FLOURTOWN, Pa. — Things are getting back to normal on the golf course for Rory McIlroy, and yet it’s anything but routine for this week’s Truist Championship at the Philadelphia Cricket Club, the sixth of eight signature events in the PGA Tour’s 2025 season that come with a limited field, a purse of $2o million and 700 FedEx Cup points for the winner.
The 36-year-old from Northern Ireland is playing in an individual tournament for the first time since winning the Masters last month and becoming the sixth player in men’s golf history to complete the career Grand Slam by winning all four major championship tournaments. He paired up with good friend Shane Lowry of Ireland at last month’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans, where they finished 12th while falling short in a bid to repeat as champions at the lone team event on the PGA Tour’s schedule.
And now McIlroy, No. 2 in the Official World Golf Ranking behind Scottie Scheffler, is finally returning to solo action.
“I’m excited to get back to being a golfer,” McIlroy said. “It’s nice to get back into the routine again and get back to what I know how to do.”
McIlroy is the reigning champion and a four-time winner of the Truist Championship, which dates to 2003 and was known as the Wells Fargo Championship the past 14 years. He said celebrating his Masters victory is behind him, and he’s looking forward to the next few months.
First, his attention is on the tournament that begins Thursday. A winner of the event in 2010, 2015, 2021 and 2024, McIlroy doesn’t have the luxury of trying to earn back-to-back titles on the same course.
The event was moved to the Philadelphia Cricket Club this year while the tournament’s usual home, Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina, prepares to host next week’s PGA Championship, the second major of the year.
“The last two times I’ve won the Truist Championship, I haven’t been able to defend on the same golf course the next year,” McIlroy said. “We won in ’21 and then played Potomac, and won last year and then we’re here.
“So it doesn’t quite feel like a defense.”
The 2022 edition of the tournament was held at TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm in the metropolitan area for Washington, D.C., because Quail Hollow was hosting the Presidents Cup that September.
This week’s field in the no-cut event will be tested by the Wissahickon Course for the first time. The layout in the golf-rich Philadelphia suburbs plays just longer than 7,100 yards and to a par 70.
Located at the oldest country club in the U.S. — it was founded in 1854 — the layout was designed by club member A.W. Tillinghast and opened in 1922. It underwent restoration just more than a decade ago and has hosted a number of notable events, including the United States Golf Association’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship last year and the 2016 Senior Players Championship.
However, the field will be missing Scheffler, who won for the first time in 2025 last weekend — doing so at his hometown tournament, the CJ Cup Byron Nelson in the Dallas suburbs, while tying the PGA Tour’s 72-hole scoring record.
Third-ranked Xander Schauffele, the 2024 PGA Championship winner, returns to competition for the first time since a tie for 18th place at the RBC Heritage in April. Justin Thomas is playing for the first time since winning that tournament, and at No. 5, the two-time PGA Championship winner has his highest ranking since holding the same spot in 2022.
McIlroy and others have described the Wissahickon Course as “old school” and seemed excited to have the event staged at the venerable layout.
The players will face large landing areas, not-so-penal rough and tricky greens. Expectations of how the course holds up against today’s pros drew varied responses.
“It’s very similar to a lot of these old-school courses that have been renovated over the past few years. A lot of trees have been taken out. The green complexes are, for me, the interesting thing about the golf course,” McIlroy said. “A little simple off the tee … but (it’s about) making sure with the second shots that you’re below the hole and trying to get to learn the greens a little bit more.”
Thomas is a fan of the course and was hopeful that possible inclement weather on Thursday and Friday doesn’t diminish the course’s defenses against the top-flight field.
“I love these kinds of designs,” he said. “They’re fun. … They’re very specific in terms of what the conditions give us. … It is meant to play firm and fast, especially the greens.”
Schauffele expects a low score to win.
“For some reason, whenever courses seem to be really, really hard, guys seem to shoot low,” he said. “I think this course is kind of the middle of the road in terms of difficulty. I think there’s some hard holes on there and some holes that are really gettable.”