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The PGA TOUR has a second straight Signature Event ready to tee off on Thursday, May 7. Quail Hollow Club hosts the Truist Championship after the event went to Philadelphia last year to make room for the PGA Championship the following week. Quail Hollow is an iconic course, and the elite field of 72 golfers will play a no-cut tournament this week, with the same format as last week’s event. It should be another outstanding week of golf ahead as we prepare for another major championship just around the corner. This week’s Signature Event includes a wide variety of markets available on DraftKings Sportsbook, so let’s pinpoint some of my best bets for Round 1 of the Truist Championship.
Tee times for Round 1 have been adjusted, and players will play in groups of three, starting at both No. 1 and No. 10, rather than playing in pairs from just one hole. The compressed schedule will hopefully get everyone through without the weather causing any further issues, and it removes a lot of variance from the start of the round for the early players to the start of the round for the later groups.
Due to impending inclement weather in Thursday’s forecast, tee times for the first and second round of the Truist Championship will be adjusted to approximately 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. ET in groups of three off Nos. 1 and 10.
— PGA TOUR Communications (@PGATOURComms) May 6, 2026
In this post, we’ll focus on my three best bets for Round 1 of the Truist Championship on Thursday, May 6. Let’s tee it up!
McCarty is making his Truist Championship debut this week, but he did play Quail Hollow last year at the PGA Championship. He had three birdies and four bogeys in Round 1. In Round 2, he had four birdies and three bogeys, along with a pair of double-bogeys, that pushed him outside the cut line.
The setup this week is much more forgiving than for that major championship, and McCarty comes in with some great momentum. He should be able to find at least four birdies in Round 1.
McCarty has racked up four straight top-25 finishes, with a T24 at Augusta, a T12 at the RBC Heritage, a T10 at the Zurich, and a T9 last week in Doral. His strength over that run has been his accuracy and tee-to-green performance, which should set him up well to continue his success this week at Quail Hollow. In the new tee times, McCarty will tee off with Bud Cauley and Chandler Blanchet at 11:55 a.m. ET.
Thomas tees off a few minutes later at 12:39 p.m. ET in one of the marquee groups. He’ll be playing alongside Xander Schauffele and Cameron Young in what should be a very low-scoring trio. Thomas is still working his way back from back surgery this past offseason, but he is starting to round into form.
Last week, Thomas scored a 70 or better in three of his four rounds. With the par-71 Quail Hollow this week, all he has to do to hit this plus-money prop is to finish under par — something he’s done in five of his last six rounds, since struggling early at the RBC Heritage.
Thomas gained strokes in every category last week except with his flat stick, and he ended up with a solid T23. He missed the cut at the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow last year, but he won the PGA Championship at this track in 2017 and finished in the top 21 in four straight non-major tournaments at Quail Hollow since then.
A lot of this will depend on how the course plays, but under typical conditions, he should have a good shot at getting to at least one under.
Kitayama tees off at 12:17 p.m. ET after Min Woo Lee starts much earlier at 11:11 a.m. ET. Lee will be playing with Matt Wallace and Denny McCarthy, while Kitayama will play with Alex Noren and Ryan Gerard.
While both of these players have the potential to contend at their best, neither one has had much success at Quail Hollow yet. Lee missed the cut in his only appearance on the course at last year’s PGA Championship. Kitayama missed the cut in that event but finished T34 in 2024.
The main reason I like this play on Kitayama, though, is his strong recent form. He finished T8 at the RBC Heritage and T9 at the Cadillac Championship. He started fast in Augusta at the first major of the season as well, but faded to a 51st-place finish. Lee also had some good results this year, but they were early in the season. He missed the cut at Augusta before finishing T60 at the RBC and T18 last week at the Cadillac.
With better form and more course knowledge, Kitayama at plus odds is a solid play in this head-to-head Round 1 matchup..
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