5 Things to Know About the 2026 PGA Championship

The PGA Championship always carries a different kind of energy. Maybe that is because it is golf’s only all-professional major, or maybe it is because the field always feels brutally deep. This year, that spotlight falls on Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, where the championship returns for the first time since 1962.

That matters more than people realize.

The Masters has its traditions. The U.S. Open has its survival test. The Open has its linksy unpredictability. But the PGA Championship remains the one major built entirely around professionals, from the biggest stars in the game to the PGA of America Golf Professionals who earn their way in. That blend gives the week a personality all its own.

For golf fans, that means you are not just watching the elite. You are also seeing what makes this championship unique: the chance for club pros, teachers and working PGA Members to stand on the same tee as the game’s biggest names. As a PGA Professional myself, I think that is one of the coolest parts of the entire week.

Take an inside look at the action with the PGA Championship Range Show Powered by T-Mobile live from the practice range Wednesday through Sunday from noon to 2:30 p.m. ET on the official PGA Championship YouTube channel.

Aronimink has history, and it has teeth.

The club dates to 1896. Donald Ross designed the course at its Newtown Square site after the club acquired 300 acres there in 1926, and the Ross layout opened in 1928. It was later restored by Gil Hanse, which is part of why the course now feels both classic and current.

That matters because great championship venues do not just challenge players physically. They ask questions. Aronimink looks like the kind of course that will reward players who think clearly, shape shots with intent and stay patient when birdies do not come easily.

The current field list tells the story.

This year’s championship field features 15 PGA Champions, 29 major champions and 20 PGA of America Golf Professionals representing the Corebridge Financial Team. Jesse Droemer leads that group after winning the 2026 PGA Professional Championship.

That is what gives the PGA Championship its bite every year. There are very few easy draws, very few breathers and almost no stretches where a player can coast. If you win this one, you have gone through a real test.

On paper alone, Aronimink sounds like a major-championship exam.

The course is a par 70 playing 7,400 yards, with Penn A-1/A-4 bentgrass greens, Tall Fescue/Poa Annua rough at 3.25 inches, 180 bunkers, average landing areas of 30 yards and greens averaging 8,200 square feet. Ross designed Aronimink to deliver what the club itself calls the “supreme test” of exceptional long-iron play.

That tells me this is not just a bomber’s week or a wedge-and-putt week either. Players will need to drive it with discipline, control their trajectories into greens and manage misses intelligently. That is usually a recipe for a very worthy champion.

Aronimink is not new to big moments.

Gary Player won the 1962 PGA Championship here, and the club has also hosted the U.S. Amateur, the Senior PGA Championship (won by John Jacobs) and the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship (won by Sei Young Kim). In fact, Aronimink became the first venue to stage each of the PGA of America’s three rotating major championships.

That kind of history gives the place extra gravitas. It also reminds us that major venues are supposed to feel earned. They are supposed to have a pulse. Aronimink certainly seems to.

The biggest thing to know this week is simple: this championship should have everything. A world-class field. A proper major test. A meaningful connection to PGA of America professionals. And a venue that looks capable of producing a Sunday that feels every bit as important as it should.