Aronimink’s Demanding Setup Is Star Of The Show At PGA

Shockingly, a player has not been the star through 36 holes of the PGA Championship.

The leaderboard is a mixed bag, with a couple of solid American players tied at the top and a blend of surprises and top players lurking right behind. Alex Smalley and Maverick McNealy co-lead at 4 under, which is a score that many thought wouldn’t even be close to enough for the first-round lead. Only 22 players are under par, and only three—Smalley, Max Greyserman and Justin Thomas—have broken par in both rounds. 

Some pundits thought the winning score could get close to 20 under this week if conditions were benign. Neither will be the case. Unpredictable winds have consistently troubled players, and the winning score may struggle to reach double digits under par.

A rarity at the PGA Championship, we’ve already started getting quotes from players about whether the setup is fair, which we usually only hear at the U.S. Open. 

A decade ago, we were getting birdie-fests nearly every year at the PGA. But now, we’re getting a difficult PGA for the fifth time in six years. I have no complaints. 

The Donald Ross design is showing a different way to challenge players

If you’ve been casually watching the PGA at Aronimink this week, you may wonder how the course is playing so difficult. It feels like players have wedges in their hands on nearly every par-4 when finding the fairway. This is one of the shortest courses you’ll ever see host a modern major championship, especially considering there are no forced layups. 

But we are seeing very few close approaches. These Donald Ross green complexes are brutal. The much-talked-about spines all around the greens are giving players trouble. Officials have set up pins in masterful spots, often requiring extremely precise shots to get close to the hole. And even when they are close, the subtle breaks have made it hard for anyone to get hot with the putter. 

Despite other Ross designs on the PGA Tour schedule, including Sedgefield, East Lake and Detroit, for whatever reason, course setups rarely try to push the edge and challenge players, which the viewers suffer from.

It’s been a blast to watch the game’s best have to hit near-perfect shots—even with wedges—to get close to the pin. 

This type of setup may not separate the best players

While it has been a pleasure to watch the difficulty of Aronimink so far this week, I do have to admit that the leaderboard isn’t the best. Only Chris Gotterup (No. 10) is currently better than 9^th among the top 10 in the world.

Some of the players currently sitting at T3 include Aldrich Potgieter, Stephan Jaeger and Max Greyserman, none of whom are coming in with much form or with world rankings better than 70th. McNealy has had a very quiet season despite big expectations, and though Smalley does have some good form coming in, he’s ranked 78^th in the world. 

The PGA has played more like the Open Championship so far, a tournament where we often see surprises at the top. When you get a course with tricky winds and diabolical green complexes, you often don’t see top players separate themselves at the top quite as much. That’s because you do see luck come into play a bit more, and efficient ball striking doesn’t lead to as many easy birdies as it does at most courses. 

The game’s best players are lurking

With all of that being said, many of the game’s top players are lurking and right in contention for the weekend.

It wouldn’t surprise me to see the PGA offer a bit of an easier setup on Saturday for an exciting moving day. The scoring averages for the first two rounds were +2.26 and +2.58, so I’m expecting something closer to +1.25 on Saturday. One other thing to note is that the afternoon-morning wave of tee times had it much, much tougher in the first two rounds. So players who dealt with those conditions and are still in the mix, like Scottie Scheffler, should be very happy with their standing. 

Speaking of Scheffler, he’s with a group of players in T9 (-2) that may be tough to beat. If I had to put money on where the eventual winner comes from, it would definitely be from here. The group includes Scheffler, Cameron Young, Thomas, Ludvig Aberg and Si Woo Kim. Also right in the mix at 1 under are Jon Rahm, Patrick Cantlay and Jason Day. The cut finished at 4 over, meaning everyone is within eight shots of the lead. Anybody with a tee time tomorrow should still feel like they can make a charge and get in contention. 

We’re set up for a great weekend thanks to a phenomenal golf course at Aronimink. 

Top Photo Caption: Aronimink was the main character on Friday. (GETTY IMAGES/Emilee Chin)