Truist Championship picks, predictions, odds for 2025 PGA Tour event

The PGA Tour will play another Signature Event, the Truist Championship, at the Philadelphia Cricket Club Wissahickon Course beginning May 8. It’s an old-school A.W. Tillinghast par-70 design that isn’t very long and features a wonderful collection of par-3 holes highlighted by the 240-yard 15th.

It’s a one-off trip to Philly for the tournament, which has been at the Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, N.C., since 2003, except for years in which the PGA Championship or the Presidents Cup is held there. As a result, defending champion Rory McIlroy may not have the length advantage he has had in winning at Quail Hollow four times, including last year.

But McIlroy has won at shorter, tighter courses, such as the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass, PGA National and East Lake, and he’s playing at such a high level that it almost doesn’t matter where he’s playing: his game will travel.

He’s also being joined by 17 of the top 20 on the World Golf Rankings this week, a field that includes other major champions such as Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa, Wyndham Clark, Shane Lowry, Justin Thomas and Hideki Matsuyama.

Truist Championship favorites, odds

With world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler taking a break from shattering PGA Tour scoring records, BetMGM is going with the obvious pick for the shortest odds: McIlroy, the world’s No. 2 player who could overtake Scheffler with a victory this week. McIlroy has already won The Players, the Masters and Pebble Beach and enters the week as the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup points leader and money leader.

BetMGM has McIlroy at +450 on the money line, and it’s a long way to the next-best lines: Morikawa and Thomas at +1400 and Schauffele and Ludvig Åberg at +1600.

Truist Championship picks

Rory McIlroy: He’s playing the best golf of his life and there’s even less pressure on him now that he’s won the career Grand Slam. McIlroy has won three times and posted only four over-par rounds. He won two of the tournaments in which he signed for a score over par.

Justin Rose: The 44-year-old veteran and playoff runner-up to McIlroy in the Masters has three top-10s this season, all on difficult courses. He won the 2013 U.S. Open at Merion, another old-school track in Philadelphia.

Justin Thomas: He got over the hump by winning at the RBC Heritage, on a tight, short course that negates his distance off the tee and there’s no reason to think he can’t do it again.

Past Truist Championship winners

All winners at Quail Hollow unless otherwise indicated:

• 2024: Rory McIlroy
• 2023: Wyndham Clark
• 2022: Max Homa (TPC Potomac) 
• 2021: Rory McIlroy 
• 2020: Tournament canceled 
• 2019: Max Homa 
• 2018: Jason Day 
• 2017: Brian Harman (Eagle Point Golf Club) 
• 2016: James Hahn 
• 2015: Rory McIlroy 
• 2014: J.B. Holmes 
• 2013: Derek Ernst 
• 2012: Rickie Fowler 
• 2011: Lucas Glover 
• 2010: Rory McIlroy 
• 2009: Sean O’Hair 
• 2008: Anthony Kim 
• 2007: Tiger Woods 
• 2006: Jim Furyk 
• 2005: Vijay Singh 
• 2004: Joey Sindelar 
• 2003: David Toms 

PGA Tour winners this season

• The Sentry: Hideki Matsuyama 
• Sony Open: Nick Taylor 
• American Express: Sepp Straka 
• Farmers Insurance Open: Harris English 
• AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am: Rory McIlroy 
• WM Phoenix Open: Thomas Detry 
• Genesis Invitational: Ludvig Aberg 
• Mexico Open: Brian Campbell 
• Cognizant Classic: Joe Highsmith 
• Arnold Palmer Invitational: Russell Henley 
• Puerto Rico Open: Karl Vilips 
• The Players Championship: Rory McIlroy 
• Valspar Championship: Viktor Hovland 
• Texas Children’s Houston Open: Min Woo Lee 
• Valero Texas Open: Brian Harman 
• The Masters: Rory McIlroy 
• RBC Heritage: Justin Thomas 
• Corales Puntacana Championship: Garrick Higgo 
• Zurich Classic: Andrew Novak-Ben Griffin 
• CJ Cup Byron Nelson: Scottie Scheffler