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2026 Truist Championship Preview: Field, Course, History, Tee Times, How to Watch

The PGA Tour is returning to Quail Hollow for the sixth signature event of the season, one week before the PGA Championship. Here's what you need to know.
Max Schreiber|
The Truist Championship, a signature event, will lead into the PGA Championship.
The Truist Championship, a signature event, will lead into the PGA Championship. | Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

It’s time for Quail Hollow. 

The PGA Tour is returning to Charlotte, N.C., for the sixth signature event of the season, the Truist Championship. For the second straight week, there will be no 36-hole cut, meaning the winner from the 72-player field will collect $3.6 million from the $20 million purse. 

From its field, course, Quail Hollow’s history, tee times and how to watch, here’s what you need to know for the 2026 Truist Championship. 

The field: Rory’s return

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler has opted to take this week off before the PGA Championship, but Rory McIlroy will make his first start since the Masters. 

In all , the field includes seven of the top 10 players in the world.

There are also seven past champions: Sepp Straka (2025), McIlroy (2010, 2015, 2021, 2024), Max Homa (2022, 2019), Jason Day (2018), Brian Harman (2017), Rickie Fowler (2012) and Lucas Glover (2011). 

There are four sponsor exemptions: Homa, Tony Finau, Mackenzie Hughes and Webb Simpson. 

And four rookies have qualified for the Truist: Chandler Blanchet, Alex Fitzpatrick, Kristoffer Reitan and Sudarshan Yellamaraju. 

If not already exempt, the champion will secure a spot in next week’s PGA Championship.

Course: Quail Hollow and the daunting Green Mile

Last year, the Truist Championship was played at Philadelphia Cricket Club, because the PGA Championship was at Quail Hollow. 

As host of the year’s second major, the George Cobb-designed Quail Hollow was the third toughest course on Tour last year, playing 1.505 strokes over par. 

In 2024, the last time the Truist was played there, the 7,583-yard par-71 was the Tour’s sixth hardest course, playing .732 strokes over par.

In 2024, the 494-yard par4 18th was the Tour’s most difficult hole, with a 4.50 scoring average. Its easiest hole, meanwhile, was the 546-yard par-5 7th, playing .441 strokes under par, making it the 80th easiest hole on Tour (out of 900). 

As evidenced by the toughness of the 18th hole, the course is best known by the brutal final three-hole stretch known as the Green Mile. 

“The Green Mile being the toughest three-hole stretch of golf,” Simpson said in 2024, “you get to 16 tee with any kind of lead, it’s still anyone's golf tournament because those last three holes are so difficult.”

The 529-yard par-416th, which was lengthened 20 yards in 2024, dangles fairway bunkers and its green has water left and bunkers on the right. The 223-yard par-3 17th forces a tee shot over water that surrounds the entire green, except for the right side. And the tee shot on the last has a creek on the left and a bunker on the right, with an uphill approach shot—if you hit the fairway—with a false front and a pair of bunkers and the creek still on the side. 

History: A star is born 

Sixteen years ago, a 20-year-old McIlroy came to the Quail Hollow Championship looking for his maiden PGA Tour win. 

He got what he wanted in dramatic and historic fashion. 

With three holes left in the final round, McIlroy was two shots outside the cut line. Then, he hit a 4-iron from 206 yards over the water to 6 feet for eagle and made the cut on the number. 

“The rest,” McIlroy said, “is history.”

The Northern Irishman shot the low round of the day on both Saturday and Sunday to set the course record with a 10-under 62 and claim a four-shot victory over reigning Masters champion Phil Mickelson. McIlroy finished with fireworks, rolling in a 40-foot birdie putt on the last. 

“The last two days, it seemed as if everything had just gone right,” McIlroy said afterward, “You get yourself into sort of a mindset like that, and you just keep going. It’s just been a great day.”

With the victory, he became the youngest Tour winner since Tiger Woods and was the first player to make the cut on the number en route to victory since Chris Couch at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans in 2006. 

McIlroy has won four times at Quail Hollow, including last year. Last year, CBS on-course reporter Dottie Pepper dubbed the course “Rory McIlroy Country Club.”

How to watch (all times EST)

  • Thursday: 2–6 p.m. (Golf Channel)
  • Friday: 2–6 p.m. (Golf Channel)
  • Saturday: 1–3 p.m. (Golf Channel); 3–6 p.m. (CBS)
  • Sunday: 1–3 p.m. (Golf Channel); 3–6 p.m. (CBS)

ESPN+ will also have coverage during each round. 

First- and second-round tee times

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Max Schreiber
MAX SCHREIBER

Max Schreiber is a contributor to the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated, covering golf. Before joining SI in October 2024, the Mahwah, N.J., native, worked as an associate editor for the Golf Channel and wrote for RyderCup.com and FanSided. He is a multiplatform producer for Newsday and has a bachelor's in communications and journalism from Quinnipiac University. In his free time, you can find him doing anything regarding the Yankees, Giants, Knicks and Islanders.

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