7 early observations from Aronimink and the PGA Championship

Newton Square, Pa. – If one were to rank the seven days of a major championship week, the weekend race days are definitely the first. This is when golf matters. But when it comes to non-tournament days – Tuesday is filled with press conferences and Wednesday is the last hurdle for golf that matters – Monday is a surprising favorite. It is characterized by advents, innovation and predictive energy. All of this makes a Monday evening walk around the property one of the most enjoyable times of the week, especially if Mother Nature plays along.

This week, we got our first look Aronimink during a sunny walk with Dustin Johnson and Thomas Detry. Below are some early observations from that trip and the 24 hours that followed.

1. The main reason for this will be a proper championship

If you want a compelling test of championship golf, it all starts with the greens.

Fried Egg’s Andy Johnson told me this once, and it has crystallized pro golf tournaments ever since. It’s not about the tee shots, the width of the fairways, the thickness of the rough or even the firmness of the fairways and how they send balls into the bunkers. All of these things are just window dressing to the core of what matters: the greens. If the putting surfaces are hard and challenging, they determine so much about every other decision between the players and their teams. Bunker shots, fairway shots, approaches from the rough, from behind a tree, from a tee box, etc. Good impact of greenery everythingand every Aronimink conversation seems to turn to green.

Donald Ross designed this golf course long before Gil Hanse and Co. recently renovated, but he seemed to understand the importance of greens as the main challenge of a golf hole. In Pinehurst no. 2, his most famous design, the greens are turtle-shaped, with players afraid of falling off the edge. In Aronimink, there are some of these, but more of an understanding of complexes as whole structures – the way a company’s headquarters is also a complex, all connected but with different subsections.

Take the 14th, for example, a long par 3 with a back-right hole that is difficult to access. Players will be excited to get to the center of this tee off the tee. But from that center green, Detry ran a putt past the hole and off the green. Clearly shaken, he threw another ball and hit a softer putt. It also rolled off the green.

There’s an equally hard-to-reach section of the 11th green, too, on its left side. From the center green, Johnson and Detry walked away from the checkered flag to the green curtain. Anything less than that was rolling as well. It just takes a lot of clear thinking to find the right spots on the greens on different days, and while we won’t see pins like the above at the start of the championship, they are there and available to the PGA of America, likely over the weekend after they’ve trimmed the field.

2. The best view (is not) in the house

A dark, temporary fence has been erected around the property, closing off the golf course to Aronimink’s (presumably wealthy) neighbors who can normally view the course from their backyard. One such neighbor — who lives along the short, par-4 13th — is ahead of the game, building a platform of their own over the fence, tall enough to overlook most of the entire property. It will offer the best and most comprehensive view of the PGA Championship, and I’m not sure it’s close.

From the deck, where a trio of high schoolers hung out Monday night, you can see the entirety of the 13th drive and a view from above the 14th tee. You can look through the trees and see the players making shots on the 11th, 12th and 15th greens, and with a pair of binoculars, you can see the same thing on the 8th and 10th greens. This private view will cost its viewers nothing, of course… other than the millions invested in purchasing the property in the first place.

3. Variety of Aronimink

On paper, Aronimink might seem a little cookie-cutter. His first four holes are all par 4s between 413 and 457 yards. But as the photos above hopefully suggest, going through those holes means sliding along the edge of (and eventually falling into) a central valley. And with a course that’s as spread out as can be—out, back, some more, across, through some more, back, then in—the natural contours of that valley mean that successive approach shots from the same distance are nothing alike.

It may seem oversimplified, but Aronimink creates variations on consecutive holes to the extent that players will never be on autopilot. They can hit the driver almost anywhere, as Rory McIlroy suggested on Tuesday morningbut if the greens are as difficult as they predict they will be, sorting out where those drivers end up will be a frustrating battle in itself.

4. Bryson’s ratings?

Among the topics that “Live From the PGA Championship” enthusiastically addressed Monday night was the hypothetical push that Bryson DeChambeau would offer the PGA Tour in a world where he returned. One of the panelists suggested that since he didn’t bring significant reviews to LIV Golf, most of what he has to offer is through YouTube views.

We’ll never know for sure until he makes that hypothetical a reality, but you can really see his power in person, and I was reminded of it on Monday night. Honestly, the Live From panelists could have seen it for themselves — Paul McGinley and Brandel Chamblee sat in their Golf Channel tower as DeChambeau played the 17th and 18th holes right below them.

DeChambeau enjoys a Monday afternoon stroll around the majors, and he was playing on the back 9, flying his driver 30 yards ahead of Scioto club Jared Jones. There couldn’t have been more than 1,000 spectators still on the property, and half of them had to follow DeChambeau. Perhaps this is not surprising, but it is through this crowd that you can see his value personified. None of the shots matter, there’s no other content in the group, it’s Monday night at dinner and the fans in the country want to see it. I don’t care if that didn’t work in LIV’s favor or on FOX – it would work on the PGA Tour in a demonstrable way. Big weeks – like the 2024 US Open, or even the 2024 PGA Championship – have proven that.

5. Bravo for the rhythm

I find it extremely enjoyable when spectators can stand in one place and see so much more than just one shot, which is what makes properties like Aronimink so enjoyable. You don’t need to build your own platform (like the one mentioned above); you just have to be choosy about where you stand.

The only problem is that, on these centuries-old courses, the modern pro game has begun to force the courses to eat themselves, needing to extend holes but having no ground to walk again. Look no further than the 10th tee, which is backed up so much it has to use the farthest stretch of the 1st tee. In the image below, the first hole moves forward, up and to the right, while the 10th hole crosses the picture (and the first tee) directly to the right.

This will almost certainly cause problems with the pace of play on Thursday and Friday, especially with some rain in the forecast. But it is not entirely new. At the 2022 PGA Championship at Southern Hills, rigid property boundaries meant that any extension would require tee boxes located just off the greens and cross holes as well. The 18th green at Aronimink is just steps away from the 17th green, a par-3, meaning approach shots and tee shots from the 17th will factor into when players feel comfortable teeing off on the 18th, adding seconds and minutes to the pace of rounds. Moving the pace of play trap from 17 to 18, for players starting on the 10th, will push them to that difficult first tee for their second nine. In other words, I’ll be shocked if Thursday and Friday don’t feel very slow at some point.

6. Rory talkative

My, what can a year bring. Twelve months ago, Rory McIlroy was fresh off a Masters win and uninterested in talking about much to the golf media. It was really strange, she llasted more than a month and I’m not sure we ever gained an explanation for it. But today? McIlroy sat down for a 19-minute press conference, went out for a meeting with ESPN, then some time with other TV rights holders, some formal chats with the Irish media, then some informal chats with the Irish media, then some friendly chats about who knows what with more types of media, just outside the press conference tent.

In all, McIlroy spent 90 minutes chatting with members of the media, producers and communications staff before continuing with his Tuesday, and at one point was so happy that his laughter was distracting from Jon Rahm’s press conference that followed. This is kind of small, esoteric and navel-gazing information, but hey, it’s a very different mood that he’s bringing to this championship than he did a year ago.

7. Daniel Summerhays Rule

It was 10 years ago that, on the Wednesday afternoon before the PGA Championship, I watched Daniel Summerhays hit hook after hook on the Baltusrol driving range. It was as late as it got on the eve of that week’s main match and it was as clear as Summerhays, then the 89th player in the world, was looking for. If anyone was a sure bet to miss the cut – I thought to myself – it was him.

Of course, Summerhays shot 70-67-67-66 to finish tied for third that week, the best performance of his life and the best reminder to me that 1.) These guys are good and 2.) What you see isn’t always what you get. And with that, I’d like to talk briefly about Dustin Johnson.

Johnson is by no means a betting favorite this weekbut he is a two-time major winner. He is playing by special invitation and is, according to DataGolf, the 117th player in the world. He’s past his prime, but he’s still a popular name and will no doubt fill the daily fantasy lineups for many DraftKings sufferers…

… but he could NO hit his driver on Monday. Johnson hit multiple tee shots on each hole, repeatedly blocking his drives to the right. He even swapped out his TaylorMade driver for a different offering from time to time, clashing with the club that was his greatest asset at the height of his powers. Again and again, the same misery returned. When a shadow bothered him, the same lady even appeared with his 3 trees.

All of which makes me wonder… will Johnson do what he did on Monday, which was the kind of golf that would equate to something worse than a 75? Or will the Daniel Summerhays Rule apply and serve as yet another reminder that practice is just practice and observers know so little about what’s really going on with these guys.

We will find out in a few days.