Inside the Ropes at the Truist Championship

It’s been awhile since I’ve had the privilege of wearing an “Inside the Ropes” badge and it really is a pleasure watching some golf just a few feet from the best players in the world. You get to see a whole lot more than you do on TV when it comes to the interactions between shots, the vibes of the players, and it’s pretty entertaining hearing the galley chant and yell at the guys at Philly Cricket Club.

If you know me at all or have read my stuff in the past, you could probably guess who I decided to follow during the first round of the Truist. I’ll give you a hint: he’s a Career Grand Slam winner.

Rory McIlroy had a comfy pairing on Thursday playing alongside good buddies Justin Thomas and Tommy Fleetwood. They enjoyed their time together and a couple of them were swinging to great, but just didn’t score as well as they probably hoped.

McIlroy signed for a 4-under 66, Thomas a 4-under 66, while Fleetwood brought up the rear at 1-under 69. Low scores were out there for the taking—Denny McCarthy posted an 8-under 62, —but the three I watched couldn’t get it going to that level and will have some work to do on Friday to get close to the lead.

Quick note: Friday’s tee times have been moved up into the early morning due to the forecast. Philly Cricket is gonna get some more rain.

Anyway, here are some of my takeaways from a beautiful walk around this A.W. Tillinghast design.

Justin Thomas Will Contend For Another Wanamaker Next Week

On Tuesday, I wrote that Thomas is one of those players out here that can get on an absolute heater. When he’s going, he’s GOING. The 67 he posted on Thursday doesn’t tell the whole story.

Watching his mannerism after almost every shot, the ball is coming out the window he’s looking at. He seems to have complete control over his golf ball.

For example, on the par-4 second, Thomas’ tee shot finished 76 yards from the flag, but with the shape of the hole he was just short of pin high. With his second, instead of sending his ball high into the air, he played it low, landed it just onto the green, and ran it all the way back to a back pin. And for the cherry on top, he buried a 12-footer for his first birdie of the tournament.

On the par-5 15th, after a 307-yard drive into the fairway, Thomas hit a beautiful fairway-wood from 257 yards and set himself up for a 26-foot eagle putt. He left that bid a few inches short, but another easy birdie for the two-time PGA Championship winner.

It was fun to see a player like JT, who’s one of the players out on TOUR I’d label an artist, work his ball around Philly Cricket using every shot in his arsenal and playing the slopes to perfection.

He’ll be one of the players I’ll be keeping a close eye on next week in Charlotte. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that he won the PGA the last time it was staged at Quail Hollow.

No “Masters Slump” for Rory McIlroy

It’s hard for players to stay focused and committed after winning a major championship. It’s something a lot of players fail to do, and McIlroy is even on another level because his Masters win completed the Career Grand Slam.

But he isn’t letting that historic feat impact his performance on the golf course.

He bullied his way around Philly Cricket, pulling that dog headcover off every chance he got—something he told us he would do earlier this week.

If you’ve never seen the Northern Irishman hit the big-stick in person, put that on the top of your to-do list the next time you make it out to a TOUR event. It’s a sound you’ve never heard before. It just looks different when he does it.

The galleries following the five-time major champion were big all day long. The pop he got on the first tee when his name was announced was twice as big as another other player in the field. The man puts asses in seats.

McIlroy made a couple sloppy mistakes—a three-putt bogey on the 11th and another circle on the par-5 15th—but for the most part, he made it look easy.

Like Thomas, McIlroy must be pretty excited with the state of his game heading back to Quail Hollow. He’s won there four times already—I’m told that’s pretty good.

Rickie Fowler’s Name is Everywhere

No matter where Fowler sits in the world rankings, if he’s missing cuts, making cuts, he’s one of the most popular players out here. He fired an opening round 7-under 63 and you could hear cheers and loud “Rickie!” chants throughout the property.

He has just one top-20 finish across nine previous starts this season, so his fast start in Philly was a little surprising until I saw this little nugget from Golfweek’s Adam Schhupak:

That man Butch Harman has some magical tendencies, I swear.

I Really Wish This Place Was Firm

Philly Cricket got hammered with some rain earlier this week and you can tell when you’re walking on the fairways. They have a little bounce, a little cushion to them. They almost feel like carpet. And these guys were spinning back wedges on the greens all day long.

But after my stroll and checking out the green complexes, this place would have a whole lot more fire to it if it was dry out here.

Putting and chipping would be diabolical and we would be seeing the low scores that we saw today.

But overall, this place rocks.

I love an old-school golf course, an intimate routing. One of my favorite spots on the whole property was the corner where the par-3 third and par-3 14th run parallel to each other. They’re both shorties, but that forces the players to control their spin or they’re going to find some tricky spots. There was also a massive grandstand around 17 green that overlooked the 14th green, and when McIlroy poured in a nice birdie putt, the place erupted.

It was just beautiful back there.

Random Notes

Walking up to the 14th tee, McIlroy high-fived the last two girls waiting on the ropes and I think I saw some tears. Having a short interaction with the Northern Irishman made their whole week. It was pretty cool.

One of the houses right of the 10th had this sign hanging from their pop-up tent as they took in the sights.

The greenside bunkers here are so, so good. Most of them don’t have sand faces, and instead have grass faces. That makes them a little harder to play out of because players can’t really take advantage of up-hill lies. Plus, they just look so sick.

How good is this spot to watch some golf? (I don’t even want to know how much these tickets were.)

And this is just awesome. Tillinghast’s ashes were spread into the Wissahickon Creek on property in 1942 so he could rest near “where he had loved life most.” I mean, how good is that?

All in all, it was a wonderful day at Philly Cricket. And if you’re coming to the tournament this weekend, make sure you grab an umbrella. It’s going to be wet out here.