FLOURTOWN, Pa. — Keith Mitchell got while the getting was good Thursday at the Truist Championship.
Now the 33-year-old Chattanooga native will try to be just as good for three more rounds, when the conditions and course could be more challenging.
Mitchell led a birdie spree on the first day of the PGA Tour’s sixth signature event of the 2025 schedule, shooting a career-best 9-under-par 61 to shatter the course record at the Philadelphia Cricket Club, which is hosting a tournament previously known as the Wells Fargo Championship and normally played at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The previous Wissahickon Course record of 65 was shared by Zac Blair, Angus Flanagan and Colin St Maxen. The 7,100-yard A.W. Tillinghast design with modest par 4s and gettable pin placements fell victim to the long hitters and aggressive shots with short irons and wedges.
Mitchell was near the end of a bogey-free round and had an outside chance at 59 on his second shot from 102 yards on the ninth hole, his 18th of the day. The former Baylor School and University of Georgia standout hit his approach to just beyond nine feet from the cup, then had to settle for a closing par and a one-shot lead over Denny McCarthy.
Akshay Bhatia, Rickie Fowler, Colin Morikawa and Sepp Straka were tied for third at 63, four more players were another shot back, and the 14-player logjam in 11th at 65 included two more Baylor grads: Harris English, whose bogey-free round included an eagle on the par-5 15th, and Chattanooga resident Stephan Jaeger, who negated a pair of bogeys with seven birdies.
Rory McIlroy, making his first individual start since completing the career Grand Slam at the Masters a month ago, had a 66 and was one of 64 players who beat par on the seemingly defenseless layout.
Mitchell led the way despite a ho-hum start of five straight pars on the back nine. Things started to heat up for him with back-to-back birdies on the stout 17th and 18th holes. His run continued with birdies on two of the first three holes on his back nine before a four-birdie run for a 6-under 29 on the inward nine.
Mitchell said he has a buddy who is a member at the Philadelphia Cricket Club — which is hosting because Quail Hollow is preparing for next week’s PGA Championship, the second major tournament of the year — and received some intel ahead of his arrival. He also credited the work he and his caddie did early in the week studying the greens for setting the stage for his success.
“I just plotted my way around Monday and Wednesday to figure out what to hit and where to kind of try to put the ball on the green,” Mitchell said. “If you get above the hole really pin high on the wrong side, you can have a really fast putt and have a ton of breaks.”
Mitchell’s lone PGA Tour win remains his one-stroke victory over Fowler and Brooks Koepka at the Honda Classic in March 2019, but he has had his share of close calls in the years since then. He has missed the cut just once this year — Thursday was his 11th solo start of the season — while compiling six finishes in the top 25, including a tie for second last month at the Corales Puntacana Championship in the Dominican Republic.
He was asked during a news conference Thursday about losing tournament leads and what it will take to get over the hump.
“Three more rounds like today will probably do it,” Mitchell said, “and trying not to win on Friday and Saturday and Sunday, just trying to play my best. You know, it’s harder — I’ve made it pretty hard lately. Hopefully I can just stay in front of it.”
The 32-year-old McCarthy, who has lost twice in playoffs and is winless on the PGA Tour, was aided by a fast start that included five straight birdies from the 11th to the 15th. He opened his inward nine with back-to-back birdies and added two more for a satisfying opening round.
“I’ve been playing really well lately, so it doesn’t really surprise me,” he said. “There’s still a lot of golf left. This is a really nice start. I’m excited for how my game has been trending lately.”
McIlroy, the tournament’s reigning champion and a four-time winner of the event, stayed with his aggressive game plan of trying to overpower the layout with his driver off the tee. He had two stumbles along the way: a three-putt at the par-4 11th and a bogey at the 570-yard, par-5 15th, where he scrambled after missing the fairway with his drive and the green with his approach from 243 yards.
McIlroy is the highest-ranked golfer in the 72-player field — he’s No. 2 in the Official World Golf Ranking behind Scottie Scheffler, who is sitting this week out after winning Sunday at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson — and he quickly moved past his first-round errors.
“I think it worked out fine,” he said after using six birdies to minimize the damage of two bogeys. “I drove the ball pretty well. I missed it in a couple of spots but was sort of able to get away with it.”
The 36-year-old from Northern Ireland is playing for the first time in two weeks after celebrating his first green jacket and finishing 12th at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans with teammate Shane Lowry of Ireland. McIlroy acknowledged his game is not in top form.
“I felt like I was a little rusty out there, just hadn’t played in a week, and I hadn’t really done a ton of practice, especially like on and around the greens,” he said. “I certainly can tidy a few things up, but overall a decent day.”
Lowry had a better day, shooting a bogey-free 64 that had him alongside American players Keegan Bradley, Joe Highsmith and Sam Stevens in seventh.
Alex Noren made his return to the tour, playing for the first time since August due to neck and leg injuries. The 42-year-old Swede opened with a 67, was happy to be back and looked forward to fine-tuning his game.
“It’s weird not to play for so long,” he said. “I’ve been looking forward to get some nervousness and some adrenaline flowing and just be a little sharper. You go around practicing your short game for a while. It’s not so inspiring in the end when you don’t really know when you can come back. Finally, the last two weeks, it felt good for two weeks in a row. The hamstring is holding up.”