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Quail Hollow is where the Queen City crowns kings. Let’s take a look at the Truist’s return to Charlotte. ...

Happy hunting grounds: Previewing the Truist Championship

Rory’s back.

Lest you forgot after his well-deserved break over the past month, the last time he was on a golf course he was having a green jacket slipped back onto his shoulders.

Now he’s making his return at his personal playground, looking to continue his pursuit of history.

This week’s Truist Championship marks McIlroy’s first start since winning his second consecutive Masters. And he couldn’t have picked a better spot to resume his season, the course where he’s won four of his 30 PGA TOUR titles.

In McIlroy’s absence, Matt Fitzpatrick and Cameron Young continued their breakthrough seasons and established themselves as the early favorites for the PGA TOUR’s Player of the Year Award. That pair combined to win all three PGA TOUR events held between the Masters and this week.

Fitzpatrick, who won the Valspar Championship in March, won two of those three events. Fitzpatrick claimed his second RBC Heritage title, this time in a playoff over world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, and teamed with his brother, Alex, to win the Zurich Classic of New Orleans.

Throw in a runner-up to Young at THE PLAYERS Championship, and Fitzpatrick has finished first or second in all but one of his last five starts. Young, meanwhile, has four top threes in his past five appearances. In addition to wins at THE PLAYERS and last week’s Cadillac Championship, where he cruised to a six-shot win over Scheffler, Young finished T3 at the Masters and Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard. The only other player with multiple wins this season is Chris Gotterup, who won two of the year’s first four events.

Any annual honors are far from being decided, especially with three majors and the FedExCup Playoffs still remaining. McIlroy, as the only major champ thus far in 2026, and Scheffler, the FedExCup leader, are still squarely in contention.

Unlike last year, when McIlroy’s post-Masters victory lap stalled his strong start to 2025, this year, McIlroy is inspired by his win at Augusta National to continue adding to his legendary legacy.

“I still have a lot of my career left and I want to keep playing and keep competing,” McIlroy said Wednesday in his pre-tournament press conference. “This year was I think winning was validation for all the work that I've put in over the last few years to get myself back to this place where I'm winning majors.

“I'm excited for the road ahead. I'm excited for this week, I'm excited for Aronimink next week, Shinnecock, Birkdale, you know, like I feel like if anything I'm more motivated after what happened at Augusta this year than I've ever been.”

There’s no better place for him to continue his winning ways than at Quail Hollow. He won his first PGA TOUR title here in 2010, twice set the course record (with a 62 in 2010 and a 61 in his win five years later) and was the winner the last time Quail Hollow hosted this event, in 2024.

“This is 16 years I've been coming here,” said McIlroy, who turned 37 on Monday, “so it's been a fun place, I've had success and it's somewhere I always love coming back to.”

Playing through

• 🧐 Paul Hodowanic, the usual author for this missive, took a look at five players hoping to improve in the season’s second half. Several big names were among his list, including Viktor Hovland and Wyndham Clark.
• 📊 There’s an obvious favorite this week, but Rob Bolton’s Power Rankings are the place to go if you’re looking to look past McIlroy.
• 🌴 It's double-duty for the Carolinas this week, as the ONEflight Myrtle Beach Classic takes place just down the coast. See how the field looks to top Ryan Fox's dramatic finish from last year.

Risers and fallers

• Justin Rose 📉: We’ll never know if it was a coincidence, bad timing or a result of the switch, but you don’t want to do what Rose did last week at the Cadillac when you’re debuting your new clubs. Rose, who nearly won this year’s Masters and was victorious earlier this year at the Farmers Insurance Open, beat only two players at Doral.
• Kurt Kitayama 📈: When Kurt Kitayama first got on TOUR, he was known for his inconsistency, missing nearly as many cuts as he made, but also his ability to go toe-to-toe with some of the game’s best when he did find his way into contention. Kitayama is looking like a model of consistency recently, finishing in the top 10 in his past two starts, both Signature Events.
• Alex Fitzpatrick 📈: Lest he be accused of only succeeding when his brother is by his side, Fitzpatrick went out and finished T9 in last week’s Cadillac, his first start as a PGA TOUR member. He has four straight top 10s worldwide, including wins at the Zurich Classic and Hero Indian Open. He’s come a long way since October, when he was worried about losing his DP World Tour card. A switch to coach Mike Walker, Matt’s former swing coach, has paid immediate dividends.
• Jacob Bridgeman 📉: Jacob Bridgeman has played 11 tournaments this year. He started the year with eight consecutive top 20s, including his win at The Genesis Invitational. His best finish in his last three events, however, is T33. Like Rose, he beat just two players at Doral.

Parting shots

• 🎢 For those with front-row seats to the Jordan Spieth Experience, this week could be especially fun. Matt Gannon (@matt_gannon_) tweeted that Spieth is experimenting with a longer driver this week. Titleist reps on the grounds confirmed the move. The new driver is 46 inches, an inch longer than his gamer, and has 9 degrees of loft, one degree lower than his usual club. The longer club goes about 10-15 yards longer than his usual Titleist. Spieth also was hitting balls in sneakers Wednesday, choosing the trainers because of their larger toe box, which alleviated some pain in his foot.
• 👬 Matt Fitzpatrick helped his brother get a TOUR card. And the assistance won’t end there. As long as younger bro is OK with it. “I think it would be wrong of me not to … help him out as much as I can,” Matt said in his Tuesday press conference. “He's been thrown in the deep end straight away and it's all happening very fast. … I feel like I have an obligation to help him too. I've already said to him, if you don't want that, you can tell me to mind my own business. … I just kind of want to offer my two cents, if you like, and see where it goes.”
• 🌊 There are two PGA TOUR events this week, and one of the game’s biggest names is among the field at the ONEflight Myrtle Beach Classic just south of here. Brooks Koepka, a three-time winner of the PGA Championship, is competing there a week before heading to Aronimink. Koepka has been close to getting the Signature Events but found himself on the outside looking in. Hence the trip to Myrtle Beach, where he vacationed as a kid. “I feel like I've played better than my results,” Koepka, No. 63 in the FedExCup, said about his season. “I knew the first couple of weeks were going to be an adjustment. … First two weeks were a little bit more nervousness than anything. Then it's just a matter of getting comfortable with the golf courses, seeing how firm things are, the yardages they're playing. It's a little different.”