{"id":191297,"date":"2026-05-13T15:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T15:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/191297\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T15:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T15:10:09","slug":"pga-championship-2026-why-this-major-is-the-perfect-fit-for-philadelphias-everyman-sports-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/191297\/","title":{"rendered":"PGA Championship 2026: Why this major is the perfect fit for Philadelphia\u2019s everyman sports culture"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Philadelphia sports fan needs no introduction. Eagles, Flyers, Phillies, Sixers. Pick any Philly fanbase, and you\u2019ll find the same thing\u2014fierce loyalty \u2026 and fierce expectations. Just ask poor ol\u2019 Saint Nick, who Eagles fans infamously bombarded with snowballs<\/a> in protest of the Birds\u2019 lowly 2-11 record during a halftime Christmas parade in 1968.<\/p>\n

That was six years after Aronimink Golf Club hosted its last PGA Championship, and though the world has changed much since then, the Philly sports fan has not. With the Wanamaker returning to Aronimink for the first time in 64 years this week, it\u2019s fair to wonder if we\u2019ll see the raucous and, at times, regrettable behavior that marred the Ryder Cup last fall. Will the city\u2019s trademark boos drown out the roars? Or will the Philly faithful, with their rabid allegiances already established, even care? After talking to those who know Philadelphia golf best, however, it seems like the PGA Championship and the City of Brotherly Love might just be a match made in golf heaven.<\/p>\n

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Enter Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Marcus Hayes. Thirty years ago, Hayes moved to Philadelphia from his hometown of Syracuse to cover sports for the Philadelphia Daily News. At first, Hayes largely covered baseball and football, but when the Daily News and Philadelphia Inquirer merged, Hayes found himself immersed in the topsy, turvy world golf. Now it\u2019s not only one of his primary beats, but one his biggest passions too.<\/p>\n

\u201cI belong to a local country club and it\u2019s the second local country club that I have belonged to,\u201d says Hayes while returning from an afternoon tee time. \u201cThe last 10 years I’ve been a member of a club and I’ve carried a handicap for probably the last 15 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

With extensive experience in both Philadelphia\u2019s franchise sports culture and golf culture, Hayes offers a unique perspective, and as he explains, the average Philly golfer is not what you might expect if you\u2019ve ever seen an episode of \u2018Always Sunny in Philadelphia.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cPhiladelphia has elite blue blood private clubs like Aronimink, Merion<\/a>, Philadelphia Cricket Club<\/a> and Pine Valley [just across the river in New Jersey]. The members there are legacy golfers\u2014a lot of grandfathers, fathers and sons. It’s their culture, it\u2019s who they are. Everything sort of revolves around the club.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Aronimink<\/p>\n

Aronimink Golf Club 11<\/p>\n

Donald Ross’ creative bunkering seen at Aronimink’s 11th hole.<\/p>\n

Russell Kirk<\/p>\n

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Aronimink Golf Club 18<\/p>\n

Aronimink’s home hole.<\/p>\n

Russell Kirk<\/p>\n

Previous Next Pause Play false Private Aronimink Golf Club<\/a> Newtown Square, PA 4.5 35 Panelists<\/p>\n

Aronimink is an object lesson in architectural evolution. After Donald Ross completed his design in 1928, he proclaimed, \u201cI intended to make this my masterpiece.\u201d That didn\u2019t keep club members from bringing in William Gordon in the 1950s to eliminate out-of-play fairway bunkers and move other bunkers closer to greens. The course was later revamped by Dick Wilson, George Fazio and Robert Trent Jones. In the 1990s and into the 2000s, Ron Prichard, one of the profession\u2019s original restoration specialists, began returning Aronimink back to Ross\u2019 conception based on the architect\u2019s drawings and field diagrams. But there was always a discrepancy between what Ross drew in plans and what was actually built in 1928. A more recent renovation by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner, who live nearby, has put the course\u2019s architecture more in line with what aerial photographs depict of the early design, particularly the bunkering that might have been imagined as larger in scale but built in smaller, more scatter-shot formations. View Course <\/a><\/p>\n

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RELATED: Your vibes-only guide to the 2026 PGA Championship contenders<\/a><\/p>\n

If you include Pine Valley as part of the broader Philadelphia golf ecosystem, as Hayes does, that makes three Philly-area clubs\u2014alongside Aronimink and Merion\u2014on Golf Digest\u2019s list of America\u2019s 100 Greatest<\/a>. Philadelphia Cricket Club, meanwhile, enjoys a spot on our list of America\u2019s Second 100 Greatest<\/a>. Clearly, Philadelphia’s roster of historic golf venues allows it to compete with just about any city, but unlike similar clubs across the Northeast and deep south, Hayes believes that the highest echelons of Philadelphia golf still adhere to the city\u2019s collaborative ethos.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have friends who belong to Cricket. I have friends who belong to Aronimink. That level of club is probably as elite as any in the country as far as quality of golf, but it’s not like you can’t get in,\u201d Hayes explains.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen you’ve got kind of like the middle-class golf, which is like the second tier of private clubs. There’s five like club corp\/invited clubs in this area and they’re good, solid clubs that pretty much anybody can get in. The initiation fee and dues aren’t exorbitant, but the golf is good \u2026 So if you want to play private in Philadelphia, you can probably afford it if you’re middle-class.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The public golf options aren\u2019t quite as robust, admits Hayes, but they do provide the widest part of the city\u2019s golf funnel. They are where Philly\u2019s collage of blue-collar workers, families and hobbyists come together to enjoy the game of golf.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have a pretty decent public golf course scene, but it’s not great. Mainly because most of the people in Philadelphia and South Jersey with the money are going to join a private club, so the public golf course scene sort of suffers for that,\u201d<\/p>\n

As far as the golfers you can expect to find at city\u2019s public courses, Hayes likens them to \u201cthe 700 Club at the Vet,\u201d the infamous upper section of the old Philadelphia Veterans Stadium, known for the rowdiest fan behavior.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you’re a landscaper, if you’re a plumber, if you’re a construction worker and you like golf, you’re going to be able to find plenty of clubs where you can be in a league on Wednesday or Thursday night and play with your shirt untucked and your hat backwards. There’s lots of that, and you’re going to have fun, and they’re going to cater to you.\u201d<\/p>\n

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RELATED: Aronimink executive chef reveals Scottie Scheffler’s PGA Champions Dinner menu<\/a><\/p>\n

In many ways then, the PGA Championship is not just the perfect major for Philadelphia, but a reflection of it. At one end of the field, there are golf\u2019s elite. The blue chippers like Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler and Jon Rahm, all of whom are expected to be at or near the top of the leaderboard come Sunday. At the other, there are 20 PGA professionals from across America; names you won\u2019t recognize who continue to strive and compete for a trophy that, in all likelihood, they cannot win. Hayes describes Philadelphia golf culture as \u201cbifurcated,\u201d a mix of old and new divided by wealth and opportunity. The PGA Championship is much the same. Occasionally, an average Philly golfer scores an invite to Aronimink or Merion, just as a PGA professional, such as Michael Block at Oak Hill in 2023, gets his moment in the spotlight.<\/p>\n

Underdog stories are not exclusive to the PGA Championship, of course. In fact, it can be argued that the British Open, not the PGA, provides the most level playing field of the four men\u2019s majors. Still, no major embraces the everyman like the PGA Championship. The Masters is about aura and tradition. The U.S. Open is a test of skill and willpower. The Open is a celebration of golf history. The PGA Championship is the working-class major, something Philadelphia understands on a fundamental level.<\/p>\n

How that presents this week remains to be seen. Hayes says anticipation levels, especially amongst the middle tier of Philadelphia golfers who love the game but perhaps haven\u2019t had the opportunity to see beyond the gates of Merion and Aronimink, are high. \u201cI know at least three people who are taking days off to watch a practice round,\u201d he claims. Combine that with the fact the Flyers and Sixers were both swept out of the playoffs this week and the Phillies are still languishing below .500, and the runway is clear for the PGA Championship to take off. The only bad news is that the earliest the PGA Championship can return to Philadelphia is 2036, but if things go well this week, perhaps the Wanamaker has finally found a place to call home.<\/p>\n

RELATED: Michael Block has amazing message ‘for all the haters’ after qualifying for PGA Championship yet again<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Philadelphia sports fan needs no introduction. Eagles, Flyers, Phillies, Sixers. Pick any Philly fanbase, and you\u2019ll find…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191298,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[83896,84425,85186,68060,69,83900,71,35529,70,8740,7625,8401],"class_list":["post-191297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-aronimink-golf-club","tag-donald-ross","tag-marcus-hayes","tag-pga-championship","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-cricket-club","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-inquirer","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-phillies","tag-philly","tag-sixers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}