NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. — Let’s start with the positive: Rory McIlroy likes the greens here.
“It should be a bit drier, which really brings out the character of the greens. The greens seem to be the big defense and the big talking point of the golf course,” McIlroy said.
He was speaking ahead of the PGA Championship, held this year at Aronimink Golf Club, an old-school Donald Ross course just north of Philadelphia. And he was referencing the last time the Tour stopped here, at the 2018 BMW Championship, when it was wet. Really wet. They’re praying against rain this week in the hopes of preserving its trickiness and its charm.
“I don’t know if I’d forgotten or the course didn’t play this way, but if you get yourself above the hole or you start to short-side yourself, you can get yourself in some tricky spots,” McIlroy continued.
In fact, there’s plenty that the World No. 2 likes about Aronimink, which is hosting its first men’s major in 64 years.
“I like the style of golf. I like the bunkering,” he said. “I think it provides quite a nice bit of variety with shorter par-4s, a couple of longer par-4s. The par-3s, there’s three pretty long ones and a shorter one.”
But when he said the greens are the “big defense” that hinted at his overarching point: that its other defenses no longer exist. Even as it has been lengthened, Aronimink is just one of countless Golden-Age country clubs that pros can now overpower. And as the debate around a golf-ball rollback continues, McIlroy and others average 320+ yards off the tee. As a result, the decision to pare back trees leaves courses that much more vulnerable to an aggressive aerial assault. That’s where McIlroy spoke his mind.
“I think in this day and age, I’m not sure if it’s going to test all aspects of your bag,” McIlroy said. “Strategy off the tee is pretty nonexistent.
“It’s basically bash driver down there and then figure it out from there, which I think is a lot of these newly renovated — I think about Oak Hill in 2023, here… when these traditional golf courses take a lot of trees out, it makes strategy not as much of a concern off the tee.”
McIlroy’s Oak Hill reference was to the PGA Championship host site, which underwent a restoration ahead of the 2023 tournament. As with many modern restorations, Oak Hill’s facelift came with plenty of tree elimination. Andrew Green was the architect in charge there; Green has also stewarded the new vision for Tour Championship host East Lake as well as future PGA and USGA championship sites like Congressional, Inverness, Interlachen and more.
Even Green’s lengthy resume is dwarfed by that of Hanse, who seems to have his hand in every other major championship site, including U.S. Open hosts (The Country Club in 2022, LACC in 2023, Oakmont in 2025, Winged Foot in 2028, Merion in 2030, Oakland Hills in 2034, and so on) and PGA sites (2022 at Southern Hills, Aronimink this year, PGA Frisco, Baltusrol and more in the future). Both Green and Hanse are considered top-tier in their profession. And by now top pros are plenty familiar with their work.
But some still aren’t sure what to make of it.
“I don’t know about it,” admitted Jon Rahm. “I’ve been making this joke for the last few years where I see a lot of golf courses coming in saying, ‘Look, 100 years ago, this golf course was like this, there were no trees.’ I’m like, well, in the back of my mind, they planted those trees with the future vision of having those trees in play, and now you’re taking them all out?”
Rahm added that he sees both sides of the debate and understands the benefits that come with tree-trimming — more light, more space, better conditioning and so on — but agreed Aronimink calls for driver.
“It does seem like it would let you be able to be more aggressive off the tees. There’s quite a few lengthy holes out there,” Rahm said. “Also, the game has shifted a bit that way nowadays.”
Back to McIlroy, then. And back to the main event.
“The greens are the main focus this week, and I think getting yourself in the right sections of the greens, making sure you leave yourself below the hole for the most part. That’s the key this week,” he said.
“I don’t know the place that well to give you a great answer on what I like about it, but Philadelphia’s a wonderful golfing city, a lot of great golf courses, and this is certainly one of them.”
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