By BOB LENTZ

Associated Press

FLOURTOWN, Pa. (AP) — Keith Mitchell led a birdie spree at the Truist Championship on Thursday, shooting a career-best 9-under 61 to shatter the course record at the Philadelphia Cricket Club.

The previous Wissahickon Course record of 65 was shared by Colin St Maxen, Zac Blair and Angus Flanagan. The 7,100-yard A.W. Tillinghast design with modest par 4s and gettable pin placements fell victim to the long hitters and aggressive shots with short irons and wedges.

Mitchell was bogeyfree and had an outside chance at 59 on his second shot from 102 yards on the ninth hole, his 18th. He hit his approach to just over 9 feet and settled for a closing par and a one-shot lead over Denny McCarthy. Colin Morikawa, Rickie Fowler, Sepp Straka and Akshay Bhatia shot 63.

Rory McIlroy, making his first individual start since completing the career grand slam at the Masters, had a 66 and was one of 64 players who beat par on the seemingly defenseless Wissahickon layout in the sixth signature event of the PGA Tour season.

Mitchell led the way despite a ho-hum start of five straight pars on the back nine. Things started to heat up for the 33-yearold with a birdies on the stout 17th and 18th holes. His run continued with birdies on two of the first three holes on his back nine before a four-birdie run for a 6-under 29 on the inward nine.

Mitchell said he has a buddy who is a member at Philly Cricket and received some intel ahead of his arrival. But, he credited the work he and his caddie did early in the week studying the greens for setting the stage for his success.

“I just plotted my way around Monday and Wednesday to figure out what to hit and where to kind of try to put the ball on the green,” said Mitchell, who has one career win and six top-25 finishes this year with one missed cut. “If you get above the hole really pin high on the wrong side, you can have a really fast putt and have a ton of breaks.”

The 32-year-old McCarthy, who has lost twice in playoffs and is winless on tour, was aided by a fast start that included five straight birdies at Nos. 11-15. He opened his inward nine with back-to-back birdies and added two more for a satisfying, but not surprising to him, opening round.

“I’ve been playing really well lately, so it doesn’t really surprise me,” he said. “There’s still a lot of golf left. This is a really nice start. I’m excited for how my game has been trending lately.”

McIlroy, the defending champion and four-time winner of the event, stayed with his aggressive gameplan of trying to overpower the layout with driver off the tee. He had two stumbles along the way: a three-putt at the par-4 11th and a bogey at the 570-yard, par-5 15th, where he scrambled after missing the fairway with his drive and the green with his approach from 243 yards.

McIlroy quickly moved past his first-round errors.

“I think it worked out fine,” McIlroy said of his round of six birdies and two bogeys. “I drove the ball pretty well. I missed it in a couple of spots, but was sort of able to get away with it.”

McIlroy is playing for the first time in about two weeks after celebrating his slam-clinching win at the Masters and 12th-place finish in New Orleans, where he and fellow Irishman Shane Lowry were defending champs. He acknowledged his game is not in top form.

“I felt like I was a little rusty out there, just hadn’t played in a week and I hadn’t really done a ton of practice, especially like on and around the greens,” he said. “I certainly can tidy a few things up, but overall a decent day.”

Alex Noren made his return to the tour, playing for the first time since August due to neck and leg injuries. The 42-yearold Swede opened with a 67 and was happy to be back and looked forward to fine-tuning his game.

“It’s weird not to play for so long,” he said. “I’ve been looking forward to get some nervousness and some adrenaline flowing and just be a little sharper. You go around practicing your short game for a while. It’s not so inspiring in the end when you don’t really know when you can come back. Finally, the last two weeks, it felt good for two weeks in a row. The hamstring is holding up.”

Herndon/TNS