Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler blast 'absurd' PGA Championship setup at Aronimink

What did Scottie Scheffler say about Aronimink?

Scheffler wasn't a fan of the hole locations at Aronimink on Friday, calling it "the hardest set of pin locations" he's seen since he joined the PGA Tour.

"Most of the pins today were kind of absurd. I was a bit surprised how far they pushed a lot of these pin locations," Scheffler said. "It's difficult to get the ball close to the hole. It's difficult to hole putts, especially when you have big slopes and wind, and I think that's why you see the scores so close to par."

Scheffler explained that he "loves" hard tests in golf but believed Aronimink took it a bit too far. "It's also hardest game in the world and we're trying to make it harder," he said.

The 14th hole, where he still made par, gave Scheffler particular trouble. "That was one of the craziest pins I've seen," Scheffler said. "They put the pin on like this microphone, like it was just like a high point. I hadn't seen anything like it."

Scheffler shot a 71 on Friday, finishing 1-over par for the day after a 67 on Thursday. He sits two shots off the lead entering Saturday.

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What did Rory McIlroy say about Aronimink?

McIlroy said the bunched up leaderboard entering the weekend was "a sign of not a great setup" at Aronimink.

"It hasn't really enabled anyone to separate themselves," McIlroy told reporters after finishing his round on Friday. "It's easy to make a ton of pars, hard to make birdies, and not that it's hard to make bogey, but it feels like bogey's the worst score you're going to shoot on any one hole."

After those comments, McIlroy backtracked a bit and said the setup was "fine," but he explained that an ideal setup would create more separation on the leaderboard. "I've always felt like really good setups, it starts to spread the field a bit."

McIlroy didn't necessarily criticize the course for being too tough, but rather too predictable with little chance of anything worse than a bogey at a given hole. The reigning Masters champion struggled with six bogeys on his way to a 74 on Thursday, but he still comfortably made the cut with a much cleaner day on Friday.

Still, McIlroy finds himself five strokes off the lead and tied for 30th with two rounds to go.