Truist Championship 2025 Preview, Picks & Analysis

RORY McILROY has a fabulous record at the Truist Championship (formerly the Wells Fargo), having won it four times. It was his first tournament success on the PGA Tour and he returns this week as the defending champion.

However, McIlroy’s previous victories in the event have all come at Quail Hollow. With that course hosting the US PGA later this month, the Truist has been moved to Philadelphia Cricket Club's Wissahickon course. It is the latest of the PGA Tour’s signature events and that means a huge prize fund and a star-studded field. McIlroy committed to the event less than 48 hours after completing the career grand slam by winning The Masters at Augusta. He played with Shane Lowry at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans but this will be hist first solo 72-hole event since that historic Masters triumph.

With a huge weight having been lifted from his shoulders, there is an expectation that McIlroy could go on to have the best year of his career in 2025. He already has three solo victories to his name - the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, the Players Championship and, of course, The Masters. He is now a five-time major champion and will head to Quail Hollow as a red-hot favourite. He is currently ranked second in the world behind Scottie Scheffler but now has the American within his sights and is determined to unseat him at the top of the rankings.

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It will be fascinating to see how the rest of McIlroy’s season unfolds. If there was one course he would choose to play for the rest of his life it would be Quail Hollow and The Open is being staged at Royal Portrush, a course where he shot a course record 61 as a 16-year-old. He must feel like he is floating on air at present. He leads the FedEx Cup standings by a country mile and has already picked up well over $13m in prize money this season with three majors and many big tournaments still to come.

(Image Credit: Kevin Diss Photography)

Much has been said and written about the rights and wrongs of these limited-field events but the bottom line is that they guarantee the presence of the cream of the PGA Tour. Apart from McIlroy and Scheffler continuing their private battle, the field will include Xander Schauffele, Justin Thomas, Viktor Hovland, Tommy Fleetwood, Shane Lowry, Collin Morikawa and Patrick Cantlay and I would expect the winner to come from that group.

Thomas has suffered horribly since winning his second PGA Championship but is finally back to his very best. In 2023 he looked utterly lost. Having been one of the best drivers of a golf ball on tour he suddenly looked like a man who had no clue where the ball was going. Renowned as one of the best putters in the game, the pressure he put himself under from the tee eventually found its way to his short game and he could barely hole a putt worth the name.

But Thomas is a determined man and somebody who works ferociously hard at his his game and in 2024 there were finally some positive signs. He failed to register a win but finished second in the ZOZO and recorded three other top-five finishes, including a tied third at the American Express. He also had a top-10 finish at the US PGA.

And the good work has continued in 2025. He played brilliantly at the RBC Heritage on one of the most difficult courses on the PGA Tour to finally end his victory drought after nearly three years, as well as finishing second at the American Express and Valspar. He is finding fairways again and his magical putting touch has returned.

I also have high hopes for Viktor Hovland and genuinely believe that his win at the Valspar was not a fluke. Like Thomas, he has also been on a rollercoaster ride. Unlike Thomas, Hovland’s woes have largely been self-inflicted.

He won the US Amateur in 2018 and then became the first Norwegian to win on the PGA Tour (at the 2020 Puerto Rico Open) and on the DP World Tour (at the 2021 BMW International Open). Hovland picked up his second and third PGA Tour wins at the 2020 and 2021 Mayakoba Classic. His also won The Memorial in 2023. His victory at East Lake is his sixth on the PGA Tour.

Hovland was the low amateur at The Masters in 2019, finishing three under par and in a tie for 32nd place. At the US Open in 2019 he finished in 12th place and was the low amateur with a total of 280, which was the lowest 72-hole score by an amateur at the US Open, breaking the record of 282 set by Jack Nicklaus in 1960.

He won the Dubai Desert Classic in 2022, which saw him climb to third in the world rankings. He has two wins on the DP World Tour. He represented Europe at the Ryder Cup in 2021.

Hovland’s best finish in a major came at US PGA in May 2023, when he finished joint runner-up. He was also joint fourth at 150th Open at St Andrews in 2022.

He finished the 2023 PGA Tour season by winning the BMW Championship and the Tour Championship in successive weeks. He started the BMW Championship in seventh place in the FedEx Cup standings but his win took him to second, and his victory at East Lake meant he finished the year as the winner of the FedEx Cup, banking a cool $18m.

Going into the BMW Championship, Hovland  was 133rd for the season in final round scoring average. He finished the BMW with a 61 and East Lake with a 63, putting that statistic firmly to bed. He then chose to change his swing and suffered horribly throughout 2024 and that continued at the start of 2025. But he has now gone back to what he knows best.

The Valspar was his 120th start and his seventh win to go along with five runner-ups, five thirds, 23 top five and 28 top 10s.

Tournament winners:

It was won in 2015 and 2021 by Rory McIlroy, in 2016 by James Hahn, in 2017 by Brian Harman, in 2018 by Jason Day, in 2019 and 2022 by Max Homa, in 2023 by Wyndham Clark and last year by McIlroy once more. There was no tournament in 2020 because of the pandemic.

The course:

Designed by A.W. Tillinghast, Wissahickon is a par 70 measuring 7,119 yards. It opened in 1922 and barely changed until a major overhaul in 2014. Water comes into play on several holes and the course is well bunkered.

Form guide:

Rory Mcilroy is the form horse in 2025, in the way that Scottie Scheffler was last season. He has already win three times in 2025, including that memorable Masters triumph, and has won this tournament four times.

Prize money:

Total prize money is $20m with the winner collecting $3.6m and 700 FedEx Cup points.

How to watch:

Thursday, May 8, Friday, May 9, Sky Sports Golf, 7pm; Saturday, May 10, Sunday, May 11, Sky Sports Golf, 6pm.

Top Picks & Tips

To win:

Rory Mcilroy. The man to beat

Each way:

Viktor Hovland. Back to his best

Each way:

Xander Schauffele. Looking a trifle rusty

Five to follow:

Rory Mcilroy. Has owned this tournament

Viktor Hovland. Starting to believe again

Xander Schauffele. Could do with a decent week

Andrew Novak: In the form of his life

Patrick Cantlay. A win is long overdue