2025 PGA champion Scottie Scheffler loses control of the Wanamaker Trophy.
Jared C. Tilton, Getty Images
The PGA Championship returns to Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, for the first time in 64 years. Gary Player won the 1962 PGA at Aronimink, marking the third leg of his career Grand Slam. Global Golf Post’s Ron Green Jr., John Hopkins, Scott Michaux and John Steinbreder gather again for a virtual roundtable to discuss topics on tap as the year’s second major tees off this week near Philadelphia.
Every major has a collection of memorable moments. What is your favorite PGA Championship moment?
Green: The one that comes immediately to mind is from the 2021 PGA Championship at Kiawah Island. Seeing Phil Mickelson win there just short of his 51st birthday and the whole scene – fans rushing up the 18th fairway alongside the Atlantic Ocean – was an unforgettable moment. For a moment, Mickelson was on top of the world.
Phil Mickelson at the 2021 PGA Championship
Patrick Smith, Getty Images
Hopkins: Shaun Micheel’s 7-iron on the 72nd hole at Oak Hill in 2003 and Michael Block mania at Oak Hill 20 years later. I was among the crowd when Block emerged on the bridge leading to the first tee for his fourth round and it was as if everyone was worshipping a deity. I saw his hole-in-one, too, when he appeared to be the only person present who could not believe his ball had gone into the hole. Not my favourite but one of my most memorable is the sight of a bikini-clad young lady working the scoreboard at the 1987 PGA at a sparsely populated PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, held in August when it was really, really hot. That was the year that each car was allocated four passengers to boost spectator numbers.
Michaux: At the peak of his power Tiger Woods tangled with a curious collection of challengers in the PGA, famously losing twice at Hazeltine to Rich Beem (2002) and Y.E. Yang (2009) while outkicking a young Sergio García (1999) and Luke Donald (2006) at Medinah and Woody Austin (2007) at Southern Hills. But his extended Sunday duel with Bob May in 2000 at Valhalla was one of the best showdowns in any major, made all the more dramatic by the history at stake in keeping the Tiger Slam alive.
Tiger Woods in 2000
Donald Miralle, Allsport/Getty Images
Steinbreder: I have two. The first is John Daly in 1991, a true Cinderella story getting into the PGA as the ninth alternate and then going on to win as he also blew people away with his prodigious length. And 30 years later, we had one of the greatest scenes ever in competitive golf with Phil Mickelson and Brooks Koepka fighting the crowds as they walked up the 18th hole at Kiawah the final day of play, and then the nearly 51-year-old Mickelson sealing the deal with his two-putt par for his sixth major. It was a triumph for the ages, and if he had played his cards right in the aftermath, Phil would still be basking in its glory.
Just over halfway through the 2026 PGA Tour season, what stands out so far?
Green: A couple of moments jump out: Cameron Young’s tee shot on the 18th hole to help seal his Players Championship victory and Rory McIlroy winning his second consecutive Masters while demonstrating that a six-stroke lead after 36 holes comes with no promises. Otherwise, the ascendance of both Young and Matt Fitzpatrick – if McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler are 1A on the tour’s list of stars, Young and Fitzpatrick are now 1B.
Hopkins: The emergence of Cameron Young, bearded and solid with the longest pause at the top of his backswing since Sandy Tatum, USGA president in 1978 and 1979. Young burnished his reputation as a good guy by calling a penalty on himself at the Cadillac Championship – and went on to win. And Matthew Fitzpatrick, the Englishman who punches far above his weight and has won three tournaments on the PGA Tour this year, the third with Alex, his younger brother.
Cameron Young
Cliff Hawkins, Getty Images
Michaux: That Matt Fitzpatrick (3), Cam Young (2) and Chris Gotterup (2) all have more victories than Scottie Scheffler (1) and Rory McIlroy (1). And nine of the 17 tournaments have been won by major champions – and it could have been 10 if Shane Lowry hadn’t wilted in the Cognizant Classic at PGA National.
Steinbreder: Rory’s second Masters win. Cameron Young’s full emergence as a top-five player. Brooks Koepka’s return to the tour. And though it is only tangentially tour-related, what appears to be the beginning of the end for LIV Golf.
John Steinbreder recently wrote a Second Wind feature on the history and quality of golf in the greater Philadelphia region. Merion is the only other Philly course to host a major in the post-World War II era. Is there another Philly-area course you’d like to see play host to a major?
Green: If we’re including Pine Valley 19 miles away in south Jersey, that’s the obvious choice and, just as obviously, that’s not going to happen. But it’s fun to think about.
Hopkins: I would love to see Merion, the quirky venue that most recently staged the 2013 U.S. Open, used more regularly. To me, this PGA Championship in Philly sounds like something taken from a John Cheever short story. It is staged at a club called Aronimink in a place called Newton Square on the Main Line not far from the Philadelphia Cricket Club, a predominantly golf club, not in the state of Pennsylvania but the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, one founded by an Englishman named William Penn. Good heavens.
Michaux: Philadelphia Cricket Club’s Wissahickon Course, a Keith Foster-restored Tillinghast layout, looked terrific when it played as a one-off host of the 2025 Truist Championship. It would be fun to see it toughened up for a major test for the first time since the Cricket Club’s St. Martin’s Course held two U.S. Opens way back in 1907 and 1910.
No. 18 at Philadelphia Cricket Club’s Wissahickon Course
Steinbreder: Once Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner are done with their renovation of Cobbs Creek in West Philadelphia – which was the city’s first municipal course when it opened in 1916 and the place that Charlie Sifford called his golf home after moving there in 1939 – I’d love to see the PGA Tour stage a tournament or two there and eventually have the PGA hold its championship on that public layout.
World rankings tell a story but tend to suffer a little from recency bias. Rankings aside, who in this week’s PGA field qualifies as the best player without a major victory?
Green: Acknowledging recency bias, Young and Tommy Fleetwood come to mind. That’s a sharp grading curve considering last summer we were still asking when they would finally start winning. It’s too early to put Ludvig Åberg atop the list.
Tommy Fleetwood
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Hopkins: Tommy Feetwood. Unless you regard the Players as a major championship, and by the way I don’t, then Cameron Young.
Michaux: Ludvig Åberg hasn’t played in enough majors (nine) to qualify yet in my book, and I’d say Viktor Hovland and Robert MacIntyre haven’t suffered enough close calls yet. It comes down to Tommy Fleetwood (42 majors, eight top-10s) and Cam Young (19/7) for me, and that 37 percent top-10 rate and three painfully close calls by Young feels awfully Schauffele-esque before Xander broke through to win two majors. Young may break through as soon as this week.
Steinbreder: Cameron Young and Tommy Fleetwood.
The standard last question: Who wins and why?
Green: Scottie Scheffler. A year ago, he didn’t win until early May and we know how the year played out from there. Three consecutive runner-up finishes suggest he’s primed, especially at a place where consistent ball-striking will be rewarded.
Hopkins: Justin Rose, though he has to familiarise himself with his new clubs better than he did the first time he used them at the recent Cadillac Championship and finished tied 65th. If not Rose, then Fleetwood and if not Fleetwood then Matt Fitzpatrick. In such a British-sounding environment it has to be a British player.
Rory McIlroy and Justin Rose
Tracy Wilcox, PGA Tour via Getty Images
Michaux: I was all in on Justin Rose, who won his second PGA Tour event at Aronimink in 2010, was runner-up there in a 2018 FedEx Cup playoff event and won his only major nearby at Merion. But then he switched to McLaren irons. So I’ll take Xander Schauffele by a nose over Cameron Young.
Steinbreder: While I like Rory’s chances a lot, coming off his Masters win, I am making Young my pick. No one has been playing better week in and week out. And I love the Justin Thomas-like kismet of having the son of a PGA club professional win that association’s championship.
