Truist Championship Power Rankings

The PGA Tour’s sixth Signature Event of the season sees many of the world’s best players descend on Philadelphia Cricket Club for the inaugural Truist Championship.

While this spot on the calendar was usually reserved for the Wells Fargo Championship held at Quail Hollow, the course is being used for next week’s PGA Championship; as such, Truist have stepped in to sponsor the replacement event.

Not too much is known about the venue, though it did host the 2016 Senior Players Championship. It is expected to play around 7,119 yards and is a par-70. While water doesn’t feature on many holes, strategically placed fairway bunkers call for accuracy off the tee, and with it not being the longest course, the rough will likely be lengthened with bentgrass greens running at a fair pace.

After his first win on the PGA Tour this season, taking the CJ Cup Byron Nelson with a record-equalling score, world number one Scottie Scheffler is ducking out, paving the way for Rory McIlroy to continue his superb season.

Find out who makes our Truist Championship Power Rankings below.

• Steve Palmer's Truist Championship tips

5 - Shane Lowry

A wretched final-round 81 at the Masters will throw his numbers off for the foreseeable future, but prior to that, Shane Lowry was mixing it with the best.

Lowry’s lack of distance off the tee won’t be punished at the Wissahickon course, while his ability to shape the ball will most certainly be rewarded.

The biggest question mark over Lowry at the moment is his work with the flat stick. The Irishman is going through something of a dry spell with the putter, but if he can fire that back up, the rest of his game should complement this week’s venue nicely.

4 - Xander Schauffele

It’s hard to believe a player could win two majors, finish in the top 10 in the other two, record top-10s in four Signature Events and finish runner-up at the Players and still not be in the conversation for Player of the Year.

Unfortunately for Xander Schauffele, he ran into Scottie Scheffler who was enjoying an all-time great season, and it made it easy to forget just how good Schauffele was in 2024, eclipsing Rory McIlroy as the second best player in the world.

His start to 2025 was blighted by a rib injury, meaning his first three results can largely be ignored, but since then he’s gone T12 at the Valspar, T8 at the Masters and T18 at the RBC Heritage.

Schauffele has gained two or more strokes on approach in four of his last 13 rounds and three of them saw him gain whopping four or more strokes.

For context, anything around one full stroke gained on approach over the long term marks you as truly elite, and Schauffele is showing signs he’s getting back to that level.

3 - Collin Morikawa

The surprise decision to swap caddies will mean even more eyes will be on Collin Morikawa’s performance this week than usual, and a Signature Event and major championship is a real baptism of fire for Joe Greiner, who recently parted ways with Max Homa.

The long rough means there’ll be something of a premium placed on driving accuracy this week which plays into Morikawa’s wheelhouse.

The RBC Heritage saw Morikawa below his best, with bunker trouble seeing him card an eight that killed any slim chance he had of making a charge, but prior to that, the two-time major winner has been in sparkling form.

This year, Morikawa’s results read-2-T17-T17-2-T10-T14 before the T54 at the RBC Heritage and they’re exclusively in the toughest events on the calendar.

Morikawa’s back in familiar company this week and will hope his world-class iron play can be converted into birdies.

2 - Justin Thomas

Having finally broken his PGA Tour duck, Justin Thomas returns to action at the Truist Championship where he’ll look to keep his game in check ahead of the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow, site of his first major win.

Despite being long off the tee, Thomas excels on courses where he’s frequently got a wedge in hand and can utilise his world class short game, and the Wissahickon Course at Philadelphia Cricket Club should grant Thomas that opportunity.

PCC is a real shot-maker’s course, presenting players with plenty of options off the tee and on approach, and it’s the sort of venue where Thomas thrives.

Going back-to-back on the PGA Tour is extremely difficult, but Thomas has every chance this week.

1 - Rory McIlroy

Courses lacking in length in theory should blunt Rory McIlroy’s biggest weapon, but he still knows how to get around the shorter tracks.

McIlroy’s first two wins this year came at Pebble Beach and TPC Sawgrass, both courses that take driver out of your hand and he can feel confident about the test that Philadelphia Cricket Club will pose.

Iron play will likely be the big separator this week and McIlroy has hitting his irons just about as well as he ever has done.

Couple that with an improved short game and McIlroy is a justified favourite this week.