Gary Player's 1962 Mark Returns to Aronimink — Pga Championship 2026 Odds
The pga championship 2026 odds lead points to Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, where the 108th PGA Championship will be played with a field of 156 players. The course brings back a site that last hosted the championship in 1962, and this version sets up as a much tighter test than a simple return to a familiar venue.
Gary Player won that 1962 championship by one stroke over Bob Goalby at Aronimink. This week’s field will face a stock par 70 that can stretch to 7,394 yards, with rough at least 3 inches tall and bentgrass greens that average 8,200 square feet.
Aronimink’s 1962 Echo
Aronimink sits about 15 miles west of downtown Philadelphia, and the championship is back there only once before in the event’s modern run. The last PGA Championship at the club ended with Player edging Goalby, a reminder that Aronimink has already produced a one-shot finish under major pressure.
The venue is a Donald Ross design, and its setup has changed since the 2018 BMW Championship. The restoration project introduced 102 new bunkers ahead of that event, and four more bunkers were added eight years later, bringing the total to 180.
Length, Rough, and Greens
The course can play 127 yards longer than it did for the 2018 BMW Championship. That extra length, combined with the 3-inch rough, puts a premium on keeping the ball in play before the field reaches those 8,200-square-foot greens.
Pleasant conditions are expected throughout the PGA Championship, but the opening stretch will begin in cool, cloudy weather with winds from prevailing westerly directions. That should keep the scorecard honest from the start, especially for a 156-player major field spread across a long par 70.
Player and Goalby at Aronimink
Player’s 1-stroke victory in 1962 gives this week’s return a clean historical marker. Goalby’s runner-up finish is part of the venue’s championship memory, and the course now gets another chance to decide a major without the storm disruption that hit it in 2018.
For golfers in the field, the task is straightforward: manage the length, avoid the bunkers, and handle greens that are large enough to reward precision but unforgiving when the approach is off. Aronimink has already shown it can produce a narrow finish, and the setup suggests this edition will ask the same questions in front of the full 156-player field.
