Donald Ross and Rory McIlroy: A pair for the ages

The first-tee box at Aronimink sits on a mound just underneath its Tudor Revival clubhouse, which is modest compared to certain opulent mansions just up the road. A nice crowd had gathered to greet McIlroy and his entourage. To the gallery’s delight, out came McIlroy’s driver and . . .  crack!!! . . . out went a missile that rocketed nearly a fifth of a mile. Had the old guy actually seen the shot, it might have triggered palpitations.

McIlroy then laced his wedge inside five feet and made a birdie. Which he proceeded to repeat on the second hole. And the third. And the fourth. And the fifth. And the sixth, at least according to the now eight-year-old scribbles of an observer who had vague notions back then about writing a book on McIlroy someday.

None of the putts McIlroy jarred during his blitz that morning was longer than, say, 12 feet. He was practically knocking down flagsticks. McIlroy’s amateur partners were so jazzed to be climbing the pro-am leaderboard that they were elbowing each other and exchanging do-you-freakin’-believe-this? looks as one birdie putt after another found the bottom.

Rory McIlroy plays a shot from a bunker during the second round of the 2018 BMW Championship at Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania.

The notetaker counted 28 lashes for Rory over those nine holes. But later that day, in a conversation with his fellow Northern Irishman David Feherty, McIlroy volunteered that he’d shot a 27. Perhaps the observer’s math was shaky (no surprise there) or he missed recording a subpar moment late in the round.

No matter, it was a stretch of golf worthy of Donald Ross: muscular, sophisticated, stylish and thoroughly pleasing to the eye.

It was also a harbinger of McIlroy’s performance in the tournament that week. He ended up shooting 18-under at the 2018 BMW, falling just two strokes shy of the playoff between Justin Rose and Keegan Bradley, which Bradley won on the first hole of sudden death.

Rory McIlroy has strong track record on Donald Ross layouts

McIlroy has said many times that he loves playing thorny courses like the ones Ross designed a century ago. Ross-ian fairways tend to be generous, but his undulating greens are stingy, fickle and complicated, demanding precise and often delicately struck iron shots. Spearheaded by architect Gil Hanse a decade ago, the stern restoration of Aronimink’s 180 (!) bunkers – some large, some lilliputian – is a nod to Ross’s no-nonsense upbringing in the Church of Scotland. As an adult, Ross may not have been a practicing Calvinist, but he sure believed in punishing wayward golf shots and the wayward souls that hit them!

McIlroy’s track record reflects his affection for Ross’s layouts. He’s won three Tour Championships at Atlanta’s East Lake, a course rerouted and redesigned by Ross a mere 113 years ago. Had two short putts not gone awry late in his final round, McIlroy would have won the 2024 U.S. Open at Ross’s magnus-opus, Pinehurst No. 2. In March of this year, Rory and his dad Gerry – he of the syrupy swing and temperament to match – pulled off a coveted coup by winning the pro-member tournament at another Ross gem, Florida’s Seminole Golf Club. These days, Gerry is said to be the most popular guy in Seminole’s grillroom.

Rory McIlroy lines up his putt on the third green during the third round of the 2018 BMW Championship at Aronimink.

Why do Ross’s courses seem to bring out the best in Gerry’s son? It could be because they present a test that’s mental as well as physical. “Introspective” and “intellectually curious” do not apply to many Tour players, but they describe mid-career McIlroy, who likes nothing better than to confront a new professional or branding or personal challenge, isolate its component parts, and figure out a way to overcome them.

Playing a Ross course in a major championship is like taking a rigorous exam. McIlroy, the bright kid who dropped out of prep school at 15 and never attended college, relishes every brutal moment.

McIlroy admitted that he struggled emotionally a year ago after finally achieving his dream of winning the Masters and the career Grand Slam. He’s in no such funk now. Capturing Augusta for the second time in a row has McIlroy brimming with confidence and hell-bent on bringing his swagger to Aronimink.

Aronimink is 'Donald Ross at his most ingenious'

But before conceding the Wanamaker Trophy to the Northern Irishman, we might want to pay heed to two factors. First, of course, is the presence of world No. 1 and four-time major champion Scottie Scheffler (Remember him, last seen in a major missing a Masters playoff by the slimmest of margins?). And second is the cautionary message of Bradley S. Klein, a Ross savant and biographer and a long-time student of golf architecture and the PGA Tour. Klein believes that Rory will be “very strongly in the mix” at Aronimink, pointing out that McIlroy is ranked first on the Tour this year in strokes gained from tee-to-green and first in strokes gained driving.

“Given the heavily bunkered, sinewy fairways at Aronimink, strong driver and iron play is paramount,” Klein says. But Rory’s Achilles heel may prove to be his putting, which is outside the top 100 so far in 2026.

McIlroy’s flatstick woes, which reared their ugly head on Sunday at Augusta when he three-putted the fourth green from inside five feet, suggest that he “may not excel on Aronimink’s unusually – and severely – contoured set of putting surfaces,” Klein says.

Rory McIlroy plays his approach on the 11th hole during the second round of the 2018 BMW Championship at Aronimink.

“This is Donald Ross at his most ingenious, which will test a part of McIlroy's game that, as we saw two years ago at Pinehurst, exposes an area of occasional shakiness. Those three- and four-foot comeback putts on glassy curved greens like Aronimink's will be the ultimate test of championship nerves, even for someone who has won the Grand Slam,” he warns.

McIlroy’s ability to hit towering iron shots may give him an advantage on certain Aronimink greens, especially the two par 5s. But many of Aronimink’s holes demand a knocked-down finesse shot to get the ball close to the cup. Since being taken to the woodshed in recent years by Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, and swing guru Butch Harmon for his tendency to smash – rather than massage – his wedges, McIlroy has made great progress in learning to feather lofted clubs.

The swing that helped McIlroy don his second green jacket – a gorgeous three-quarter nine-iron at Augusta’s treacherous 12th hole that led to a crucial birdie – is the definitive example of how McIlroy and his game have matured. To win at Donald Ross’s Aronimink will demand that same level of discipline and ingenuity.

Like so many Northern Irish families, the McIlroy clan originally hailed from Scotland. Along with many thousands of others, the Catholic McIlroys most likely fled their ancestral homeland during Puritan strongman Oliver Cromwell’s 17th century reign of terror.

Is there a chance that before emigrating, McIlroy’s forebears commingled with Ross’s in the Auld Linksland, ideally with a mashie or niblick in hand and a flock of grazing sheep obstructing their approach to the “hole”? As sweet a scenario as that might be, it almost assuredly didn’t happen. The Ross clan had roots along the North Sea’s Firth of Dornoch in the Scottish Highlands. The McIlroys, as near we can determine, were from the other side of Scotia, the Ayrshire coast along the Irish Sea’s Firth of Clyde.

Still, there’s a strong spiritual and sporting connection between Ross and McIlroy. Don’t be completely shocked if you glimpse an old duffer at Aronimink with a beat-up bunnet, a tweed suit and a walking stick. Amid a cloud of cigar smoke, he’ll be craning his neck to see just how far that Irish upstart is driving the ball down his fairways.

Timothy M. Gay is a Pulitzer-nominated writer and historian. His most recent book is RORY LAND: The Up-and-Down World of Golf’s Global Icon.

This article originally appeared on Golfweek: PGA Championship: Rory McIlroy to tackle Donald Ross gem at Aronimink