This article is part of our Golf One and Done Pool Expert Picks series.
Truist Championship
The sixth of eight signature events takes the PGA Tour to The Philadelphia Cricket Club and means it will be a consequential week for One-and-Done players as well with another $20 million purse on the line. Truist, a Charlotte-based bank, is the new title sponsor of this event taking over for Wells Fargo, after they decided not to renew due to the increased costs for hosting the PGA Tour is charging signature events. That will mean a signature event will remain in the Charlotte area for the foreseeable future, only this year they are taking a one-year break with the PGA Championship being held at Quail Hollow next week. Since this event's inception in 2003, it has not been held at Quail Hollow just two other times. In 2017 when it was held at Eagle Point Golf Club with the PGA Championship hosting at Quail in August, and in 2022 when it went to TPC Potomoc for the May date with the Presidents Cup being held at Quail in September.
All of the top players on the PGA Tour will be teeing it up this week with one notable omission. Scottie Scheffler has decided to skip this signature event after winning THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson by eight strokes last week. Scheffler's first win of 2025 will leave him going into the PGA Championship on a high. Making up for it is Rory McIlroy who already has wins at a signature event, THE PLAYERS and The Masters. McIlroy has won this even four times before including last season, but all of those were at Quail Hollow. He'll certainly be excited to get to the PGA Championship next week. Plenty of other top ranked players will be looking to get their first win of the season this week such as Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa and Viktor Hovland.
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Course Tidbits
- Course: The Philadelphia Cricket Club Wissahickon Course (7,119 yards, par 70)
- Location: Flourtown, Pennsylvania
- Purse: $20 million ($3.6 million to winner)
- Defending Champion: Rory McIlroy (-17)
This will be unfamiliar venue to pretty much every player in the field. The A.W. Tillinghast design is a real throwback to the golden age of golf course architecture. It is not long by any means at just over 7,100 yards, but it requires proper golf shots in order to set up good looks at birdies. Driving accuracy will take priority over distance with 3-4 inch fescue rough and strategically placed fairway bunkers. The green complexes are the biggest defense of the golf course. Not only are the putting surfaces very undulating, but the greens are very well bunkered. Any iron shot that is just off could lead to a struggled to make par.
Typically on unfamiliar greens the ball-strikers are able to shine. With seven par-4s measuring under 435 yards, SG: Approach and proximity in the 100-150 yard range will be quite important. SG: Around-the-Green and sand-save percentage are two other stats to look at with a whopping 118 bunkers around this property, the most of any course on the PGA Tour. With only two par-5s at 546 and 553 yards, both will be very important to take advantage of. The par-3s are expected to play quite tricky with two of them measuring over 215 yards.
There really isn't a great comparison for the Wissahickon Course to any other regular PGA Tour stop. It does give the look of some other great recent major championship courses such as Oakmont and Winged Foot, but nowhere near the length factor. The closest comparison would probably be like a Colonial with more rough and more movement on the greens. Colonial allows players to use several different types of clubs off the tees like the Wissahickon Course will, and also features bentgrass greens that are well bunkered.
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Truist Championship: One and Done Picks
Aberg is at the level now where OAD players would consider using him at a major, which means his ownership this week might not be as high as expected. He's also coming off a disappointing showing at the RBC, which should keep his numbers down, but I think a lot of that had to do with the Masters hangover and how he crumbled down the stretch. He'll be refreshed and ready to go this week and the fact that everyone is playing this course for the first time should help as well as nobody in the field will have an advantage of course history over him, like they do during most weeks on the PGA Tour. --Greg Vara
When I did an overhead tour of this course with the thought in mind that it was going to play soft, Hovland was one of the first names that came to mind. He's been so good over the years at these style of tracks, mostly because he is one of the top ball-strikers around, and now it appears his swing is back to where he wants it. Hovland ranks 34th in total driving, ninth in SG: Approach and 15th in proximity this season. Given this is a shorter course and favorable conditions are expected, there will be plenty of birdies out there. Not many are better in that department than Hovland who sits fourth on Tour in birdie or better conversion percentage. --Ryan Andrade
We saw Justin Thomas break his multi-year winless drought in the last signature event which brings the question of – is Cantlay next? He last won in 2022 and that came in nearby Delaware, also at a first-time PGA Tour venue. He is playing well enough to win again soon as he ranks 13th in SG: Tee-to-Green and has two top-5s this year. If you still have him available, I don't think there are going to be many other spots to use Cantlay if you skip him this week. --Ryan Pohle
Cantlay, who can be found as short as 16/1 in the outright betting market, is the perfect example of a player that's good enough to utilize in a Signature Event, but not someone you'd want to save for a major. Despite ranking top-8 in both SG: Off-the-Tee and SG: Approach over his last 24 rounds, Cantlay's single-digit projected OAD ownership is reasonably held in check. Putting from inside 10 feet is the primary concern for Cantlay as of late. --Bryce Danielson
It's a signature event, so a top guy should win. But it's also a new course, and no one knows exactly how things will play out. I'm not willing to burn a very top guy when there are so many unknowns. Henley is a top guy based on the OWGR, but I don't put him in that first tier of golfers. His biggest shortcoming is driving distance. That won't be an issue this week, And he's been doing everything else quite well. With five top-10s in nine starts, Henley is a consideration most weeks. --Len Hochberg
Truist Championship: One and Done Fades
This is not to say that I think McIlroy plays poorly this week, it's more of a reminder that he has bigger fish to fry and his track record at this event means nothing because of the new venue. We're all left to wonder what getting the career grand slam will do for McIlroy, and my guess is that he puts more of an emphasis on the majors than he did before. I felt like he was trying to prove something at non-majors over the past decade, prove something to himself that he could still win, but that's not there anymore. He knows he can win majors again, so I think that's where his focus moves to going forward. That also means that his production outside the majors might fall off a bit. --Greg Vara
Apart from a near miss at The Masters, Aberg has really struggled since his victory at The Genesis Invitational. He finished T54 last time out at the RBC Heritage and missed cuts at THE PLAYERS and Valero Texas Open. The driving has been terrific this year, but I don't think his iron play has been strong enough to compete at a course like this where you need to be really precise. Aberg ranks 110th in SG: Approach and 135th in GIR percentage this season. He's also 129th in SG: Around-the-Green and 139th in SG: Putting. I think we'll see some more consistent play from Aberg down the road, but this isn't the place I want to use him, especially with it being a signature event. --Ryan Andrade
Schauffele had a slow start in his return from injury but has played better his last three tournaments and should be one of the more popular choices this week. I'm not sold, however, as he's been far less accurate off the tee (158th this season) and that doesn't appear to be a good recipe for success on this shorter course. I think Schauffele will find the form (or at least close to) that we saw last year later this summer, and I think it's best to wait on him a bit longer. --Ryan Pohle
I was pretty shocked to see Rose in the No. 3 spot of Sitewide Picks on OfficeFootballPool.com, especially considering he's as long as 66/1 to win this week. He's gained more than a full stroke off the tee just once this season, and I want to target better drivers of the ball at The Philadelphia Cricket Club. If you think Rose actually has a chance to win, from a risk-benefit perspective you'd be getting way better value on a 66/1 outright ticket than if you elect to click him at inflated ownership in OAD when there's no reason to dip that low. Simply put, OAD isn't the right format to get Rose into your Truist portfolio this week. --Bryce Danielson
There are only 72 golfers, so no one will fade thatmuch. But Morikawa has just switched caddies, moving on from J.J. Jakovac, the only caddie he'd ever had as a pro golfer, to Joe Greiner. Consider this a getting-to-know-you week before the PGA Championship. Now, Greiner just won a couple of weeks ago when on Justin Thomas' bag for the first and only time (as a fill-in), so it is possible. If Greiner wins again this week, then just pick Greiner every week in OAD. --Len Hochberg
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