Let Freedom Swing; PGA Championship Preview

Tournament Overview

Location: Newtown Square, PA

Course: Aronimink Golf Club

Par: 70

Yardage: 7,394 yards

If you want a full course preview, I would humbly suggest that you head over to the hole-by-hole preview that I did on our Center Cup podcast.

Here, I will be a bit briefer.

With a par of 70 and a yardage edging close to 7,400 yards, Aronimink leans heavily on par 4s. There are just two par 5s, one on the front and back nines, and four par 3s to go along with the course’s 12 par 4s.

While those holes do carry variability in structure and approach, there is not much fluctuation in length. Only two of the par-4 holes measure longer than 475 yards, and both of those come in the final four holes. 

Regardless of whether a player starts on the front or back nine, they will be greeted by four consecutive par 4s to start their PGA Championship. Should it be on the front nine, each will measure between 410 and 460 yards. In modern golf and with today’s technology, they will likely play as a driver off the tee, followed by a wedge or short iron to the green.

The back nine’s opening holes have a bit more variation, as the 13th hole (the fourth on the back nine) measures at just 385 yards. A new tee box has been installed that will allow the hole to be drivable on a given day, and an out-of-bounds area left of the green provides a bit of risk vs. reward. 

Even so, holes 10, 11, and 12 each measure between 425 and 475 yards. Once again, a driver followed by a comfortable wedge or short iron should be sufficient. Stop me if I’m sounding repetitive.

It also seems that the rough has not been grown to truly penalizing lengths, as golf fans are likely used to seeing at U.S. Opens. Aronimink will likely play to the advantage of those willing to pull their driver on every hole that isn’t a par 3, and it may not involve a whole lot more strategy than that.

Rory McIlroy, reigning Masters champion twice over, did not mince words when asked about what his approach would be at this year’s PGA Championship.

Aronimink’s defense lies in its massive, undulating greens. To succeed here, mastering the lag putt will be integral. The multi-tiered, uniquely expansive surfaces will reward every errant iron shot with a difficult two-putt and a potential for much worse.

Despite that challenge, though, Aronimink seems destined to enter the record books as another PGA Championship defined by low scores. While some might call that a bad thing, I would argue that birdie-fests have their place in professional golf. 

And however you might feel about it, this week’s PGA Championship also feels set to bring us an exciting, star-studded leaderboard come Sunday afternoon.

Players to Watch

With all that said about the course, why not talk about who that actually fits?

To reiterate the previous section in much briefer terms, players with great distance off the tee, superior wedge and short-iron play, and excellent, controlled putting will likely be at the greatest advantage this week.

It should be noted that distance will likely not be the be-all and end-all. Accuracy, of course, will also be rewarded, to the extent that players are able to then take advantage of it with positive approach play.

The Pick: Cameron Young (+1475)

I’ll be honest, I locked myself into this one in January. Cameron Young was someone I locked on to early this year as a potential breakout candidate, and I won’t be changing my tune now (once again, go check out Center Cup’s first episode for that segment). 

The good news is that the take has aged absolutely wonderfully. Like fine wine. Whether you think Young is the first, second, third, or fourth best player in the world, it would be hard to argue that he’s unlikely to be in contention this week. 

He combines length and accuracy off the tee with some of the most elite approach play on the PGA Tour. His putter, which was once a weakness in his game, has developed into a strength.

He is coming off one of the worst putting performances imaginable, losing over five strokes to the field in just the fourth round of the Truist Championship, but he’s put enough on his resume for me to warily turn a blind eye to that fact.

Young’s last seven events on the PGA Tour, which date back to The Genesis Invitational in February, feature two wins (the PLAYERS Championship and the Cadillac Championship) along with four other top-10 finishes. 

The only blemish, if you can even call it that, during that stretch is a tie for 23rd place at the RBC Heritage. And that came after playing in the final pairing and finishing in a tie for third at the Masters. 

The Mulligan: Scottie Scheffler (+385)

I know, I know, it’s boring. But I’m supposed to try to pick the winner! As much as it pains me not to get a bit more adventurous here, it’s hard to ignore the elephant in the room. And in this case, that elephant is perhaps the best golfer to grace the PGA Tour since Tiger Woods.

We’ve come to expect a lot of Scottie Scheffler, which is perhaps why a season featuring one win and five other top-4 finishes in just nine starts has felt a bit underwhelming. But then you re-read that sentence, and realize how ridiculous that is.

Scheffler is coming off three consecutive solo-2nd place finishes at the Masters, RBC Heritage, and Cadillac Championship. Each of those losses came at the hands of the players currently ranked No. 2, No. 3, and No. 4 in the world (per the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR)).

But would you say now, looking back, that Scheffler’s 2025 season was underwhelming? Of course you wouldn’t. He finished that season with six wins, including major championship victories at the PGA Championship and the Open Championship.

Interestingly, Scheffler’s start in 2025 was a lot like the one he’s had this year. You could even argue that it was slightly worse on the margins. 

Discounting his potential to add another Wanamaker Trophy to his bookcase this week simply because he’s only won once thus far in 2026 feels like it might be a fool’s errand. And I refuse to be that fool.

With all that said, Scheffler is (of course) also a great course fit at Aronimink. That tends to happen when you are elite at all aspects of the game. Like Young, he is a long, accurate driver with perhaps the best iron play we’ve seen in a decade. 

If you wanted to find a thread to pull on to unravel the case for Scheffler this week, you might say that he occasionally loses consistency on the greens. And while that is true, it’s pretty easily countered by the fact that despite poor putting at the Cadillac Championship (his second-worst performance of the year by strokes gained), he still finished 2nd.

Scheffler has been a runaway train of success for almost five years now, and I don’t want to be the one to get in the way.

The Long Shot: Rickie Fowler (+6800)

I’ve been trying to talk myself out of this. 

Do I think Rickie Fowler will win his first major championship this weekend? No, to be honest. I don’t. But it feels quite unlikely that anyone, not just Fowler, will be able to beat the players ranked inside the top 10 per the latest betting odds. 

So why not have some fun with this one? After all, I just gave you the overwhelming favorite in Scottie Scheffler as my Mulligan, so it’s about time to spice it up.

Fowler’s career seemed destined for major championships and a crowded trophy case when he rose through golf’s ranks, reaching as high as World No. 4 in 2016. He was in the crowd of young talent that included three-time major champion Jordan Spieth as well as Justin Thomas, who has two PGA Championship victories to his name.

If you had told golf fans around that time that we’d be looking back, a decade later, at a player in Fowler who had added just three more official PGA Tour wins to his resume since 2016, the universal response would be shock.

But recently, Fowler has been in the midst of a career resurgence that has been nothing short of remarkable. He’s tallied four top-10 finishes on the season, including in each of his three most recent starts. He enters his 17th PGA Championship on the back of a tied-for-2nd finish at the Truist Championship.

And it hasn’t seemed like a fluke. Fowler’s approach has been consistently stellar over the past month, and he’s coupled that with putting that continues to trend upwards. He ranks ninth on the PGA Tour in his ability to avoid three-putts.

Boosting his case is the fact that he is one of the few players in this field with actual course history at Aronimink. Fowler finished in a tie for 13th at the 2011 AT&T National and backed it up in 2018, finishing in a tie for 8th when Aronimink hosted a rain-soaked BMW Championship.

Best Bet #1: Ludvig Åberg Top 20 (-112)

The pitch for Ludvig Åberg is very similar to the one I made for Cameron Young, except Åberg doesn’t carry nearly the same winning pedigree. However, he has finished inside the top eight in five of his last six starts, and has had one foot inside the winner’s circle more than once.

He led the PLAYERS Championship by three heading into Sunday, but handed in a scorecard showing a four-over-par 76, plunging him into a tie for fifth. He held a brief lead during the final round of the Valero Texas Open as well, but played his final 13 holes in even par, once again falling to fifth place.

And sure, that’s not great. It might be about time to start asking questions about why he hasn’t been able to close out more tournaments. But for this, I’m just asking for a top-20 finish. A blown lead is no penalty here.

Åberg has a poor PGA Championship record, missing the CUT in both of his two attempts, but he should excel on a course like Aronimink. A bizarre lapse in accuracy off the tee has plagued him recently, but he’s maintained elite iron play, and his putting has been fairly steady. 

Without a massive penalty for slightly wayward drives, Åberg will have a great opportunity to find birdies and make his way towards the top of the leaderboard this week.

Best Bet #2: Russell Henley Top 30 (-112)

Russell Henley’s solid finishes this year have been a lot less flashy than Åberg’s, but he’s found success nonetheless. Despite not tallying a win to this point in 2026, Henley has managed six top-20 finishes in just ten tournament appearances this year.

He’s also saved some of his best play for the biggest stages. He finished in a tie for third at the Masters, logged a 13th-place finish at the PLAYERS Championship, and preceded that with a 6th at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

While he didn’t bring his best stuff to the Cadillac Championship, Trump National Doral’s Blue Monster was not an ideal course fit for Henley. At almost 7,800 yards, it required extreme length off the tee for success.

Distance is certainly a benefit at Aronimink, but I was careful to add a bit of a caveat earlier for this exact reason. Henley, notably one of the shortest hitters on the PGA Tour, is also one of the most accurate.

That accuracy extends to his iron play as well. Henley’s strength here will be in finding fairways and then adding his elite approach play to give himself plenty of birdie opportunities. He’s also a fairly reliable putter, and his ability to avoid three-putts is well above the Tour’s average.

Impossible Top-20 Parlay (+20000)

Xander Schauffele (-130)

Justin Thomas (+178)

Sam Burns (+192)

Patrick Reed (+205)

Kristoffer Reitan (+290)

My one rule here is that I can’t repeat players. So nobody from my picks or by “Best Bets” can make it into this parlay. And I absolutely do not advise that anyone take the plunge and follow this. But I will give you my reasoning, albeit briefly.

I’ll start with Xander Schauffele. This one’s easy. Prior to his most recent start at the Truist Championship, Schauffele had placed inside the top 20 in six of seven events. He logged a 3rd-place finish at the PLAYERS Championship and added a finish in a tie for 9th at the Masters.

Schauffele, a two-time major winner, is one of the premier ball-strikers on the PGA Tour, excelling off the tee and in iron play. His putting is his one inconsistency, but he carries with him an incredibly high floor.

Justin Thomas has won two PGA Championship victories in his career and is always a wildcard to be near the top of the leaderboard. He arrived at Aronimink following his best back-to-back finishes of the year, culminating in a 13th-place finish at the Truist Championship.

While nothing in Justin Thomas’s profile stands out as potentially leading to a win this week, there’s also nothing that appears glaringly negative. If he can carry the putting performance he had last week to the PGA Championship, he should be set to threaten the top 20 or even higher.

The case for Sam Burns is a pretty simple one. Burns is (and has been for some time) one of the best putters on the PGA Tour. He’s at the top of the ranks in three-putt avoidance, and adds very solid approach play, especially with a wedge, into the equation. 

Despite poorer finishes in his last two starts, Burns, like a few others on this list, has excelled when the stakes have been highest. He finished in a tie for 13th at the PLAYERS Championship and broke into the top 10 at the Masters.

Patrick Reed is maybe the biggest question mark on this list. And that question mark should be taken literally, as we have seen him play just once in the last two months. Luckily, that one start ended in a tie for 12th at the Masters, but nonetheless, his form can’t be guaranteed.

What we have seen from Reed this season, though, has been great. After defaulting from LIV Golf to join the DP World Tour to seek eventual PGA Tour reinstatement, Reed quickly logged two wins and 2nd place finish. 

Reed has always been one of golf’s elite feel players. He’s known for his soft hands and has proven himself a solid putter. At a course that will require a lot of creativity on and around the greens, he could certainly be someone to watch. At the very least, it will be entertaining.

Adding Kristoffer Reitan to this is just about riding the hot hand. Since finishing in a tie for 2nd place at the Zurich Classic alongside playing partner Kris Ventura, Reitan has added a 14th-place finish at the Cadillac Championship before getting his maiden PGA Tour victory the very next week at the Truist Championship. 

He’s one of the longer hitters off the tee and, in recent weeks at least, has complemented that with strong iron play and elite putting. Picking a player with very little major championship experience is always a risk, but should he continue to play his best game, he could absolutely contend for the PGA Championship.

The Others

There aren’t many others, to be honest. We’ve talked about a lot of players. But there are a couple near the top of the betting boards that have been omitted, and they are certainly worth a brief mention. At least to explain why they didn’t end up as one of my picks.

Rory McIlroy is the obvious place to start. I could have easily had him as my pick, my Mulligan, or anywhere else, and it would have made complete sense. But in a world where I couldn’t pick Scheffler, Young, and McIlroy, McIlroy gets left out.

Golf fans haven’t seen much of McIlroy since he defended his Masters title at Augusta National just over a month ago. His lone start since adding a second green jacket to his closet came last week and ended in an unremarkable tie for 19th at the Truist Championship. 

It seems that his attention has fully turned towards adding major championships to his already-lengthy list of career accolades. However, his first Masters victory, coming in 2025, was followed by an underwhelming performance at the PGA Championship hosted by Quail Hollow, which he has proclaimed as one of his favorite courses.

Until McIlroy proves that he will bring the same game and attitude that he carries to Augusta National to the PGA Championship and other majors, that will be the reason I leave him off my board.

It would be bad journalism not to mention Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau, LIV Golf’s biggest stars and arguably some of golf’s biggest talents. While both players certainly possess the talent to win this tournament, a pair of truly poor performances at the Masters have left a bad taste in my mouth.

DeChambeau’s first major championship of 2026 ended unceremoniously in a missed CUT. Rahm’s, which began with a six-over-par 78, concluded in a tie for 38th.

Matt Fitzpatrick was the only other player who got significant consideration as a potential pick to win this week. Like Young, Fitzpatrick is playing the best golf of his career. And that’s a career that includes a U.S. Open victory just a few years ago.

He’s won three times already in 2026, most notably winning his second plaid jacket at the RBC Heritage. All three victories have come within the last two months.

Fitzpatrick has established himself as one of the game’s elite drivers, consistently scoring well above average in both distance and accuracy off the tee. He’s also one of the best approach players on the PGA Tour, excelling from close range and shots over 200 yards (which is where a majority of Aronimink’s par-3 holes fall).

His putting has been the drag on an otherwise fairly spotless profile. It’s been incredibly beneficial to him in his wins, but has been inconsistent out of them. 

Fitzpatrick’s most recent start, the Truist Championship, was his worst since the season opened at the American Express. He finished outside the top 50, and his play off the tee and on the greens was notably worse than his average.