When the first – and only – PGA Championship was played at Aronimink Golf Club in 1962, the Beatles had just released their first single, John Glenn became the first man to orbit Earth and the James Bond movie franchise debuted (pictured below). In golf terms, that’s almost longer than a Cameron Young drive on the 18th hole at The Players Championship.
Gary Player, one of only six players to capture the Grand Slam, won the 1962 PGA Championship by a shot over Bob Goalby at 2-under 278. Player will be at Aronimink the week of the 2026 PGA Championship, but not with a scorecard in his pocket. He wouldn’t miss another chance to see a course he has praised for more than six decades.
“It’s such a beautiful golf course,” Player says of the Donald Ross-designed masterpiece built in 1928 in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania. “I’ve always felt like it’s one of the most underrated golf courses in the world.”
There won’t be much local knowledge utilized when 156 standout players – including defending PGA Champion Scottie Scheffler and 20 PGA of America Golf Professionals comprising the Corebridge Financial Team – convene at Aronimink the week of May 11–17, just outside of Philadelphia, for the 108th PGA Championship.
This is a course, to paraphrase Bobby Jones’ line about Jack Nicklaus, not many players are familiar with. Only a handful of the world’s best players will have competed at Aronimink since architect Gil Hanse and partner Jim Wagner restored the course to Ross’ original design during a renovation in 2016-17.
That list is topped by Keegan Bradley and Justin Rose, who met in a playoff at the rain-delayed 2018 BMW Championship, a FedExCup event, at Aronimink, with Bradley winning during a Monday finish after both players finished at 20-under 260. Rose won the 2010 AT&T National at Aronimink, and along with his 2013 U.S. Open title at nearby Merion Golf Club, the Englishman is very comfortable in Philadelphia.
Nick Watney won the 2011 AT&T National at Aronimink in similar wet conditions, shooting a spectacular 27 on the back nine during a third-round 62 to win at 13-under 267. Watney was the third player to break the Aronimink course record in the third round, so the course is vulnerable when soft.
But few of the world’s best players will be comfortable when they tee off for the second major championship of the year due to their lack of experience on the course. Even Kerry Haigh, the PGA Chief Championships Officer, who has been setting up PGA Championships for almost four decades, has borrowed a page from Tiger Woods, who early in his career would look at old videos to familiarize himself with a major venue he had yet to play.
“I looked at when Keegan Bradley won the BMW,” Haigh says. “It was a bit helpful. They had some significant rain and weather, so it played soft. It sort of tells you if it’s soft and there’s no wind, the scoring will be good because it’s not a long course.
“But the members and anyone who has played Aronimink knows it’s the movement around the greens, with the roll offs and the rough, that makes it a really good test and a good challenge.”
Fortunately for Haigh and his staff, the PGA of America has staged a pair of majors at Aronimink on the PGA Tour Champions and LPGA Tour in the last quarter century: the 2003 Senior PGA Championship and the 2020 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, which was played in October because of the pandemic. The Senior PGA Championship was won by John Jacobs at 4-under 276 and Sei Young Kim claimed the KPMG title at 14-under 266.
“The greens haven’t really changed, so we know what we’re dealing with,” Haigh says. “It’s really more the volume of people and moving them around. It is a pretty condensed space. It’s barely 1,000 yards from the furthest point of the course to the clubhouse, so there’s a lot of people in a small space. But that should also give you a great atmosphere with so many people and so much golf all in the same areas.”
While Aronimink Golf Club has the distinction of hosting all three of the PGA of America’s rotating major championships – PGA Championship, Senior PGA Championship and KPMG Women’s PGA Championship – it also hosted the 1977 U.S. Amateur (won by John Fought) and the 1997 U.S. Junior Amateur (won by Jason Allred).
The 62-year gap between PGA Championships being played at Aronimink is one of the longest in modern-day golf history. But this generation of stars knows how to adapt.
The PGA Championship has a way of bringing out the best golf from the top players. Each of the last nine winners – Brooks Koepka (three), Justin Thomas (twice), Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Phil Mickelson and Collin Morikawa – have won multiple majors and are either in or heading to the World Golf Hall of Fame.
And that list doesn’t include Rory McIlroy, who won the PGA Championship in 2012 and 2014, and became the sixth Grand Slam winner at last year’s Masters. Certainly, the PGA Championship’s move from August to May in 2019 has been a positive decision by the PGA of America. Also, the decision to move the PGA Championship around so much – Aronimink is among 76 courses that have hosted a total of 108 – brings variety.
It’s no coincidence the PGA chose Aronimink, situated in a suburb of Philadelphia, as host for its premier championship during the nation’s 250th anniversary. The Philadelphia area also will host the Major League Baseball All-Star Game at Citizens Bank Park and the FIFA World Cup at Lincoln Financial Field.
“We’re always really excited about the PGA Championship, and our ability to showcase our PGA of America Golf Professionals who qualify,” says Nathan Charnes, PGA of America Vice President. “But we’re equally excited to go to such a historic, iconic East Coast venue like Aronimink.
“It’s going to be a great location, great fans, great golf course – just an absolute gem. It’s a special treat this year to be at such an iconic location just outside of Philadelphia. And it’s exciting to have it in the Philadelphia Section – they do such great things. We’re excited to showcase the Section.”
The PGA Championship will also give the 20 PGA of America Professionals who qualified for the major championship (by finishing in the Top 20 of the 2026 PGA Professional Championship at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in Oregon in late April) an opportunity to show off their talents as members of the Corebridge Financial Team. Will someone like Michael Block, who made a hole-in-one in the final round of the 2023 PGA to finish 15th, shine in the national spotlight?
“Of everything we do at the PGA of America, one of the most impactful and special things we can offer our members is the ability to play golf at such a high level,” Charnes explains. “For our members who dedicate their lives to the playing side of the game, it’s such a neat opportunity – to be able to try and qualify, and then if you do make it to the PGA Championship, to compete in a major on the Corebridge Financial Team.
“What other association offers its members the ability to play in a major championship? It happens nowhere else, literally nowhere else.”
Aronimink Golf Club should lend itself to late drama with the par-4 13th hole likely to be shortened to a drivable hole on the weekend, followed by a pair of 220ish-yard par 3s (Nos. 14 and 17), a 546-yard par 4 (No. 15), an opportunistic par 5 (No. 16) and a 490-yard par-4 closing hole where Player hit a 4-wood into in 1962.
Haigh has never worried about what the winning score will be at the PGA Championship, just that the best player won.
“You want the golf course to a good test, a fair test, one that they enjoyed playing but also challenged them,” says Haigh. “That’s all you can ask for.”
