Lip-outs galore at Truist as green speeds catch field by surprise

FLOURTOWN, Pa. — The PGA Tour is visiting the Philadelphia Cricket Club for the first time, and after plenty of low scores Thursday, the course has bitten back.

Minimal wind and soft greens at the club’s Wissahickon Course made for a low-scoring first round of the Truist Championship, when Keith Mitchell fired a 9-under 61 to take the early lead. The field played through rain Friday that made the track feel longer than its 7,119 yards.

On Saturday, a combination of bigger gusts and faster greens presented a twist for the field at the $20 million signature event — and short missed putts were the theme of the day.

“The greens today were a different speed than they were yesterday. They were a lot faster,” said Mitchell, who now sits three shots behind leaders Shane Lowry and Sepp Straka. “The winds and the dry air made them a lot faster. So a couple holes were speed adjustments on 3 and 4.”

The third and fourth holes were three-putt bogeys for Mitchell, who had a day to forget en route to a 1-over 71. He lipped out a 3-foot par save at the par-3 eighth before the ultimate meltdown at another par-3, the 14th.

Mitchell landed his tee shot to 5 feet of the pin, rolled his birdie try right past the cup and still couldn’t get it right on the 3-footer for par.

There are 70 players still in the field following two withdrawals Saturday, and Mitchell ranked 70th in putts per green in regulation (2.07).

But others struggled as well. Rory McIlroy had a 4 1/2-foot putt take a 90-degree left turn on the lip en route to a double bogey at No. 7. Lowry watched a 7-foot birdie try at No. 8 lip out hard. And Straka’s only bogey of the day came on a lip-out at the 12th hole.

“It was very tough today in those winds, particularly tough to hole putts,” Lowry said. “When you get inside 10 feet, to be really precise on these greens was tough.”

Lowry agreed with playing partner Mitchell’s assessment of the green speeds.

“They were a lot quicker today, especially towards the end. I felt like we had a few putts where you’re hitting them at die pace, which was not the case the first few days,” Lowry said. “The first few days, I felt like they were quite slow.”

That isn’t to say the players were griping about the sudden difficulty. The Philadelphia Cricket Club has drawn positive to rave reviews throughout the week, as players voice their approval of an old-school Northeast track the likes of which they do not play regularly on tour anymore.

“I played with Harry English today, and (Max) Homa yesterday,” Tony Finau said. “We were talking about it, within 100- to 150-mile radius of this place, I think there’s some of the best golf in the world. I’d love to see the tour make a lot more stops here. This is definitely a good one.”

–Adam Zielonka, Field Level Media