Truist Championship: Day the only play at 74/1

• Great event for longshots

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Tournament History

The Truist Championship, previously known as the Wells Fargo Championship, and first staged in 2003, is ordinarily staged at next week's US PGA Championship venue - Quali Hollow - but for the third time in its brief history, we're off to a new venue for a third time.  

The 2017 edition was staged at Eagle Point when Quail Hollow hosted the US PGA Championship for the first time and the 2022 edition was played at TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm because Quail hosted the Presidents Cup that year. This time around we're heading to the A.J Tillinghast designed Wissahickon Course at the Philadelphia Cricket Club.

Now a Signature Event, the Truist Championship has established itself as one of the strongest tournaments on the PGA Tour.

The event was cancelled in 2020 because of the pandemic, so this is the 22^nd edition.

Venue

Wissahickon Course, Philadelphia Cricket Club, Flourtown, Pennsylvania.

Course Details

Par 70 - 7, 119 yards

Laid out on a historical site purchased on the recommendation of the designer, A.J Tillinghast, who was a member of the Philadelphia Cricket Club, the Wissahickon Course opened in 1922.

The name Wissahickon (the Lenape word for "Catfish Stream") refers to the Wissahickon Creek that runs adjacent to the course and there's also an abandoned Reading Railroad track that runs through the course, along the 6th and 11th holes.

The Wissahickon underwent a Keith Foster-led complete restoration in 2013 and 2014 and judging by the videos below, they made a fine job of it.

The Wissahickon hosted the Senior Players Championship in 2016 - an event that's been around since 1983 - and it was won by Bernard Langer with a +1 total.

The German has won the previous two editions in -15 and -19 and the next highest winning total in that event's entire history is -3 (Jerry Kelly - Firestone 2020) so it looks to be a typical tough Tillinghast track.

To accommodate all the paraphernalia that goes along with a huge PGA Tour event, the routing of the course is different to the one played from week-to-week by the members.

There's very little room around the usual 18^th hole so that will be played as the 11^th this week and the opening hole is the eighth hole for the members.

Weather Forecast

TV Coverage

Live on Sky Sports all four days, starting with Featured Group coverage at 16:00 on Thursday.

Last Eight Winners with Pre-event Exchange Prices

2024 - Rory McIlroy -17 12.011/1
2023 - Wyndham Clark -19 100.099/1
2022 - Max Homa -8 46.045/1 (Played at TPC Potomac)
2021 - Rory McIlroy -10 21.020/1
2020 - Event Cancelled
2019 - Max Homa -15 1000.0999/1
2018 - Jason Day -12 23.022/1
2017 - Brian Harman -10 120.0119/1 (Played at Eagle Point)
2016 - James Hahn -9 1000.0999/1

Tillinghast tracks used on the PGA Tour

Form at Tillinghast tracks tends to transfer nicely but that probably won't help us much this week given the last time the PGA Tour visited one of his fabulous layouts was back in 2020 when Bryson DeChambeau bombed his way to his first US Open title at Winged Foot.

Prior to that, the US PGA Championship was won by Brooks Koepka at Bethpage Black in 2019 and DeChambeau won what was then called the Northern Trust (now the St Jude Championship) at Ridgewood Country Club in 2018.

Patrick Reed won that same event two years earlier at Bethpage and a month before that, Jimmy Walker edged out Jason Day at Baltusrol to win his only major - the US PGA Championship.

Day also finished second at Ridgewood, in what's now the St Jude in 2014, this time to Hunter Mahan, and his Tillinghast form figures, reading 31-5-24-2-2-4-20-23-38, demonstrate nicely how some players enjoy his tracks.

That's all well and good but most of the field with have only limited or no Tillinghast form.

Keep your eye on the US PGA Championship market?

As we're off to this event's usual venue - Quail Hollow - for the second major of the year next week - the US PGA Championship - what happens this week will have a big bearing on the market there.

Scottie Scheffler, who isn't in the field this week, is now the favourite to win the US PGA Championship after his dominant performance at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, but the defending champion, Rory McIlroy, has won this event four times previously at Quail Hollow so he could return to the head of the  US PGA Championship market with a solid performance given Scheffler has never played Quail before.

Anyone that contends here will shorten up for next week but keep a particularly close eye on anyone that's won this event at Quail before, their price will drop even quicker if they play nicely here.

Is this a good week for longshots?

Although a big event with fairly strong fields, we've seen some funny results over the years, and three of the last 11 editions have been won by a 1000.0999/1 chance.  Derek Earnst in 2013, James Hahn in 2016, and Max Homa in 2019, were all very unexpected winners.

On the two previous occasions that the event was staged away from Quail, the tournament went the way of Brian Harman at 120.0119/1 and Max Homa at 46.045/1 (two years after he'd won it at a huge price at Quail), so given how little we know about the venue and that the big names will have next week on their minds, backing a few outsiders before the off may be a good way to play the event. 

In-Play Tactics

We're obviously in the dark with regards to how the course will play this week but we may see plenty of drama late on - on Sunday.

To accommodate the stands, the finish to the course is situated at the most open spot on site.

The 15^th hole is the usual seventh (a par five), the 16^th is the fifth hole for the members, a par three played over the creek, and the sixth and fourth holes, the two longest par fours on the track, will be the 17^th and 18^th this week.

It's always worth familiarising yourself with the hole averages if you intend to trade in-running and it will be interesting to see how tough the par three 16^th plays but it certainly looks like the last two holes will be tricky enough and anyone in the house will be value over anyone on the course on the same score with 17 and 18 to play.

Unless someone runs away with the tournament, this may be a great event to trade late on.

Day the only play

With Scottie Scheffler an absentee after his facile victory in Dallas last week, Rory McIlroy is the clear favourite and the only man in the field trading at a single-figure price.

The defending champ arrives well rested after a week off and he's in search of his fifth Truist title but all four of his previous wins were at the tournament's usual host site - next week's US PGA Championship venue Quail Hollow - and he looks a bit short at less than 6/17.00.

Rory may well take to the track, but he has fairly uninspiring Tillinghast course numbers reading 10-56-24-22-MC-31-8-8.

Collin Morikawa is the only other man trading at less than 20/121.00 and I'm more than happy to swerve him too.

Morikawa has been far from reliable in-contention of late and on the only occasion he's played in an event staged at a Tillinghast track (Winged Foot in the 2020 US Open), he missed the cut.

Given we're in the dark with regards to the venue, I'm happy to play only Jason Day before the off.

As highlighted above, the experienced Australian appears to enjoy a Tillinghast layout, he's a former winner of the event, back in 2018, and he arrives in fair form.

He was never a factor at the RBC Heritage last time out but that came shortly after his eighth-place finish at the US Masters. He also contended strongly at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March, stumbling late on to finish eighth.

*You can follow me on Twitter @SteveThePunter

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