The 108th PGA Championship opened its media week Monday at Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, with Jordan Spieth offering the clearest version yet of what he wants this week to mean. If he gets one more win in his career, Spieth said, he wants it to be the PGA Championship.
“If I can win one more tournament in my life, it would obviously be this one for that reason,” Spieth said at the podium ahead of the opening round. The 32-year-old added that the simplest path is to stop chasing the trophy in his mind and instead focus on the first tee shot: “But the easiest way to do that is to not try to, in a weird way, you know. Just go out and get ready for the first hole, get a good game plan in and attack it the way it needs to be attacked.”
That answer landed on a day when the names most likely to shape the week were all due to speak at Aronimink, including Rory McIlroy, Cameron Young, Xander Schauffele, Spieth and defending champion Scottie Scheffler. The course itself has a recent memory of elite golf: the last time the Donald Ross design hosted the PGA TOUR’s best was the 2018 BMW Championship, which Keegan Bradley won.
Bradley’s return to that ground carries its own history. He won the PGA Championship in his rookie season in 2011, and later said of his 2018 BMW triumph at Aronimink, “I was in a really, really dark place with my putter, and this was the first glimmer of hope that I had.” He also said the event stands apart because “I think what separates the PGA to other majors is they have no agenda at this tournament.”
Spieth arrives with a case for optimism that goes beyond words. He led the field in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee at the Truist Championship last week, a stat line that offers some proof his driver is giving him something to build on. That matters because the 32-year-old is still pursuing the career Grand Slam at the PGA Championship, the one major title that would complete a rare set.
The shape of the week is straightforward enough. Scheffler is back as the man to beat, Spieth is chasing the one championship he says he would want most, and Aronimink is again hosting golf’s best on a course built for pressure. The question now is whether Spieth’s calm plan can survive the first tee shot, and whether that is enough to turn another major week into the one he has been chasing.
