overbooked in the weeks since his Masters breakthrough and is looking forward to playing again. He has won the Truist four times, including last year, but like everyone else he has to learn a new course.

"It doesn't quite feel like a defense, but it's good to be here," McIlroy said. "At this stage of my career, it's cool to come to new venues, see new golf courses and do new things."

Wissahickon is a par-70, 7,119-yard layout this week with only two par-5 holes. When the Philadelphia Cricket Club hosted the 2016 Senior Players Championship, Bernhard Langer of Germany won with a final score of 1 over par.

That said, the course likely won't play as tough this week, with rain forecast for Thursday and Friday expected to soften the firm fairways and greens.

"I think there's some hard holes on there and some holes that are really gettable, so I think scoring is going to be relatively low," Xander Schauffele said.

Added Thomas: "I think here it's (find the) fairway first, and it's more of a second-shot golf course, in my opinion, of where you're leaving it and putting it in the right positions and giving yourself birdie opportunities."

"I don't think I've done anything to knock myself down in confidence," Schauffele said. "That can obviously happen pretty quickly, but for the most part, I feel like I'm putting nice building blocks together to get me back to a place where I feel like I can win every week."

Thomas, meanwhile, hopes to have some momentum from winning the RBC Heritage the week after the Masters, his first victory in nearly three years.

Collin Morikawa will make his first start with new caddie Joe Greiner, and Jordan Spieth could be in the mix after he finished fourth at the Byron Nelson. Spieth is a PGA Championship away from following in McIlroy's footsteps and completing the career Grand Slam.

Other Truist champions in the field include Wyndham Clark (2023), Max Homa (2019, 2022), Brian Harman (2017) and Rickie Fowler (2012).