A classic golf course stood no chance Thursday against the PGA Tour's finest. With rain falling early in the week, Philly Cricket Club was held defenseless in the first round of the 2025 Truist Championship with big names like Rickie Fowler and Collin Morikawa taking full advantage of the easy conditions.
Fowler and Morikawa each fired 7-under 63s to kick off their tournaments, ending the day two strokes behind Keith Mitchell, who once again finds his name atop a first-round leaderboard after an opening 61 -- his new career low on the PGA Tour. Fowler and Mitchell joined the field via sponsor invitations yet led the way on a day when Philly Cricket Club yielded an average score of about 67.
"Just the greens being receptive, not much wind, new venue," Denny McCarthy said of golfers' success Thursday after his opening 62. "They might have been cautious on a few pin locations. When we have short irons and wedges with not much wind, we're looking to attack, and it seems like a lot of guys have done that today."
For Mitchell, this is simply his latest first-round lead in his 2025 campaign. The one-time winner has been in a league of his own in first rounds with a sub-67 scoring average on Thursdays and four overnight leads on the season. Far too often, his name has been among those at the top, but it has yet to translate to weekend success as he searches for his first victory since 2019.
"Three more rounds like today will probably do it, and trying not to win on Friday and Saturday and Sunday, just trying to play my best," Mitchell said of his mindset for the rest of theweek. "You know, it's harder -- I've made it pretty hard lately. Hopefully, I can just stay in front of it."
Mitchell will need more than patience if he is to convert this lead into his first win in more than half a decade as a slew of big names are nipping at his heels. In addition to Fowler and Morikawa, Sepp Straka and Akshay Bhatia stand at 7 under with major champions Keegan Bradley and Shane Lowry just one further back.
The chasing pack only grows from there. It includes the likes of Patrick Cantlay and Hideki Matsuyama at 5 under and Justin Thomas and Rory McIlroy at 4 under. McIlroy and Thomas, who shared a first-round tee time, had their moments Thursday, but a couple mistakes littered throughout their rounds turned what could have been great performances into just solid efforts.
Prior winners at next week's PGA Championship venue, Quail Hollow Club, the two will be in lockstep again Friday as forecasted rain has pushed up Round 2 tee times into the early morning hours. Hoping to skirt a deluge that could dump as much as half an inch of rain onto Philly Cricket Club, players will experience a quick turnaround and potentially a new version of a golf course they tore apart Thursday.
"It's all weather dependent, depending on what we see tomorrow," Fowler said. "It's going to continue to be soft from there. So, then it becomes wind dependent, if we play the ball up or if we play the ball down, if we're dealing with mud balls and different things like that.
"The big thing, when conditions are like this, you want to make sure you take advantage of it so you're not trying to play catch-up and kind of play from behind the 8 ball. Typically, low scores the first day don't really dictate a whole lot, unless it was going to be like this every day, but it doesn't look like it's going to be like that tomorrow."
The leader
1. Keith Mitchell (-9): Talk about an all-around performance from Mitchell, who led the field in terms of strokes gained tee to green and strokes gained approach. His ball-striking prowess was married to a phenomenal day on the greens where he gained more than two strokes with the putter in hand. After beginning his round with five straight pars, Mitchell made nine birdies in his final 13 holes, including a run of three in a row on Nos. 17-18 and No. 1 before he rattled off four in a row on Nos. 5-8.
While short on the scorecard, Philly Cricket Club can still present an advantage to longer hitters (like Mitchell) with certain carries required off the tee. On Thursday, Mitchell took those advantages, but with the impending weather, he is uncertain if they will still be present.
"There's a couple bunkers that you need to be able to carry on a few holes, and just not having much wind, I hit a lot of drivers," Mitchell said. "I can see some holes that are downwind lay back a little bit, and some holes that are in the wind, the bunkers could really come into play. Today, I was able to either avoid them or hit over them, and that's not going to be the case with rain or wind."
Other contenders
2. Denny McCarthy (-8)
T3. Rickie Fowler, Collin Morikawa, Sepp Straka, Akshay Bhatia (-7)
T7. Sam Stevens, Joe Highsmith, Keegan Bradley, Shane Lowry (-6)
Fowler's season to this point has been somewhat of a disaster following a strong FedEx Cup Fall. His best finish was a T18 at the Cognizant Classic -- his lone top-20 effort of the year -- as he continues to experience a lull both on and around the greens. He started to roll the rock consistently Thursday, but he also gave himself ample birdie opportunities. Fowler gained nearly two strokes with his irons thanks to a small tweak that he made while preparing for the tournament.
"I was a bit tighter," Fowler said. "My body's feeling better, kind of allowing me to go play golf. We made a minor adjustment yesterday, put my irons a degree up. I felt like I was making good swings and zeroing things out, and the ball was just hanging a little right from what I wanted to see. So, it was good to kind of see things tighten up with irons today.
"Yeah, I've been happy with where my game's been at for quite a while. I just haven't really seen the product of the work I'm putting in or what I feel like I can produce. This was a little better day."
Jordan Spieth going the wrong way
A Sunday 62 at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson fired up the hype train ahead of the PGA Championship, but an opening 70 in the Truist may have derailed some weary supporters. Spieth finds himself on the last page of the leaderboard following his even-par effort as he was more than three strokes worse than the field average.
The three-time major champion started his day in precarious fashion as he split the fairway and then launched a lob wedge long and left of an accessible pin location and proceeded to drop a shot. The iron play did not improve too much over the next 17 holes, and the putter pestered as Spieth was unable to find his groove on the undulated surfaces. If looking for a silver lining, Spieth did hang tough and battled to the end as he made birdie on three of his final five holes to climb out the 3-over hole he dug himself into.
2025 Truist Championship updated odds, picks
Odds via DraftKings Sportsbook
- Collin Morikawa: 6-1
- Rory McIlroy: 15/2
- Keith Mitchell: 8-1
- Denny McCarthy: 12-1
- Sepp Straka: 14-1
- Patrick Cantlay: 18-1
- Shane Lowry: 20-1
- Akshay Bhatia: 20-1
- Keegan Bradley: 22-1
- Ludvig Åberg: 22-1
- Justin Thomas: 25-1
Cantlay was the name circled at the onset of the week, and he did nothing to suggest otherwise Thursday. He lost strokes on the greens ever so slightly and still fired an opening 65 thanks to six birdies against just one bogey. It was a well-rounded performance from tee to green, and once the putter gets going, the floodgates should open for the former FedEx Cup champion.
