Aronimink Golf Club has caught everyone off guard this week.
The players entered the week believing this was a race to the bottom. The winning score was predicted to be around 20-under, with the major championship record in danger.
Rory McIlroy said there was little strategy off the tee, and this golf course was all about smashing driver and figuring the rest out from there.
The experts could not have been more wrong, as Aronimink has beaten the players through two days of the PGA Championship. The leaders are just four under, and the golf course is set to get much tougher on the weekend as it dries out in the Philly sun.
After watching the event for two days, CBS analyst Johnson Wagner noticed something in particular that people got very wrong about Aronimink.
Johnson Wagner says Aronimink’s fairways are the narrowest he’s ever seen
A large part of why many thought the modern pros would eat Aronimink alive was the wide fairways, which would allow players to smash driver without a second thought. But as with many of Donald Ross’ designs, looks can be deceiving.
The camber of the fairways combined with the dryness of the golf course means the fairways are actually a far smaller target than they appear, and that’s causing golf balls to bounce into the long rough.
Wagner said that’s why so many underestimated this golf course before the event. He said, “I think you look back to the BMW Championship that was here in 2018, and Keegan got to 18-under. I think the expectation was that someone was going to go out and 63s and 64s were going to be available every day.
“Like Justin Thomas said earlier, I don’t think anyone expected it to be this cold and for the wind to blow like it just did. These are some of the tightest fairways that I have ever seen in my life.
“They’re huge, but with the slopes, they’re difficult to hit. And some of the thickest blades of rough ever. So there are a number of different factors.”
The players have been beaten badly by Aronimink over the first two days, so they better come prepared for the weekend if they want to claim the Wannamker Trophy.
