Keith Mitchell kicked off the 2025 Truist Championship with a career-best 61 on Thursday, storming to a solo lead at 9-under par. The bogey-free round at the Philadelphia Cricket Club’s Wissahickon Course was the lowest of Mitchell’s PGA TOUR career and set the tone for an eventful opening day.
With Round 2 in full swing, all eyes are on whether Mitchell can keep his foot on the gas or if another name will rise to the top by day’s end.
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What were your impressions of the It’s a great golf course. Love playing it. Um definitely old school and um you know we don’t we don’t play a ton of these so it’s it’s nice to have that as a you know a little refresher out here. Kevin a lot of uh greens that have one real uniform slope outside of a little small nuances. In the practice rounds, my Kai and I were just drawing an arrow pretty much to determine what direction the entire green sloped and you always kind of play to that side so you can stay below the hole because if you get if you get above the hole or really pin high in the wrong side, I mean you have a really fast putt, have a ton of break. So trying to stay below the hole out here is huge. Given how the game has changed so much, you know, the technology you guys you know, was built for a completely different era of players. Is it kind of brutal to come to a place like this and kind of have those two two worlds meet? For sure. It’s I mean, again, this golf course is is just classic as it gets traditional and, you know, the weather was just absolutely perfect today. So, it didn’t really have much um much going to make it play harder. Um, so being able to take advantage of it today, which with the weather was uh was exactly what we were trying to do. How do you think it played to your strengths? There’s a couple bunkers that you need to be able to carry on a few holes and, you know, just not having much wind. I hit a lot of drivers. Um, I can I can see some holes that are downwind lay back a little bit and some holes that are in the wind, the bunkers could really come into play. So, today I was able to either avoid them or hit over them. And that’s not going to be the case with rain or wind. as the leader when you when the conditions are going to change dramatically, you you just do the same things and just change your game plan relative to, you know, the holes, where the pins are going to be, what the wind’s going to do, and how the rain’s going to affect how you’re going to play it. But all in all, it’s just the same stuff. When did you find out you’re going to be in this? Uh, good question. Give or take a week. Okay. Have you I mean, what did you know about the course coming in? I have a buddy that’s a member that kind of gave me a little bit of of info, but honestly nothing. Um, I knew it was a great golf course. Everybody that I talked to said it was amazing and they were right. It’s we’re we’re lucky to be here and I just, you know, plotted my way around on Monday and Wednesday to figure out what to hit and, you know, where to kind of try to put the ball on the green. What’s your favorite hole after? Oh, great question. Uh, probably what we play as the 14th, the little par three. Why do you like it? I think good short par threes are I wouldn’t say a lost um lost in modern golf architecture, but they’re rarer and um much more rare. And that one is is just the perfect example. The pin today was only three off the left, so guys were hitting it really close, but if you missed it three paces left, there’s no way you’re getting up and down. Keith, you’ve been leading after the first round in multiple tournaments this year and then it’s kind of gotten away from you. What’s it going to take to kind of switch it up and maybe get over that hump and get a win this year? Three more rounds like today we’ll we’ll probably do it. Um, and trying not to win on Friday and Saturday and Sunday. Just trying to play my best. And you know, it’s harder than uh than I’ve made it pretty hard lately. So hopefully I can just, you know, stay in front of it. Good.
