The sleeping giant named Scottie Scheffler has finally awakened, earning his first victory of 2025 by dominating a rather weak field this past week at the Byron Nelson. But sports bettors won’t be able to capitalize on any momentum in this week’s PGA Tour Signature Event in Philadelphia—because the world’s top-ranked golfer is skipping it.
Scheffler’s absence leaves world No. 2 Rory McIlroy as the commanding +420 odds favorite at Sportsbook in the Trust Championship, an event the Northern Irishman has won four times. But this week beings a giant asterisk: the tournament is normally played at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, N.C., which is hosting the PGA Championship next week. So this Signature Event has been relocated to the Wissahickon Course at Philadelphia Cricket Club, a 1920 layout which has never hosted a PGA Tour stop.
But the tournament still presents a stacked field led by McIlroy, who’s suddenly on a Scheffler-like roll with three wins in his past seven starts. Eighteen of the top 20 players in the world will take on a classic layout designed by A.W. Tillinghast, who also mapped out Winged Foot, Baltusrol, Aronimink and Bethpage Black.
PGA Tour Truist Championship Odds
| Golfer | Odds |
|---|---|
| Rory McIlroy | +420 |
| Collin Morikawa | +1500 |
| Justin Thomas | +1700 |
| Xander Schauffele | +1700 |
| Ludvig Aberg | +1700 |
| Patrick Cantlay | +1700 |
| Tommy Fleetwood | +2700 |
| Jordan Spieth | +2700 |
| Viktor Hovland | +2700 |
| Hideki Matsuyama | +2700 |
| Russell Henley | +2700 |
| Daniel Berger | +2700 |
| Corey Conners | +3200 |
| Sepp Straka | +3500 |
| Shane Lowry | +3700 |
Odds as of May 5 at Sportsbook
PGA Tour Truist Championship Picks
Justin Rose To Win (+5500) at Sportsbook
Excellent value for savvy player enjoying a late-career renaissance, and who excels on timeless layouts like Merion (where he won the U.S. Open) and Pebble Beach (where he earned his most recent career victory in 2023).
We’ll forgive Rosie the T24 at Hilton Head, coming off the heartbreak in Augusta. But otherwise he’s been excellent by big events, as evidenced by a solo second at The Masters and T3 at Pebble. Rose’s game should be a great fit for Wissahickon, which at 7,119 yards ranks 40th out of 47 PGA Tour layouts in length this year.
Rory McIlroy Top-5 Finish (-120) at Sportsbook
The Masters champ stands at the opposite end of the value scale, given that just about any wager other than to-win carries negative odds. But McIlroy is impossible to ignore given the roll he’s been on, with zero finishes worse than T17 on the season so far.
He’s won two of his last three individual starts with a T5 in between (sorry, we’re not counting the T12 along with Shane Lowry in the New Orleans team event). McIlroy will need to reign in the driver a bit on a shorter layout dominated by bunkers, though his putting this season is good enough to make him a contender anywhere.
Corey Conners Top-10 Finish (+240) at Sportsbook
Does the Canadian have the game to break through and win against a field of this caliber? Maybe not. But goodness, Conners has been hanging around enough to make you wonder.
He’s already exceeded his career-best for top-10s in a season, and we’re only in May. He was in the thick of it at Augusta, in the thick of it at The Players, in the thick of it at the Arnold Palmer. He didn’t win any of those, but he certainty made his presence felt. And Philadelphia Cricket presents another opportunity for a player known for his accuracy more than his distance off the tee.
PGA Tour Truist Championship Betting Tips
Given that this event has been played for most of its life at Quail Hollow, you can throw out the course stats for the Truist Championship, which will be of no use to sports bettors this week. These are completely different courses—Philadelphia Cricket will play roughly 500 yards shorter than the North Carolina layout, and trades all those water features for sloping fairways, undulating greens and 118 bunkers, including 13 on one hole.
So given all those unknowns, how do sports bettors begin to identify favorites? Current form plays a role, of course, but this is not going to be a layout players can simply subdue with the driver. There are certain players like Rose who historically excel at tighter layouts where accuracy and shot-making are paramount, and this is the week to find them. Justin Thomas won two weeks ago at 7,200-yard Harbour Town, and absolutely possesses the type of game to contend at Wissahickon.
Russell Henley, Tom Hoge, Sepp Straka and Conners are all players in that same mold. This week marks a rare step back to a little-known golden age course that players will have to finesse their way around, and some do that better than others. The bombers promise to rule again next week at Quail Hollow—where McIlroy should be the favorite to win his second major in as many starts.
