The Philly Special π
It's always sunny in PhiladelphiaNEWTOWN SQUARE, PA Once Rory and Akshay faded away on Saturday, I was pulling for Rickie Fowler on Sunday. What a story that would have been, 14 years after his first victory on the PGA TOUR at the same venue. Fowler flushing it out there is a good thing. Rickie still registers high on the popularity meter. When a star is in contention late on a Sunday, there's nothing better than to feel the crowd wake up and push their favorite players. That putt on 16 is where it ended, but in the moment, I really enjoyed the excitement. Speaking of stars, they are out in Philadelphia. The 108th PGA Championship is in the city of Brotherly Love and is being contested at Aronimink Golf Club. Designed by Donald Ross in 1928, the course underwent a comprehensive restoration by Gil Hanse in 2016. Hiring Hanse to update the course is a championship move. I have played AGC a couple of times and always enjoyed my experience. It is a fantastic layout for high-level golf. When I walked out onto the property on Monday, I was blown away by the conditioning. The membership chose to keep the course closed this spring. Since shutting down in November, Aronimink has not seen any play except practice rounds. It looks so good. This is parkland golf at the highest level. The top 38 players in the OWGR are playing for the season's second major championship. The official purse and winner's check will be announced on Friday. The field consists of 156 players, and the top 70 and ties will play the weekend. As with any men's major championship, my Power Rankings are published by Golf Digest. The PGA of America has been here before. Gary Player won the 1962 PGA Championship at AGC. If you are looking for a little closer comp in years, the PGA TOUR played the AT&T National at Aronimink in 2010 and 2011, and the BMW Championship here in 2018. You'll hear a bunch about the BMW as the last event before the PGA Championship. PGA Championship starts in...Stadium courseRoss had an incredible setting to work with at Aronimink. The front nine features a ridgeline, and the back nine dips into a bowl, giving the last few holes a natural stadium effect. The noise on Saturday and Sunday afternoon as the final groups finish will be incredible. AGC is a par 70 layout covering 7,394 yards. The entire property is over 300 acres and displays 180 bunkers. 180! Two holes have water in play, and the fairways are 30 yards wide (on average). The greens are enormous at an average size of 8,200 sq/ft. Covered in beautiful Bentgrass, the guys haven't seen this green agronomy since Augusta National. The 12 par 4s possess an incredible amount of variety in length and topography. A stark contrast to the repetitive long 4s of Quail Hollow, and last year in this championship, the field will have its hands full designing a successful strategy for all 14 of these off the tests. The first tee is one of the greatest opening tee shots in golf. Similar to Riviera, players hit from elevation out onto the par 4 hillside. Of course, Riv is a little more man-made; watching your tee shot soar from that plateau will alter your trajectory perception. For once, the ball falls from the sky, it is never as far up the hill as you had originally thought. I have fielded a ton of questions on the Golf Channel and again with Pat Mayo. Here's a summary of what I have seen on Monday and Tuesday.
The sentiment from the player interview area is to attack the course and be aggressive with the driver. Vegas set the final score over/under line at 12.5 under par. Based upon the practice rounds I have seen and the quality of the golf I have witnessed over the past six weeks, going back to The Masters, I think the winner will be under that score of 267.5. I have been on-site for five of those six weeks. Our card is a mix of the best players of 2026, and some who are starting to peak just in time for the PGA Championship! Read The Line media ‡οΈHow to win?When it comes to winning the PGA Championship, it starts with the putter. Keegan Bradley, Nick Watney, and Justin Rose all won at Aronimink with their flatstick. These green surfaces are extremely challenging, and that's the most difficult part of this test. Are the long par 3s tough too? Yes. But there are only three of those, and this course has at least a dozen insane greens. Kerry Haigh can get creative with some of their hole locations, but overall, most of the slope and undulations determine many of the cup-able spots. Lag or approach putting, speed control, and reading the subtleties are all vital skills for contending. Average putters will need to have a career week to contend. Approach play is all about proximity. The field will hit more than 70% of their GIRs. That's a very high level of accuracy for a field of 156 players. How accurate are they? These greens are twice the size of Pebble Beach and nearly one and a half times bigger than what the players were putting on last week at Quail Hollow. When it comes to iron play, think in terms of proximity to the hole, rather than just hitting GIRs. To have any chance of scoring with your putter, approaches must fall in that 10-20' range. Approximately 45% of those iron shots will be from under 150 yards, even for the medium-length guys. That's just another reason why just looking at who hits the most greens won't give you the winner. Who is hitting their irons closest in that range in March, April, and May of 2026? I mentioned it in the notes, but ball speed will help. Aronimink lacks having any severe penalty off the tee like a TPC Sawgrass or Doral's Blue Monster. With average length rough and tree removal, fire away, boys! Hitting fairways will help, but if you can land in a reasonable rough lie and get 50 yards closer, missing the fairway will not matter as much. Not to mention the two par 5s and 15 will play easier if you drive it 330. Hah, sounds obvious, but not everyone has that level of ball speed, and it is a definite advantage for those who do. This par 70 scorecard has two extra par 4s and 12 in total. One is 546 yards (hole 15), and the 2nd and 13th holes are almost reachable. Aronimink has an amazing array of par 4 challenges. The proven ability to score on the par 4s is another edge I'm focused on. Scottie Scheffler leads the TOUR in par 4 scoring, and he tends to contend. When I looked at the data, I paid special attention to the 400-450 yard range. Seven of the 12 4s are going to fall in that range. Tear those holes up with your scoring irons and putter, and that 15 under par target score starts to become a reality. Walking the property, it looks like 75% of the short game shots outside of the sand and around the green are going to come from long grass lies. Aronimink does not have a ton of closely mown areas, and where it does, the slopes are so severe that the ball tends to run into the longer grass. Don't get me wrong, there are a couple of really good shaved hollows, but for the most part, lies around the green will be in the longer rough. Remember, the rough is not uniform, and some players may even find a reasonable lie around the green when they need to save a par. With 180 bunkers, a little sand acumen will go a long way. Eighty percent of these sandy holes are out of play for a field of this caliber, but those surrounding the green are, and each player will be tested at some point. Players with proven success in the Northeast catch my attention. Whether it is their strategy or comfort with the agronomy, there's a reason why Justin Rose loves Philadelphia. That confidence can lead to more than just contending. Spin and trajectory control will be essential to produce the proximity results we are talking about. The best ball strikers can stop the ball on these firm greens. Miss your impact point by a little, and those shots will run through the putting surface. The elite players on the practice range and in the player interview room do not seem scared. There's a level of intimidation you feel around the range when the guys go to Oakmont or Augusta National. That air of uncertainty when the weather is questionable. I sense none of that this week. Just the best in the world waiting to attack and show off their skills. Of those players, I believe these outrights have the best chance of winning the Wannamaker Trophy. Outright Winners - PGA ChampionshipLPGASecond again...Between the PGA TOUR and LPGA, I have already lost count of the endless number of runner-up finishes we have witnessed in 2026; forget the last year (17 total)! Ruoning Yin and Allisen Corpuz made a run on Sunday, but in the end, Donald Ross and Mountain Ridge won over a full field where only 24 players finished under par. The LPGA now has six different winners in 11 tournaments this season. Remember last year when they had 26 different champions to start the year? Much like the men, repeat winners seem to be a theme for 2026. It's an aggressive play, and one I'm sure was not considered when the schedule was created, but the LPGA is going up against the PGA Championship and taking a step away from the tournament schedule NEXT week. Seriously? The Kroger Queen City Championship presented by P&G ventures to a new venue in Cincinnati, Ohio. A full field of 144 players will compete for $2 million. Just the fifth year for this event, the first four editions had a fall home on the calendar. Now up against a men's major championship, I doubt Kroger is maxing out their marketing opportunity. Nonetheless, the top 65 and ties will play the weekend, competing for a first-place check of $300,000. With just two events left before the US Women's Open, and a week off, seven of the top 10 and 31 of the top 50 players in the Rolex World Rankings are in Ohio. Ross repeatDonald Ross is having a moment in professional golf. Outside of the infinite amount of coverage surrounding the PGA Championship, this is the second week in a row on the LPGA schedule that we see another course from the ultimate Golden Age architect. Maketewah Country Club is the third host venue in five years for this Southwest Ohio event. Our last three winners are a who's who on the LPGA tour: Minjee Lee, Lydia Ko, and Charley Hull. The course is a par 70 measuring 6,423 yards. The region has some rolling hills, and you will see them on the TV coverage. The women will ascend over 380' during the course of one round at Maketewah. Similar to "Mountain" Ridge, Ross was able to use the terrain to enhance the test. Much like the men at Aronimink, the women will have to play from several uneven lies. If you struck it well last week, you are on my radar. That's why players like Jeeno, Allisen, Ruoning, etc. were all at the top of the leaderboard. They strike it solid from any lie. Another aspect of the Ross examination, firm green complexes got the best of the ladies last week, and that same challenge is back again. Crisp contact puts spin on your approach shots, and you'll need it to hold many of these putting surfaces. Like MRCC, there are a couple of uphill green sites. Forty-five bunkers guard those complexes, along with another 21 bunkers the women will face off the tee. That's the only penalty areas on the property, as all 18 holes at MCC are free from water. The course went under the knife of Brian Silva in 2023. An extensive restoration/renovation of the entire layout, Maketewah takes its championship golf seriously, hosting elite regional qualifiers and tournaments annually. Based upon those leaderboards, I believe the course will play a little easier than last week. The Ross test will still be there, but the condition and overall routing are not quite as severe as Mountain Ridge. The LPGA's two titans are taking on MCC and each other. Nelly Korda is the favorite at +250 while Jeeno Thitikul (+800) goes for two wins in as many weeks. Number one and two in the world are competing at the last 72-hole tournament before the US Open. I know the PGA Championship is taking place in Philly, but this should be pretty good in Cincinnati. How to win?Rinse, rewind, and repeat. At the risk of being extremely redundant, Maketewah Country Club is going to play like a poor mans woman's Mountain Ridge. Maketewah's scorecard (par 70) directs us to the par 4s to start this outright conversation. Two extra 4s, and we are featuring the best par 4 players in the field on our card. Couple that with scoring overall. I believe MCC will play a little easier than MRCC. The average par 4 is considerably shorter, and the accuracy demands are not as great off the tee. Strokes gained scoring, and BoB% over bogey avoidance is the lean. Number one and two in the world are here with unbettable odds, so I am not taking them on in the outright market. We have less rough than Mountain Ridge, but more trees. This landlocked layout will still promote accuracy mavens. Length always helps, but much like the Jin Young Ko blueprint from last week, I still want the players who are really good at keeping the ball in play. There will be moments off the tee where length will gain an edge, but those will be too unpredictable. Shorter rough and no penalty areas will allow the ladies to be aggressive. If you miss, you might find a tree, or not, and that's the luck feature. To pick as many contenders as possible, at 6,400 yards, I'll take the fairway finders. When we travel to new venues, you know I am going to grab the best putters. They control speed and read greens better than their competitors. Since all 144 women in the field are rookies, putting prowess will differentiate you. Couple that with Ross greens and that advantage becomes even more significant. We saw it last week at Mountain Ridge and will experience it on both tours this week. The beauty of Ross' 300+ designs is the originality of each design. Donald's false fronts and impeccable bunkering are a calling card of his courses, but let's be honest, Ross was not visiting every work site. His senior shapers and engineers must have put their input into the designs. That's why there are so many styles of Ross courses. These green designs have more movement because the terrain has less slope than West Caldwell, New Jersey, or Newtown Square, Pennsylvania. The greens at MCC are going to be more subtle than MRCC. As such, just another reason why being a better putter will help you. With 45 greenside bunkers, youβd better hit the green! We saw what happened to the world's best women once they started missing GIRs last week. The same will hold this week, Maketewah just presents you with shorter approaches. With a scoring iron in hand more often, a little proximity wouldn't hurt. Due to the lack of rough, I am also taking into account hitting GIRs from the rough. The greens (and the ground in general) are firm. Combining fairway accuracy and GIR acumen is once again the blueprint for more Ross success. We'll add Mountain Ridge to the list, but Sentosa, Shadow Creek, Sharon Heights, and Memorial Park still apply. Compare those leaderboards to last week, and you cannot go wrong. Last week, we saw a ton of scoring volatility. Players would make three, four, and five under par runs, and then finish two under par for the day. We will see some of that again, but not nearly as much. A steady climb up the leaderboard is what is required at Maketewah CC. Par 4s, scoring irons, some greenside bunker play, and precise putting is the DNA of our outright card. I realize nobody is watching the Kroger, and that's okay. Just Read The Line and place those bets. While the men entertain us on another Donald design, the LPGA can reward us for our secondary Ross tickets. Outright Winners - Kroger Queen City ChampionshipRTL Weekly Editorials π°mnbfvghmgv Do you want to be a better bettor?Become a member of Read The Line today!
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