Philadelphia Cricket Club was no match for PGA’s Truist Championship field. And it was great.

From a golf course’s perspective, this is what a perfect storm looks like.

No wind.

Bright sun.

Damp top soil.

A slimmed-down field limited to the top 75ish golfers in the world.

The Wissahickon Course at the Philadelphia Cricket Club didn’t stand a chance on Day 1 of the Truist Championship.

And that’s OK.

» READ MORE: A ‘fueled’ Rickie Fowler fires a front-nine 29 to put himself in contention at the Truist Championship

“This golf course is as classic as it gets,” said Keith Mitchell, who fired a 9-under 61 and will enter the second round as the tournament leader on a day in which 24 golfers shot at least 5-under par on the course in Flourtown.

“The weather was just absolutely perfect today. So it didn’t really have much going to make it play harder. Being able to take advantage of it today with the weather was exactly what we were trying to do.”

Look, nobody was expecting this to be the 2007 U.S. Open. When the PGA Tour tapped Philadelphia Cricket Club to serve as the one-year fill-in host for the Truist, it wasn’t looking for a place that would fry the field’s nerves a week before the second major championship of the season. It was looking for a place that could inject some pageantry into one of its new between-major signature events.

You don’t put a bunch of modern-day bombers on a wide-open Golden Age golf course and then call for the fainting couch when the entire leaderboard is red. The allure of this tournament, just before the PGA Championship, was always the vibe and the venue rather than watching players get slayed by the course.

In that respect, Thursday was a wild success. The weather was perfect, the aesthetics of the course were high art, and the sight lines were as good as it gets in spectator sports. Complaining about a bunch of low scores is missing the point. It’s like Major League Baseball staging a game on the Field of Dreams field. The corn is the point.

“We’re all enjoying it because this isn’t — we don’t get to see many courses like this, old-school architecture, throughout the year,” said Rickie Fowler, who spent most of the day near the top of the leaderboard, finishing at 7-under 63 and tied for third with three other players.

“I feel like they’ve done a great job of modernizing it over time, but it still has all the old-school characteristics. It’s a fun place to play.”

Fowler knew when he arrived at the course that it was ripe for a crooked number. With rain and wind in the forecast for Friday — the weather has been a focal point for tournament and grounds officials throughout the week — the entire field knew that it needed to take advantage of the opening day.

» READ MORE: Fans get hands-on, ‘Go Birds’ makes the broadcast, Philly-themed merch, and more from Day 1 of the Truist

“I figured scores were going to be pretty low with the softer conditions and not much wind today,” Fowler said. “It will be a little different maybe tomorrow with moisture and playing — having to play with a wet golf ball. … The big thing, when conditions are like this, you want to make sure you take advantage of it so you’re not trying to play catch-up and kind of play from behind the 8 ball.”

You saw it early. Rory McIlroy’s 373-yard drive on the 381-yard par-4 second hole set a tone for the day. He would finish 4-under, tied for 25th place.

“We’ll see what the weather is like tomorrow and see what that brings,” McIlroy said. “But yeah, at this point you sort of know that — I feel like I’ve played enough golf tournaments to know roughly what the winning score might be. … Obviously Keith got the 9-under today, but you try to put that out of your head and plug along and stay in your own little world.”

Don’t be surprised if A.W. Tillinghast bites back a bit on Friday. While Wissahickon’s wide-open layout limits the potential for trouble off the tee on a calm day, it also makes wind a significant factor.

“It’s all weather-dependent, depending on what we see tomorrow,” Fowler said. “It’s going to continue to be soft from there. So then it becomes wind-dependent, if we play the ball up or if we play the ball down, if we’re dealing with mud balls and different things like that.”

But, again, aggregate scoring was never going to be the true test of the PGA’s cameo at the Cricket Club. The patrons, the members, the market — all acquitted themselves well on Thursday. It was enjoyable to play. It was enjoyable to watch. It was enjoyable to experience.

“I think any time we do come to Philly, it’s a great sports town obviously, and people do get behind obviously their teams, but also the events that are brought here,” McIlroy said. “I feel like any time that I have played around here, whether it be Merion or Aronimink or here, the energy has always been great.”

There is nothing wrong with the color red. On Thursday, it looked great on Wissahickon.