The 108th PGA Championship will be played this week at Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, a course just 15 miles west of downtown Philadelphia that is set up to demand both power and precision. The field is 156 players, and Aronimink can play as a par 70 at 7,394 yards.

The last time the PGA Championship came to Aronimink was 1962, when Gary Player beat Bob Goalby by one stroke. This time, the setup is different, but the expectation is familiar: the winner will have to handle a course built to expose mistakes.

That case starts with the numbers. Aronimink is 127 yards longer than it was for the 2018 BMW Championship setup, has 102 new bunkers for a total of 180, rough that is at least 3 inches tall and bentgrass greens that average 8,200 square feet. Pleasant conditions are expected throughout the championship, which should remove weather from the equation and leave the golf course itself to decide the outcome.

Aronimink was restored ahead of the 2018 BMW Championship in a project led by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner, and the course was presented then as a stern championship test. It still was not immune to the weather. A tropical storm forced that event to finish on Monday, a reminder that even a carefully prepared layout can be altered by what happens above it.

The friction this week is not in the forecast. It is in the architecture. With 180 bunkers, many placed near landing areas, Aronimink rewards players who can control both direction and distance. That is why the pga championship 2026 odds conversation centers on more than raw length. The players who can hit the right spots, avoid deep rough and manage those large greens should be the ones still standing late on Sunday.

For Aronimink, this is a return to golf’s major stage after more than six decades away. For the field, it is a week that should sort power from precision and contender from pretender in a hurry.