Rory McIlroy goes for a fifth Truist title, but at a different venue

• The PGA Tour’s Truist Championship, with a $20 million purse, begins May 8th at the Philadelphia Cricket Club.
• Rory McIlroy is the defending Truist Champion, having won the tournament four times.
• The ONEflight Myrtle Beach Classic, a Korn Ferry Tour event, occurs concurrently with the Truist Championship.

Two weeks of star power are coming up in professional golf. 

It starts at the Philadelphia Cricket Club Wissahickon Course on May 8 for the PGA Tour’s Truist Championship (formerly the Wells Fargo Championship), a Signature Event with a $20 million purse. 

The field will play at a course owned by the oldest country club in America, established in 1854. 

Next week will be the season’s second major, the PGA Championship May 12-15 at the Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, N.C. Last year, the purse was $18.5 million but is likely to increase. 

All but three players in the top 20 on the World Golf Rankings are playing this week, and the expectation for the PGA is that nearly every player among the top 100 will be playing since players from the LIV Golf League will be in the field. 

One of the players not in this week’s field in Philadelphia will be world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who tied the PGA Tour 72-hole scoring record of 253 in winning last week at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson.

Why is the Truist at the Philadelphia Cricket Club? 

Quail Hollow has hosted the Truist Championship since 2003, except in 2017, 2022, and this year.  

The tournament was held at Eagle Point in Wilmington, N.C., in 2017 and is at the Philadelphia Cricket Club this year because Quail Hollow hosted the PGA Championship. The Truist Championship was played at TPC Potomac in 2022 because Quail Hollow was the site of the Presidents Cup. 

Players Championship and Masters champion Rory McIlroy is defending this week, and it’s usually been a blowout. He won the tournament for the fourth time last year by five shots over Xander Schauffele, won by seven shots over Webb Simpson and Patrick Rodgers in 2015 and beat Phil Mickelson by four shots in 2010, the first of his 29 PGA Tour victories. 

The only time McIlroy stressed over a victory in the Truist Championship was in 2021 when he nipped Abraham Ancer by one shot. 

All of McIlroy’s Truist victories have been at Quail Hollow. The Wissahickon Course was designed by A.W. Tillinghast in 1922 and renovated in 2013 by Keith Foster. 

It’s an old-school course that is short by PGA Tour standards (7,119 yards) and features a stout set of par-3 holes, ranging from the 122-yard third hole to the 240-yard 15^th hole.

Dillon Board, Jackson Byrd playing at Myrtle Beach

Dillon Board, a Baldwin graduate, and Jackson Byrd, a senior at Frederica Academy on St. Simons Island, Ga., are the ONEFlight Myrtle Beach Classic on sponsor invitations. Byrd’s father, five-time PGA Tour winner Jonathan Byrd, is also in the field.

Board made seven of 21 cuts on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2024, with three top 25 finishes, and finished 113th on the final points list.

Byrd, who has signed with Clemson, is making his first PGA Tour start. He is second on the American Junior Golf Association rankings, behind Miles Russell of Jacksonville Beach.

Who are the area players in the Truist Championship field? 

First Coast: Ludvig Åberg. 

Golden Isles: Harris English, Ben Griffin, Brian Harman, Keith Mitchell, Andrew Novak, J.T. Poston, Davis Thompson.  

Purse: $20 million ($3.5 million and 700 FedEx Cup points to the winner). 

Defending champion: Rory McIlroy. 

TV: Golf Channel (May 8-9, 2-6 p.m.; May 10-11, 1-3 p.m.); CBS (May 10, 3-6:30 p.m., May 11, 3-6 p.m.). 

Who are the area players in the ONEflight Myrtle Beach Classic field? 

First Coast: Dillon Board, Ricky Castillo, Adrien Dumont de Chassart, Nico Echavarria, Lanto Griffin, Evan Harmeling, Philip Knowles, Ben Kohles, Sam Ryder, Alejandro Tosti, Danny Walker. 

Golden Isles: Jackson Byrd, Jonathan Byrd, Patton Kizzire, Paul Peterson, Greyson Sigg. 

Purse: $4 million ($720,000 and 300 FedEx Cup points to the winner. 

Defending champion: Chris Gotterup. 

TV: Golf Channel (May 8-9, 10 a.m.-noon; May 10-11, 3-5 p.m.). 

What other Tours are playing this week? 

LPGA 

Event: Mizuho Americas Open, May 8-11, Liberty National Golf Club, Jersey City, N.J. 

Purse: $3 million ($450,000 to the winner). 

Defending champion: Nelly Korda. 

Area players: Auston Kim, Jessica Porvasnik. 

TV: Golf Channel (May 8-9, 12-2 p.m.; May 10, 5-7:30 p.m.); CBS (May 11, 1-3 p.m.).