With this year’s PGA Championship in the rearview, Aronimink is on the clock for 2026

Scottie Scheffler tapped in a seven-inch putt on the 18th green at Quail Hollow two weekends ago in Charlotte, N.C., pocketed his golf ball, then hugged his caddie, Ted Scott. A relatively drama-free Sunday ended with Scheffler’s winning his third major championship by five strokes, and as the world’s No. 1 player stepped off the green, ending the 107th PGA Championship, Aronimink Golf Club was officially on the clock.

Unlike the Philadelphia Cricket Club, where the PGA Tour and its Truist Championship just stopped by in early May, Aronimink is no stranger to the tour. The Donald Ross-designed course on 300 acres in Newtown Square has hosted more PGA events than any course in the area over the last two decades. It twice hosted Tiger Woods and the AT&T National (2010 and 2011), then welcomed the BMW Championship, a FedEx Cup playoff event, in 2018 before hosting the 2020 Women’s PGA Championship.

“We’ve had other events, but this is another level for us that we haven’t experienced in a long, long time,” said Jeff Kiddie, Aronimink’s head golf pro.

Since 1962, to be exact.

That’s when Aronimink last hosted the PGA Championship, which was won by Gary Player. It was also the last time the PGA Championship was in this market, and while Aronimink, like Merion, has seen some of the world’s best players walk its grounds and housed plenty of large galleries since then, the 2026 PGA Championship next May will be, like Kiddie said, a different level of hosting.

Earlier this month, several Aronimink officials spent the week in Charlotte at Quail Hollow. For Mike Lewers, an Aronimink member who is serving as the general chair of the 2026 event, Quail Hollow marked three consecutive years of being at the PGA Championship for a visit. He was at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville last year and at Oak Hill in Rochester, N.Y., one year before.

“Over time, you pick up a lot of insights mostly on things like logistics and infrastructure,” Lewers said. “It’s a little more on the tedious side because you’re looking at how to set up a tournament.

“Basically a tour of the property, front and back office. What you see is a big hospitality suite. What you don’t see is what’s behind it.”

Like where the food is prepped and what is being served. Where the HVAC infrastructure is located. How the parking lots are set up, what the media center looks like, and where to place all of the television trailers that send video feeds to around 500 million households in about 180 countries.

“It’s a big puzzle that you’re putting together, and all the pieces have to fit nicely,” Lewers said.

» READ MORE: Philadelphia fans and Cricket Club shine as Sepp Straka wins the Truist Championship

It was an instructive trip for all, including Aronimink chef John Ferguson and superintendent John Gosselin. Kiddie’s perspective was a bit different as a member of the PGA of America’s rules committee. He served as a rules official during the event, but while he was watching the golf closely, he also had an eye on the future.

“They’re a great event to kind of follow because they have a tour event every year, so they’re kind of a fine-tuned machine for a lot of things as it relates to hospitality and things like that,” Kiddie said.

Quail Hollow, of course, is a regular stop on the PGA Tour, the annual host of the Truist Championship, which chose Cricket as its one-off stop while Quail Hollow prepared to host a major.

Lewers pointed to the food options at Quail Hollow when asked about some of his major takeaways. Modern golf events don’t just feature stands with burgers and hot dogs. Like at the Truist, local delicacies shine. Aronimink will, like Cricket did with Pottstown’s Gazzo’s Steaks, offer cheesesteaks. Pizza, too, and much more.

What other changes might be seen since Aronimink hosted the BMW in 2018? Lewers pointed to ridesharing, which was far less common seven years ago. Spectators could take an Uber or Lyft to Aronimink in 2018, but there wasn’t really a designated place to be dropped off. This time, there will be a rideshare-specific lot on the property off Route 252.

“The experience of getting there is almost as important as the experience of being there,” Lewers said.

» READ MORE: Plan by Aronimink to cut down trees for PGA Tour draws some opposition

There were lessons learned from the Truist’s just being at Cricket, like Philadelphia fans being gaga over big-time golf being here, the golfers loving the classic design, and more. The hosts probably got the memo about stocking up on merchandise, since the merch tent at the Truist was out of stock by Sunday.

Aronimink, which opened in 1928 and was restored by Gil Hanse about 10 years ago, will have a few changes to offer those in the field who played the course in 2018. New tee boxes have increased the length of four holes — Nos. 5, 7, 15, and 18 — and the tee on the 10th hole will be located on the tee box of the first hole, also lengthening the opener of the back nine. Fairways on a half-dozen holes have also been modified to make the driving zones narrower.

Championship week at Quail Hollow brought the golf course under a microscope. Hunter Mahan likened Quail to a Kardashian in an interview with The Athletic. “It’s very modern, beautiful and well-kept,” Mahan said. “But it lacks a soul or character.”

This, a week after some of the PGA Tour’s best golfers fawned over Cricket and A.W. Tillinghast’s design and lamented that the tour rarely stopped by some of the classic, old-school courses the Northeast has to offer.

“Quail is amazing,” Lewers said. “It’s like Augusta in Charlotte. It’s a brute. It’s long. But the way Ross sets up golf courses, it requires a little bit more strategic thinking.”

Kiddie said bringing a major to a classic design is “always special.”

“Nothing against Quail, the golf course is phenomenal,” he said. “It’s a championship golf course like crazy. It’s big, it’s broad, the greens are tough. But there’s something almost nostalgic like you felt at Cricket. When the players go there it just feels special.

“We’re a classic Donald Ross design. The golf course is very, very similar in its design that it was in 1928 when it opened as far as the size of the greens and the bunker complexes. Some of them have been moved to be relevant for today’s play, but largely it’s very similar to how the golf course opened in 1928.

“We feel good that what we have is what Donald Ross intended. … I know they enjoyed it in 2018, and I think they’ll enjoy it even more for a major championship setup. The rough might be a little bit longer and the fairways are a little more narrow and the greens probably a little bit faster.”

Maybe 20-under, the winning score at the BMW in 2018, won’t be as attainable.

The 156-player field, however, will be better and bigger than the one at the Truist since golf’s major championships allow players from the PGA Tour’s rival, LIV, to compete. So Scheffler, barring injury, will be there to defend his title against not only Rory McIlroy, who drew big crowds at Cricket, but also Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm, and Joaquín Niemann, among many others.

Ticket sales weren’t a problem at Cricket, and they won’t be for the larger event at Aronimink. Lewers said he talked to a few people at the PGA of America earlier this week, and registration for tickets for 2026 was outpacing championships of the last three years. Corporate hospitality sales are already at 85% of the goal, Lewers said, and the event is “dramatically oversubscribed with volunteers.”

The 2026 PGA Championship is just one of a handful of events in a major tourism year for the region around the 250th birthday of the United States that includes the World Cup, baseball’s All-Star Game, and the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.

“It’s a great sports town,” Lewers said. “We know that. But it’s also a great golf town with some great courses.”

For the first time since 2013, when Merion hosted the U.S. Open, major championship golf is returning to the region.

“We’re 348 days away from championship week,” Lewers said on Wednesday.

Who’s counting?