The PGA Championship is back, and this year it comes with a venue most Tour players have never competed at in a major. Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania hosts the year’s second major for the first time since 1962. That 64 year wait ends Thursday. The field has seen Quail Hollow, Augusta, Riviera, and Torrey Pines. They have not seen anything quite like this.
Dates: May 14 through May 17, 2026
Venue: Aronimink Golf Club, Newtown Square, PA
The Course
Donald Ross designed Aronimink in 1928. Most golf historians consider it his masterpiece. At par 70 and 7,237 yards from the tips, it demands something the power era tends to push aside: precision. This is not a course where you grip and rip and putt for birdie all week.
The bunkering system will tell you that from the first tee. Recent restoration work by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner expanded the bunker count from 74 to 174, returning Aronimink closer to Ross’s original vision. Smaller clusters of sand replace the oversized greenside bunkers. The decisions they force are not small.
Jeff Kiddie, Aronimink’s head golf professional, put it simply: “It’s a very fair golf course. Good shots are rewarded.” He describes the back nine closing stretch as “a really nice combination of scoreable holes, tough par 3s, and then a dramatic closing hole.” That dramatic close is the new 18th tee, which stretches this uphill par 4 to nearly 500 yards. Whoever hoists the Wanamaker Trophy on Sunday earned it through 18.
The Defending Champion
Scottie Scheffler won the 2025 PGA Championship at Quail Hollow by five strokes over Bryson DeChambeau, Harris English, and Davis Riley. It was his first Wanamaker Trophy and his third major title. He arrives at Aronimink as the betting favorite and one of the few players in the field who has actually won this thing.
Scheffler enters having finished T8 at the Truist Championship last week. He has won in every condition, on every type of course. A par 70 with 174 bunkers is not going to change that calculus. The question is whether anyone can stay close enough on Sunday to make him feel it.
The Chasing Pack
Rory McIlroy comes in as hot as any player in the world. He defended his Masters title in April, winning by one shot over Scheffler at Augusta. Two majors in two months is a conversation the game has not had in this era. If McIlroy wins at Aronimink, that conversation gets very loud.
Cameron Young has been building to this moment. He won the Cadillac Championship earlier this season by six strokes and shot 63 on Saturday at the Truist Championship. Young has been knocking on the door at majors for two years. A course that rewards precision over length is his kind of test.
Matt Fitzpatrick has three wins this season and sits at No. 4 in the world. His brother Alex held the lead through 54 holes at last week’s Truist Championship and finished fourth. Matt arrives at Aronimink with different momentum, and form that puts him squarely in the mix.
Ludvig Aberg closed Truist with a 66 on Sunday, eight birdies in the round. Jon Rahm and Xander Schauffele, the 2024 PGA Champion, round out the next tier of serious contenders. Bryson DeChambeau finished T2 at last year’s PGA Championship at Quail Hollow and has unfinished business with the Wanamaker Trophy.
Storylines to Watch
Par 70 pressure. This is rare for a major. Players accustomed to 72 holes of par 72 have fewer holes to make up ground. The margin for error shrinks when there are no par 5s left to attack on Sunday afternoon.
174 bunkers. The player who avoids them all week wins the tournament before the final round. The player who keeps finding them gets a very long week.
Truist redemption. Alex Fitzpatrick came to Quail Hollow last week holding the lead through 54 holes and shot 73 to fall to fourth. Rickie Fowler closed with a 65 and tied for second, his third straight top 10 finish entering this week. Both players arrive at Aronimink with something to prove.
Rory’s moment. McIlroy has not won the PGA Championship since 2014. He just won the Masters. He is playing the best golf on the planet. Aronimink sits 30 miles outside Philadelphia, and that crowd will be loud.
Spieth’s Grand Slam. Jordan Spieth needs the PGA Championship to complete the career Grand Slam. Every major is another shot at the door. He enters Aronimink as a sleeper with real motivation.
The PGA Pros. Twenty PGA of America golf professionals earned their spots through the PGA Professional Championship and will tee it up alongside the world’s best this week, including Michael Block in his eighth PGA Championship and Jesse Droemer, who won the 2026 PGA Professional Championship at Bandon Dunes. They are Bogey’s peers on that tee sheet, and that is what makes this major different from the rest.
The PGA Pro Take
Kiddie’s description is the right frame for the week: fair, right out in front of you, good shots are rewarded. Par 70 setups separate the thinkers from the thrashers. The player who wins at Aronimink will be the one who figured out the course by Thursday afternoon and never deviated from that plan. Scrambling stats through Saturday will tell you exactly who that is. Watch that number. The leaderboard will follow it.
The week runs Thursday through Sunday. Tee times start early at Aronimink. BogeyBlasters will have you covered on every round.
May 11, 2026 • Written By: BogeyBlasters
