The front desk worker’s week is over. On the shuttle bus from Aronimink Golf Club to a nearby parking lot, she was already reliving memories. She couldn’t believe the week it had been, fielding calls ranging from viewers at home complaining about dirty TVs to prank teens demanding tea time the next day.
Chosen eight years ago to host the 2026 PGA Championship, staff spent months preparing Aronimink not only for the second major of the season, but also for the throngs of fans who would flock to the venue. They’re building bleachers, additions, a hospitality tent, and a retail mansion, and construction seemed to have stalled due to a snowstorm two months ago, but instead the shovels came out and the site continued to be pieced together.
Aronimink members will take back the club this week, but for the past few months it has been a pseudo-construction zone and for the past seven days it has been a ground where history has been made.
The 2026 major championship season is officially 50% complete with Aaron Rye’s impressive win at the PGA Championship. The players only have two chances left, but technically summer is still a long way off on the calendar.
The front desk staff may not have noticed, but she summed up the nature of professional golf. The stacking is almost half the fun. Players can see the new golf course, media members can discuss it, and excitement builds as the event approaches. But once the tees are fixed and the balls start flying Thursday morning, that’s all gone in the blink of an eye. The showtime for this event is 4 days. Four days after years of planning and months of construction. And just like that, the 2026 PGA Championship will no longer take place teeth rather It was.
Let’s take a look at some of the biggest takeaways from last week in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania.
Why the PGA was shaken
What makes major championships so special is that everyone is so different and anyone can theoretically win. It would have been fun to celebrate the historical significance of wins for players like Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm, but a champion like Rye brings out the true essence of the game.
In a sport where length matters, he remains one of the shortest players on the PGA Tour. In a world where people buy things to show off their status, Lai puts on two gloves, uses an iron cover, takes out a TaylorMade driver that’s no longer on the shelf at your local sporting goods store, and sticks a plastic tee into the ground so that the ball is at the same height with each swing of the driver.
Rye’s game had a respect, humility, and easy-going spirit, and he brought it to the golf course with a setup that would deplore even the best players in the game. Aronimink was the most accurate PGA Championship test since Southern Hills in 2022. Every aspect of the game, both visible and invisible, was examined, and the man with the will and the shot reigned supreme.
Were some pin positions inaccurate? Of course. Was the 8th par 3 a bad hole? probably! Should wider mistakes be penalized more than mistakes closer to the fairway? Yes! However, all players on the field had to deal with these factors.
No one knows if Rye will knock off another major championship in his career. Last week, he was playing in the PGA Tour’s alternate field event in Myrtle Beach — Brian Rolup, if you’re reading this, which requires expanding the field for the signature event to 120 players — but he’s never finished in the top 10 at a major before. What we do know is that Rai’s win was more than deserved, making him one of them, at least this week, in a sea of giants.
three of a kind
Across two major championships, only three players have finished in the top 10 at the Masters and PGA Championship: McIlroy (winner, T7), Xander Schauffele (T9, T7) and Justin Rose (T3, T10). McIlroy and Rose faced off at the Masters, and McIlroy and Schauffele had a chance at Sunday’s PGA Championship.
Schauffele’s consistency in these tournaments continues to garner attention as he has 19 top-20 finishes in 36 total major league games. He has finished in the top 20 in 27 of his 36 starts. Rose’s performance at Augusta National tends to grab the headlines, but the Englishman has now finished in the top 15 six times in the past seven PGA Championships.
As for McIlroy, he is at the top of the world major leaderboard against par through the first eight rounds of majors. Although his consistency in the majors declined during the drought, his factoring ability continued to improve with several green jackets under his belt, and he has now finished in the top 20 for four consecutive years since last year’s U.S. Open.
show human tendencies
Let’s all take it easy. Perhaps this reflects the instant gratification needed in today’s society, but take a breath, take a long-term view, and accept the fact that Ludwig Oberg is on track, not behind schedule.
Two things could be true about this Swedish superstar. (1) He had another great chance to win a major championship, but he couldn’t win it. (2) He is still very early in his major championship career.
Oberg’s start at Aronimink was his third PGA Championship appearance and 10th major appearance in his career. In those 10 starts, the robotic right-hander has six top-25 finishes, including a T4 on Sunday alongside Lai.
Attempts necessary to win the first major championship
| Rory McIlroy | 11th |
Scotty Scheffler | 10th place |
Justin Thomas | 10th place |
jordan spies | 9th place |
Oberg’s ascension caused similar noise, so the above player was used. All four of these children were not to be missed. Like it or not, that’s exactly what he was described as after finishing No. 1 in the PGA Tour College Rankings, playing on a Ryder Cup team in Europe and winning on both the PGA Tour and DP World Tour in 2023.
Oberg has a lot to clean up in the game, especially when the heat picks up on Sunday. Tendencies surfaced such as speeding up his process, misjudging sensory wedge shots, and playing himself out of several tournaments before the final stretch emerged.
In other words, relax. There was multiple Aaron R buzz in the Commonwealth this weekend, but the Steelers quarterback’s advice months ago seems appropriate for some to heed about Oberg.
Winner who didn’t win
Only one of the 156 players competing will win the Wanamaker Trophy, but that doesn’t mean everyone will miss out on a second major championship. In fact, some people immediately think of Cameron Smith and claim a legitimate moral victory.
The 2022 British Open champion was the only player to miss out on every major last year. After missing out on the Masters to start his 2026 major campaign, the wild right-hander switched swing coaches and began working with Claude Harmon. At Aronimink, this decision paid off. Despite some selfishness on Sunday, Smith showed that his game can still go toe-to-toe with the world’s best after several years of disappointing results.
“It feels great to play well,” Smith said. “It’s frustrating when you play crap and you don’t work hard and it’s just been frustrating the last few years because I feel like I’m trying so hard and I’m not getting anything.
“I changed my swing coach to Claude a few weeks ago and I managed to correct a few things that I might have been a little bit wrong with and I feel like I have more confidence in my swing. Today I felt like I was already able to trust my swing even under pressure. There are a lot of very positive signs.”
Justin Thomas also falls into the same bucket as Smith. The two-time PGA champion, who is also a major winner in 2022, has struggled in regular majors since then. Until this week, it was Southern Hills’ only top-10 finish in a major since it was held at Valhalla. That’s enough.
But Thomas threatened a final round of 65th on Sunday following a moving day that went the wrong way. Alonimink’s setup favored Thomas, who had little trouble making big mistakes off the tee, and the high intake of wedges highlighted his strength in that area. Despite his instability on the greens, Thomas is one of those players you want to hold putts in the corners as the match approaches No. 72.
Rahm may also have been one of the players who was brilliantly acquitted of the weekend’s feud. Although he missed some scoring chances and didn’t hole enough putts in the second half, this performance felt like a step in the right direction toward a return to the main team we’ll see in 2023.
The two winners who have not won in the past (and have never won) are Alex Smalley and Matti Schmidt. Everyone ignored them, but they competed almost to the end. They may not have won the Wanamaker Trophy, but their respective finishes earned them invitations to their first major in 2027.
What was wrong with the top two?
Worst post-major talking points: (1) “If Lowry had played better on the par 5s, he would have won.” (2) “If Scotty had putt normally, he would have made consecutive hits.” If they could have done it, they would have done it. would have had. Such sentiments tend to diminish the accomplishments of actual champions.
So what went wrong with McIlroy and Scheffler? McIlroy’s problems were multifaceted this week when he played a par 5 at even par (T77). The main reason is that he couldn’t hit the fairway on these holes (T75 in drive accuracy). Scheffler, on the other hand, was first in driving accuracy but near the bottom in strokes gained putting (72nd). During the week, the world No. 1 made 125 putts, two putts better than his previous major career highs set at the 2023 Masters and 2024 U.S. Open.
What’s next?
It’s funny how the players march to the beat of their own drums. Everyone is different, and when it works, it’s celebrated (as in Rye’s case) and when it doesn’t, it’s scrutinized, as in Bryson DeChambeau’s case. The two-time U.S. Open champion has not been a factor in the past four majors. He missed three of his past four cuts and fell behind the eight-ball in the first round, his only weekend appearance at a major last year.
Many people point to his iron play and short game as problems. DeChambeau has a huge gap between his clubs, showing that he can’t manage distance if his shot accuracy is less than 100%. Single-length irons handcuff him around greens, bunkers and even uneven fairways.
For many, it’s the equipment, but it’s also part of what made DeChambeau, DeChambeau. Whether he wants to admit it or not, it’s worked before, and it worked in 2025 when he led the Masters with 16 holes remaining.
I wouldn’t be surprised if he makes some changes at this club. In fact, it would be surprising if he didn’t do so in some capacity. Ultimately, DeChambeau will have to decide what’s most important to him. He’s being pulled in all these different directions by different responsibilities and… passions… different things to be exact. professional golf.
