Truist Championship
Course: Quail Hollow Club (7,583 yards, par 71)
Purse: $20,000,000
Winner: $3,600,000 and 700 FedExCup Points
Tournament Preview
Rory McIlroy makes his return to the PGA Tour for the first time since winning The Masters for a second straight year last month. McIlroy will go to a place in Quail Hollow where he has had tons of success through the years with four career victories. The Northern Irishman skipped Signature Events at the RBC Heritage and the Cadillac Championship, but will get an event under his belt this week before going for his seventh career major championship next week at Aronimink.
Part of this busy stretch of golf means decisions will have to be made for the top golfers. Unfortunately, World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler is electing to skip this event for the second straight year. Last year that strategy worked as Scheffler ended up winning the PGA Championship. The only question was since that PGA was at Quail Hollow and the Truist is going back to Charlotte this year, it seemed like it might be a good idea for Scheffler to go back to a course he had great vibes on. That won't be the case this year as Scheffler is in a tough spot with two Texas events directly following the PGA Championship and then The Memorial Tournament, another Signature Event right after the Texas tournaments. Scheffler is the defending champion of THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson and The Memorial Tournament.
Fear not it will still be an outstanding field in Charlotte this week. Cameron Young is looking to go back-to-back after his dominant performance at Doral last week. That was his third win in his last 14 PGA Tour starts after going winless in his first 3.5 years on Tour. Matt Fitzpatrick has been even hotter after having won in three of his last four starts, and nearly winning THE PLAYERS Championship prior to that before Young came out on top. Fitzpatrick took the week off at Doral to rest after playing three straight weeks that culminated in a team victory at the Zurich Classic that locked up a PGA Tour card for Alex Fitzpatrick. The younger Fitz bro followed it up with a top-10 finish at Doral and will tee it up in another Signature Event this week. Scheffler, Russell Henley, Collin Morikawa and Shane Lowry are the only eligible players skipping the sixth Signature Event of 2026.
Quail Hollow Club has hosted this event since its inception in 2003. It has seen a lot of big name players win over that stretch including McIlroy, Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh, Rickie Fowler, Jason Day and 2027 U.S. Ryder Cup Captain Jim Furyk. Quail Hollow's reach has extended well beyond just this event in recent years as well. It also hosted the PGA Championship in 2017 and 2025, as well as the Presidents Cup in 2022. The Truist Championship, or Wells Fargo Championship as it was previously known, was hosted at Eagle Point Golf Club (2017), TPC Potomac (2022) and Philadelphia Cricket Club (2025) in the years where Quail Hollow hosted PGA Championships and the Presidents Cup.
The weather forecast this week starts a little dicey and then will improve throughout the week. Thunderstorms are expected to impact Thursday's first round. The storms will bring in some cooler weather on Friday before the weekend returns to upper-70s and low-80s temperatures. We'll have to see how much rain falls on Thursday and what that does to the greens. Typically Quail Hollow has some of the slickest greens on the PGA Tour.
Recent Champions
2025 - Sepp Straka (-16) [Hosted at Philadelphia Cricket Club]
2024 - Rory McIlroy (-17)
2023 - Wyndham Clark (-19)
2022 - Max Homa (-8) [Hosted at TPC Potomac]
2021 - Rory McIlroy (-10)
2020 - No Tournament
2019 - Max Homa (-15)
2018 - Jason Day (-12)
2017 - Brian Harman (-10) [Hosted at Eagle Point Golf Club]
2016 - James Hahn (-9)
Key Stats to Victory
- SG: Approach/GIR Percentage
- SG: Off-the-Tee/Driving Distance
- SG: Putting/Putts per GIR
- SG: Around-the-Green/Scrambling
Champion's Profile
Quail Hollow is a full test of every club in your bag. Players need to drive it long and straight, be very precise on approach, be able to control pitch shots to elevated greens and stay consistent from inside of 10 feet on very slick putting surfaces. Quail Hollow offers opportunities for birdies and eagles if you are in control of your game, but players who are slightly off will struggle to make pars. The famed closing stretched here nicknamed "The Green Mile" is also a place where good rounds go to die. The par-4 16th, par-3 17th and par-4 18th usually all play among the toughest holes for the week at Quail Hollow.
The last three winners on this course of Scottie Scheffler (PGA Championship), Rory McIlroy and Wyndham Clark all took victory by at least four strokes. Quail Hollow gets some hate among members of the golf media for being boring, but the one thing it does a great job of doing is identifying the best player. There's not a lot of tricks. You've got to avoid the trouble and hit all the shots that are required. The player that does that the best is going to win, and if the trend continues it could be by a margin.
I'm really going to focus on ball striking this week, but scrambling and putting numbers certainly have to be on the mind as well given how complete of a test Quail Hollow is. Last year at the PGA Championship Scheffler lapped the field in SG: Tee-to-Green. Bryson DeChambeau (T2) led the field in SG: Off-the-Tee and Harris English (T2) paced in SG: Approach. In the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship, McIlroy was top 10 in every strokes gained category including leading the field in SG: Off-the-Tee. Xander Schauffele finished second in that event by three shots and ranked second in SG: Off-the-Tee, first in SG: Approach and first in GIR's. Wyndham Clark also paced the field in SG: Approach and GIR's here en route to his four-shot win in 2023.
FanDuel Value Picks
The Chalk
Cameron Young ($12,500)
Young tops my model behind ranking top 20 on the PGA Tour in a number of key statistics for me this week including SG: Off-the-Tee (4th), SG: Approach (19th), GIR percentage (20th), Prox. 175-200 (5th), scrambling (6th). He hasn't had the greatest history at Quail Hollow, but on paper it is most certainly a tremendous fit. Young should be very comfortable this week on another set of Bermuda greens after he paced the field a week ago at Doral in SG: Putting.
Xander Schauffele ($12,100)
Schauffele is getting a lot of respect as the third choice on the board this week despite the recent hot runs of McIlroy, Young and Fitzpatrick. Schauffele is playing some great golf in his own right having gone 3rd-T4-T9-T12 in his last four starts. The two-time major champ has a strong record at Quail Hollow with a pair of solo second's in 2023 and 2024 along with a T14 in 2021. The ball striking has been very strong this year ranking top 20 in SG: Off-the-Tee, SG: Approach, total driving and Prox. 175-200 yards. Schauffele is also third in scrambling and top 10 in both par-4 and par-5 scoring.
Matt Fitzpatrick ($11,900)
Even in a loaded field, under $12K seems like quite the bargain for a player who has gone 2nd-Win-T18-Win-Win in his last five starts. It continues an epic surge than started around the mid-point of last season, similar to Young, whom he was just shy of for the top spot in my model this week. Tee to green has been the name of the game at Quail Hollow of late, and Fitz ranks second on Tour in that category for the season. He finished T8 here last year at the PGA Championship.
The Middle Tier
Adam Scott ($10,400)
Scott surged up the leaderboard on the weekend at Doral after a 76 in the opening round. The veteran went 66-64 to collect a T4 finish and lock up a spot in the U.S. Open later this year. Scott leads the PGA Tour in SG: Approach and he did so yet again last week in another Signature Event. It has just been vintage ball striking from the 45-year-old who is still 16th in driving distance this season. Scott has a lot of experience over the years at Quail Hollow with three top-10s and seven top-25s. The only concern is the putter, but Scott said he found something on the weekend at Doral and he has gained strokes on the greens in his last four starts at Quail Hollow.
Rickie Fowler ($10,100)
Fowler is not where he was at his best, but he isn't terribly far off. He is coming off a pair of top-10 finishes at Signature Events, bringing his total for the season to three. Fowler also has three other top-20 results in 2026. There's a lot to like about his numbers coming into this week at 28th in total driving, 41st in SG: Approach, 22nd in proximity, 11th in scrambling and 20th in SG: Putting. Fowler is fourth in bogey avoidance and now up to 22nd on DataGolf. Quail Hollow has been a great place for him with five top-6 finishes and nine total top-25s, including a win in 2012.
Chris Gotterup ($9,700)
Gotterup was a player I was quite high on last week, but just didn't have the performance he is capable of. With his price going down for the Truist Championship, I like going back to Gotterup on a course that would seem to really suit his game. He's one of the best drivers in the game, and he had gained strokes on approach in every tournament this season prior to last week. One positive was that Gotterup was eighth in SG: Putting at Doral, which bodes well heading to another set of Bermuda greens.
The Long Shots
Kurt Kitayama ($8,800)
Kitayama brings elite value this week as one of the top ball strikers on the PGA Tour. He ranks top 20 in driving distance, total driving, SG: Approach, GIR percentage and proximity. The Las Vegas native is also 12th in bogey avoidance and ninth in par-4 scoring average. Kitayama is definitely trending after back-to-back top-10s in Signature Events (T8 at Harbour Town, T9 at Doral). He also had a T2 earlier this season at Riviera, another Signature Event. These just seem to be the right speed for Kitayama.
Alex Smalley ($8,300)
Smalley is rounding into form nicely. He has made his last nine cuts with six top-25s in that stretch, including a T2 at the Zurich and a T7 last week at Doral. Smalley's iron play has been very strong recently as he was top 5 at the Cadillac Championship in SG: Approach and GIR's. On the season he is 16th in SG: Approach, 10th in GIR's and eighth in proximity. That will all really play into his favor at Quail Hollow where he finished T18 in 2023 and T28 last year in the PGA Championship.
Sudarshan Yellamaraju ($7,400)
The value is excellent here for Yellamaraju for where he landed in my model (11th). He is a great driver at 11th in total driving and 22nd in driving distance. The iron play also stands out at 34th in SG: Approach and ninth in proximity. Quail Hollow forces players to hit a lot of long irons, and he leads the PGA Tour in approaches outside 200 yards. Yellamaraju makes a lot of birdies because he can fill it up on the greens, ranking 23rd in SG: Putting and 11th in putts per GIR on the season.
Strategy Tips This Week
Based on a Standard $60K Salary Cap
With the Truist Championship being another no-cut Signature Event, everything will come down to the wire on Sunday to determine who cashes. It's a stacked 72-man field that you can go all the way down to the min. price to find a realistic option to roster. Jhonattan Vegas ($7,000) was the 36-hole leader at Quail Hollow for last year's PGA Championship. That gives DFS players quite the range of options on how they want to construct lineups, especially considering there isn't a Scheffler there to really spread things out at the top.
A few players I would fade this week are Tommy Fleetwood ($10,900) who has lost strokes on approach in two straight, Robert MacIntyre ($10,700) who has lost strokes on approach in six of his last eight and Jake Knapp ($9,400) who ranks high in my model but has been battling a thumb sprain. Some other options that I didn't mention above who I think bring great value are Akshay Bhatia ($8,700), Gary Woodland ($8,600), Ryan Gerard ($8,300), Matt McCarty ($8,000) and Corey Conners ($7,800).
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