The PGA Championship returns to Philadelphia's Aronimink Golf Club after 64 years, highlighting the city's passionate sports culture. Columnist Marcus Hayes discusses the unique fit between the PGA Championship and Philadelphia's sports fans.
Key points
PGA Championship returns to Philadelphia in 2026
Aronimink Golf Club last hosted the event in 1962
Philadelphia sports culture is known for loyalty and expectations
Columnist Marcus Hayes provides insights on local golf culture
The event may evoke strong reactions from passionate fans
Mentioned in this story
PhiladelphiaAronimink Golf ClubMarcus Hayes
PGA Championship
The Philadelphia sports fan needs no introduction. Eagles, Flyers, Phillies, Sixers. Pick any Philly fanbase, and youâll find the same thingâfierce loyalty ⊠and fierce expectations. Just ask poor olâ Saint Nick, who Eagles fans infamously bombarded with snowballs in protest of the Birdsâ lowly 2-11 record during a halftime Christmas parade in 1968.
That was six years after Aronimink Golf Club hosted its last PGA Championship, and though the world has changed much since then, the Philly sports fan has not. With the Wanamaker returning to Aronimink for the first time in 64 years this week, itâs fair to wonder if weâll see the raucous and, at times, regrettable behavior that marred the Ryder Cup last fall. Will the cityâs trademark boos drown out the roars? Or will the Philly faithful, with their rabid allegiances already established, even care? After talking to those who know Philadelphia golf best, however, it seems like the PGA Championship and the City of Brotherly Love might just be a match made in golf heaven.
Enter Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Marcus Hayes. 30 years ago, Hayes moved to Philadelphia from his hometown of Syracuse to cover sports for the Philadelphia Daily News. At first, Hayes largely covered baseball and football, but when the Daily News and Philadelphia Inquirer merged, Hayes found himself immersed in the topsy, turvy world golf. Now itâs not only one of his primary beats, but one his biggest passions too.
âI belong to a local country club and itâs the second local country club that I have belonged to,â says Hayes while returning from an afternoon tee time. âThe last 10 years I've been a member of a club and I've carried a handicap for probably the last 15 years.â
With extensive experience in both Philadelphiaâs franchise sports culture and golf culture, Hayes offers a unique perspective, and as he explains, the average Philly golfer is not what you might expect if youâve ever seen an episode of âAlways Sunny in Philadelphia.â
âPhiladelphia has elite blue blood private clubs like Aronimink, Merion, Philadelphia Cricket Club and Pine Valley [just across the river in New Jersey]. The members there are legacy golfersâa lot of grandfathers, fathers and sons. It's their culture, itâs who they are. Everything sort of revolves around the club.â
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Q&A
Why is the PGA Championship returning to Philadelphia in 2026?
The PGA Championship is returning to Philadelphia's Aronimink Golf Club in 2026 to celebrate its rich sports culture and the event's significance in the area.
What makes Philadelphia's sports culture unique for the PGA Championship?
Philadelphia's sports culture is characterized by fierce loyalty and high expectations, making it a vibrant setting for the PGA Championship.
Who is Marcus Hayes and what is his perspective on golf in Philadelphia?
Marcus Hayes is a Philadelphia Inquirer columnist with extensive experience in both the local sports and golf cultures, offering insights into the expectations of Philly golfers.
What historical significance does Aronimink Golf Club have for the PGA Championship?
Aronimink Golf Club hosted the PGA Championship last in 1962, marking a significant return after 64 years for the prestigious tournament.
Aronimink is an object lesson in architectural evolution. After Donald Ross completed his design in 1928, he proclaimed, âI intended to make this my masterpiece.â That didnât keep club members from bringing in William Gordon in the 1950s to eliminate out-of-play fairway bunkers and move other bunkers closer to greens. The course was later revamped by Dick Wilson, George Fazio and Robert Trent Jones. In the 1990s and into the 2000s, Ron Prichard, one of the professionâs original restoration specialists, began returning Aronimink back to Rossâ conception based on the architectâs drawings and field diagrams. But there was always a discrepancy between what Ross drew in plans and what was actually built in 1928. A more recent renovation by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner, who live nearby, has put the courseâs architecture more in line with what aerial photographs depict of the early design, particularly the bunkering that might have been imagined as larger in scale but built in smaller, more scatter-shot formations. View Course
If you include Pine Valley as part of the broader Philadelphia golf ecosystem, as Hayes does, that makes three Philly-area clubsâalongside Aronimink and Merionâon Golf Digestâs list of Americaâs 100 Greatest. Philadelphia Cricket Club, meanwhile, enjoys a spot on our list of Americaâs Second 100 Greatest. Clearly, Philadelphia's roster of historic golf venues allows it to compete with just about any city on earth, but unlike similar clubs across the Northeast and deep south, Hayes believes that the highest echelons of Philadelphia golf still adhere to the cityâs collaborative ethos.
âI have friends who belong to Cricket. I have friends who belong to Aronimink. That level of club is probably as elite as any in the country as far as quality of golf, but it's not like you can't get in,â Hayes explains.
âThen you've got kind of like the middle-class golf, which is like the second tier of private clubs. There's five like club corp/invited clubs in this area and they're good, solid clubs that pretty much anybody can get in. The initiation fee and dues aren't exorbitant, but the golf is good ⊠So if you want to play private in Philadelphia, you can probably afford it if you're middle-class.â
The public golf options arenât quite as robust, admits Hayes, but they do provide the widest part of the cityâs golf funnel. They are where Phillyâs collage of blue-collar workers, families and hobbyists come together to enjoy the game of golf.
âYou have a pretty decent public golf course scene, but it's not great. Mainly because most of the people in Philadelphia and South Jersey with the money are going to join a private club, so the public golf course scene sort of suffers for that,â
As far as the golfers you can expect to find at cityâs public courses, Hayes likens them to âthe 700 Club at the Vet,â the infamous upper section of the old Philadelphia Veterans Stadium, known for the rowdiest fan behavior.
âIf you're a landscaper, if you're a plumber, if you're a construction worker and you like golf, you're going to be able to find plenty of clubs where you can be in a league on Wednesday or Thursday night and play with your shirt untucked and your hat backwards. There's lots of that, and you're going to have fun, and they're going to cater to you.â
In many ways then, the PGA Championship is not just the perfect major for the city of Philadelphia, but a reflection of it. At one end of the field, there are golfâs elite. The blue chippers like Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler and Jon Rahm, all of whom are expected to be at or near the top of the leaderboard come sundown on Sunday. At the other, there are 20 PGA Professionals from across America; names you wonât recognize who continue to strive and compete for a trophy that, in all likelihood, they cannot win. Hayes describes Philadelphia golf culture as âbifurcated,â a mix of old and new divided by wealth and opportunity. The PGA Championship is much the same. Occasionally, an average Philly golfer scores an invite to Aronimink or Merion, just as a PGA Professional, such as Michael Block at Oak Hill in 2023, gets his moment in the spotlight.
Underdog stories are not exclusive to the PGA Championship, of course. In fact, it can be argued that The Open, not the PGA, provides the most level playing field of the four menâs majors. Still, no major embraces the everyman like the PGA Championship. The Masters is about aura and tradition. The U.S. Open is a test of skill and willpower. The Open is a celebration of golf history. The PGA Championship is the working-class major, something the city of Philadelphia understands on a fundamental level.
How that presents this week remains to be seen. Hayes says anticipation levels, especially amongst the middle tier of Philadelphia golfers who love the game but perhaps havenât had the opportunity to see beyond the gates of Merion and Aronimink, are high. âI know at least three people who are taking days off to watch a practice round,â he claims. Combine that with the fact the Flyers and Sixers were both swept out of the playoffs this week and the Phillies are still languishing below .500, and the runway is clear for the PGA Championship to take off. The only bad news is that the earliest the PGA Championship can return to Philadelphia is 2036, but if things go well this week, perhaps the Wanamaker has finally found a place to call home.
