McIlroy Unfazed by Unfamiliar Course

World No. 2 and Masters champ finds it cool to try new venue at tune-up for PGA Championship

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FLOURTOWN, Pennsylvania — As the golf calendar crescendos to the second Major of the year, the PGA Tour's best players get one more tune-up on an unfamiliar course. Quail Hollow, usually the site of the Truist Championship, will instead host the May 15-18 PGA Championship. Subbing in this week is the Wissahickon Course at the Philadelphia Cricket Club, the venue's PGA Tour debut.

The 72-man signature event formerly known as the Wells Fargo Championship teed off at press time.

"I kind of think of (Philadelphia) similar to like in Scotland or Ireland... There's no bad golf courses it seems like you can play, you know what I mean?" said Justin Thomas, a two-time PGA Championship winner.

"They all look so unique. They have the old templates, the old kind of architecture and the crazy green complexes, the bunkering... It's cool that we get to come to a new place like this and experience it and play it."

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler is taking the week off after torching the Byron Nelson tournament in a PGA Tour record-tying 31-under 253. But the rest of the world's top 10 and 43 of the top 50 are in the field, headlined by second-ranked Rory McIlroy.

The Northern Irishman will play in his first standard tournament since winning the Masters on April 13; he competed in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans team event with Shane Lowry of Ireland only because they were the defending champions.