US PGA Championship Tips

The 2026 US PGA Championship returns to Aronimink, in Pennsylvania, as Major Championship golf returns this May.

Renovated by Gil Hanse, Aronimink will welcome the strongest field in Major Championship golf. Semi-regularly seen on the PGA Tour at the AT&T National and BMW Championship, 1962 was the last time that Aronimink hosted a PGA Championship – won by Gary Player. Fascinatingly it is also 550 miles north-east of North Carolina, where last year’s PGA was played at Quail Hollow, so will feature completely different conditions and grass agronomy.

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Now ensconced in May, the PGA Championship has seen Brooks Koepka (2019 & 2023), Phil Mickelson (2021), Justin Thomas (2022), Xander Schauffele (2024) and Scottie Scheffler (2025) lift the Wannamaker Trophy in its new spot in the schedule. Traditionally in August, we used to have a World Golf Championship tournament the week before the PGA, but the revised positioning of the tournament has been a learning curve for both the players and punters alike.

2026 sees the world’s best professional golfers playing across the Cadillac Championship on the Blue Monster at Trump National Doral in Florida, the Truist Championship at Quail Hollow in North Carolina, or LIV Golf Virginia at Trump National Golf Club DC in the direct build-up to the PGA Championship. What is for sure is that the PGA will be played on Bentgrass greens again – this was last the case in 2024 when Xander Schauffele won at Valhalla.

Golf betting at the Major Championships, and especially the PGA Championship, is a complex subject. Mistakes can be costly, however select the right player or player portfolio and the rewards can be excellent. Golf Betting System’s goal is to provide you with informed PGA Championship tips, free tournament research guides, and insight and information that will help you make educated decisions about who to back at the 2026 US PGA Championship.

The PGA Championship in recent history has seen a plethora of long hitters getting the job done, with many capturing their first Major titles in this event. The PGA of America’s choice of Oak Hill in 2013 raised eyebrows as the classical and downright claustrophobic nature of the course was totally alien to its mantra of testing through course length. As it transpired, the neat and tidy Jason Dufner won his first Major that week.

Either side of Oak Hill, Y.E. Yang (2009), Martin Kaymer (2010), Keegan Bradley (2012), Jason Day (2015), Jimmy Walker (2016) and Justin Thomas (2017) have, like Dufner, all captured first-time Majors. All can hit the ball a long way, as can Rory McIlroy (winner at both Kiawah Island in 2012 and Valhalla in 2014), Brooks Koepka who drove the field into submission at both Bellerive (2018) and Bethpage Black (2019), plus Phil Mickelson (2021) who despite being the wrong side of 50 years of age, averaged 313 yards off the tee when winning at Kiawah Island in 2021.

Fast forward to recent years and Justin Thomas won his 2nd PGA Championship at Southern Hills in 2022, averaging the mere matter of 321 yards from off the tee. 2023 saw a return to an extended East Course at Oak Hill upon which Brooks Koepka averaged 319 yards when capturing his third PGA Championship. 2024 saw Xander Schauffele capture his first Major, in doing so driving the ball an average 310 yards off the tee at a soft Valhalla which had been drenched by rain in the build-up, plus last year Scottie Scheffler averaged 309 yards and maxed-out at 343 yards off the tee at the 7,600 yard, par-71 that is Quail Hollow.

As we expected, 2020 proved slightly different with the tighter 7,200 yard, Par 70 at TPC Harding Park falling to another Major first-timer in the form of Collin Morikawa. Now you can’t classify Morikawa as a ‘bomber’, but averaging 297 yards off the tee and in the top 80 for ‘Driving Distance – All Drives’ across 2020, Collin is certainly no slouch from off the tee.

Course Information

Aronimink GC, Newtown Square, Philadelphia: Designer: Donald Ross 1928, with Ron Pritchard 2000 renovation & Hanse 2017 restoration, Course Type: Up-State, Classical, Long; Par: 70; Length: Circa 7,500 yards; Water Hazards: 5; Number of Bunkers; 176; Fairways: Bentgrass; Rough: Bentgrass Fescue 4″; Greens: 7,900 sq.ft average featuring Bentgrass; Stimpmeter: +12ft

Course Scoring Average:

• 2018: 67.88 (-2.12), PGA Tour Difficulty Rank 8 of 49 courses
• 2011: 70.72 (+0.72), PGA Tour Difficulty Rank 12 of 51 courses
• 2010: 71.22 (+1.22), PGA Tour Difficulty Rank 49 of 51 courses

Considered the 3rd best course in Pennsylvania behind Merion and Oakmont, which between them have hosted 15 US Opens, Aronimink is another classical golf course which is held in high esteem. Aronimink hosted the 2010 and 2011 AT&T National tournaments hosted by Tiger Woods, before a freshly renovated Gil Hanse design was played at the 2018 BMW Championship. It’s this course that will host the PGA Championship, with it being stretched yardage-wise from the 7,267 yard, Par 70 we saw at the BMW.

A pretty strict Par 70, Hanse’s restoration focussed solely on returning Aronimink back to its Donald Ross roots, making it longer, wider and re-establishing huge greens, in tandem with more bunkering.

In 2015 the course membership hired Gil Hanse to review Aronimink and put forward a course Master Plan, with the aim of capturing a Major – with the PGA Championship the target. After looking at the course in its Ron Pritchard re-designed state and researching what exactly the Donald Ross course of 1928 looked like, Hanse decided that a renovation wasn’t required. Instead Gil wanted to restore the course as close as possible to how it was built by Donald Ross. It’s worth noting that Ross revered Aronimink in these terms, “I intended to make this my masterpiece, but not until today did I realise I built better than I knew.”

Aronimink 2026-style, or should that be 1928-style. From tee working our way to green, Hanse-added 18 new tee boxes which have been set up to be free-form and not elevated, offering different driving angles if the PGA of America officials want to take that route. It can play anywhere approach 7,500 yards – up from the 7,267 yards we saw at the BMW Championship. 6 acres of fairway turf were added to the course, effectively adding 20% of width to each fairway. 70 trees were removed to help with this.

Hanse also added plenty of sand hazards. Where Aronimink previously featured 74 bunkers, it now features 176, with the original Ross design featuring clusters of 3 to 4 smaller bunkers. And the green complexes were also expanded with 29,000 square feet of original green being reclaimed as part of the restoration. They are Bentgrass and the same physical sculpturing of the complexes remain the same – many are cantered from back to front, as per classic Donald Ross designs. However the whole restoration focussed on giving players more fairway in which to position themselves strategically for their approaches to bigger greens, which will feature more tucked pin positions.

In essence, the main defence of Aronimink is the speed of the course. 2018 featured soft playing conditions and Keegan Bradley won with a -20/260 total. All of those within the top 10 finished with a -16/264 or better total. Now the course in 2026 will play over 200 yards longer, but as Valhalla 2 years ago proved, length alone does not keep scoring ‘Major tough’ at a modern-day PGA Championship.

It will be well worth keeping an eye on precipitation levels in the build-up and the weather forecast in general for Aronimink in May, as scoring will be dictated by the speed of the course and the strength of any wind.

A 7,500 yard, Par 70 in a parkland setting is what I think of as a typical PGA Championship venue, and it’s a course that Kerry Haigh, Chief Championships Office of the PGA of America, will be able to tinker with both before and during the tournament. The PGA of America traditionally like a single digit under par winning score – 6 of the last 8 PGA Championships played on long golf courses have been won with a single digit under par score – but the weather in May in Philadelphia could have different ideas.

It’s also worth referencing the green complexes at Aronimink. Like PGA Championships hosted recently at Southern Hills, Oak Hill, and Valhalla, they share the same agronomy, Bentgrass, but it’s their size I find fascinating at 7,900 sq.ft. on average. So in essence we have far larger than PGA Championship standard greens on a 7,500 yard golf course. This is how they compare to 2022-2025 PGA Championship venues:

• 2022 – Southern Hills CC – 5,277 sq.ft. average – Bent – 7,365 yard Par 70.
• 2023 – Oak Hill CC – 4,500 sq.ft. average – Bent – 7,394 yard Par 70.
• 2024 – Valhalla GC – 5,000 sq.ft. average – Bent – 7,609 yard Par 71.
• 2025 – Quail Hollow – 6,578 sq.ft. average – Bermuda Poa Trivialis – 7,626 yard Par 71.
• 2026 – Aronimink – 7,900 sq.ft. average –Bent – 7,500 yard Par 70.

Quail Hollow is a Donald Ross original with a Gil Hanse redesign.  Relevant PGA Tour designs are listed below:

Donald Ross

• Detroit Golf Club –  Rocket Mortgage Classic
• East Course at Oak Hill – 2013 + 2023 PGA Championship
• East Lake Country Club – Tour Championship
• Pinehurst Number 2 – 2014 & 2024 U.S. Open
• Plainfield – 2011 & 2015 Barclays
• Sedgefield Country Club – Wyndham Championship

Gil Hanse

• Aronimink Golf Club – 2019 BMW Championship
• Colonial Country Club – 2024- 2025 Charles Schwab Challenge
• Los Angeles Country Club – 2023 U.S. Open
• Merion – 2013 U.S. Open
• Plainfield CC – The Barclays – 2011 & 2015
• Ridgewood CC – The Barclays / Northern Trust 2010, 2014 & 2018
• Southern Hills CC – 2022 U.S. Open
• The Country Club, Brookline – 2022 U.S. Open
• Trump National Doral – 2014 through 2016 WGC Cadillac Championship
• TPC Boston – Deutsche Bank / Dell Technologies Championship through 2018 plus 2020 Northern Trust
• Winged Foot – 2020 U.S. Open

My synopsis is that the PGA Championship traditionally plays to the advantages of the longer hitters and the Aronimink design pretty much guarantees the same in 2026, as the elite hitters will be able to carry most of the fairway bunkers and take advantage of the super-wide fairways, unless conditions get firm and fast.

Aronimink Golf Club. A long, wide, Donald Ross classic.

Here’s how Keegan Bradley won the 2018 BMW Championship here at Aronimink from a statistical perspective:

Strokes Gained:

• 2018, Keegan Bradley (-20). SG Off the Tee: 22nd, SG Approach: 11th, SG Around the Green: 26th, SG Tee to Green: 10th, SG Putting: 1st.
• 2018, Keegan Bradley (-20). SG Off the Tee: 0.936, SG Approach: 2.841, SG Around the Green: 0.60, SG Tee to Green: 4.377, SG Putting: 7.158, SG Total: 11.534.

Statistically, from a Strokes Gained perspective, Keegan gained 4.377 strokes from Tee to Green (40%) and 7.158 Putting (60%).

In the world of traditional statistics, Bradley hit 75% of Fairways – he ranked 17th. At 292 yards off the tee, he only ranked 45th out of the 68 to make the cut for Driving Distance. With 75% of Greens in Regulation – 54 of 72 Greens Hit – only saw Keegan rank 50th for GIR. This all shows the width of the fairways, the huge size of the green complexes, allied to the soft turf conditions played. Philadelphia will require excellent May weather for the course to be firm and fast for this PGA Championship and to avoid the 2018 situation.

Bradley’s Strokes Gained splits really grab the attention as the 40%-60% split of Tee to Green versus Putting is a rare mix on the PGA Tour, where Tee to Green tends to dominate. Adding Justin Rose (lost in a play-off to Bradley), plus T3 finishers Billy Horschel and Xander Schauffele into the analysis, confirms that Strokes Gained Putting really was hugely significant here in 2018. The top 4 finishers on the leaderboard generated 48% of their Total Strokes Gained from Tee to Green, with a massive 52% with the putter.

To offer comparison, the same analysis across the past 5 winners of The Masters at Augusta National highlights 92% Tee to Green versus 8% Putting split. A hot putter was essential here in 2018.

The 2018 BMW Championship was played here in August. Conditions were soft throughout with light winds and temperatures of between 18-26 degrees Celsius, 65-79 degrees Fahrenheit.

Below you will find the top 20 finishers at the 2018 BMW Championship in this year’s PGA field:

Aronimink GC, Newtown Square, Philadelphia

1st: Keegan Bradley; 2nd: Justin Rose; 3rd: Billy Horschel, Xander Schauffele; 5th Rory McIlroy; 6th Tiger Woods; 8th: Tony Finau, Tommy Fleetwood, Rickie Fowler; 12th: Justin Thomas; 15th Hideki Matsuyama; 19th: Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Patrick Reed.

Donald Ross Golf Course Winners

Fancy a list of Donald Ross golf course winners on the PGA Tour, who are in the PGA Championship field, going back 5 years?  Thought you might! Bryson DeChambeau and Xander Schauffele lead the way with 2 wins each in a list which includes Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood, Collin Morikawa, Viktor Hovland and Cameron Young.

For the record, Tour Championship winners are categorised as those with the lowest 72 Hole Score at the Tour Championship, where the FedEx Cup Starting Index was in use from 2020 to 2024.

• 2020 Rocket Mortgage Classic – Detroit GC – Bryson DeChambeau
• 2020 Tour Championship – East Lake – Xander Schauffele
• 2021 Tour Championship – East Lake – Jon Rahm
• 2022 Rocket Mortgage Classic – Detroit GC – Tony Finau
• 2022 Tour Championship – East Lake – Rory McIlroy
• 2023 Rocket Mortgage Classic – Detroit GC – Rickie Fowler
• 2023 Wyndham Championship – Sedgefield CC – Lucas Glover
• 2023 Tour Championship – East Lake – Viktor Hovland / Xander Schauffele
• 2024 U.S. Open – Pinehurst Number 2 – Bryson DeChambeau
• 2024 Wyndham Championship – Sedgefield CC – Aaron Rai
• 2024 Tour Championship – East Lake – Collin Morikawa
• 2025 Rocket Mortgage Classic – Detroit GC – Aldrich Potgieter
• 2025 Wyndham Championship – Sedgefield CC – Cameron Young
• 2025 Tour Championship – East Lake – Tommy Fleetwood

A Strong Outing Before Is Imperative

This trend was established back in 2006 when the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational was added to the schedule a week before the PGA Championship. Naturally the annual visit to Firestone South in Akron is no more, but the idea that a player will need to be playing well in their immediate start should be one to consider. 2019 saw the PGA Championship take place in May, and in 2020 the USPGA made an unscheduled return to an August date, the week after the WGC FedEx St Jude Invitational played at TPC Southwind. There are no doubts though that form players, in the main, win the PGA Championship.

2019 saw Brooks Koepka finish 4th at Trinity Forest GC in Texas the week before lifting the Wannamaker Trophy. 2020 saw Collin Morikawa finish a hard-charging 20th, powered by a 67/66 across the weekend. And 2022 saw Justin Thomas finish 5th at TPC Craig Ranch, shooting 64/67 across Saturday/Sunday which was T4 in that AT&T Byron Nelson field.

In the modern Major Championship world we now have to build the LIV Golf League into trends and 2023 saw Brooks Koepka play in Tulsa the week before the PGA Championship. He finished 5th, shooting 65/65 across Saturday/Sunday. On to 2024 where Xander Schauffele was in a Sunday head-to-head fight with Rory McIlroy at the Signature-level Wells Fargo Championship a fortnight prior to the PGA. Schauffele was 1 shot ahead of Rory standing on the 8th tee, but 2 eagles and 4 birdies through holes 8-15 sank Xander, with many questioning his closing ability. They were to eat their words 7 days later at Valhalla.

That takes us to last year where Scottie Scheffler shot -31/253 to win the CJ Cup Byron Nelson by the mere matter of 8 shots. He then skipped the Signature-event Truist Championship in Philadelphia, before winning the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow by just the 5 shots from Bryson DeChambeau.

Phil Mickelson, as ever, destroys this trend, but even there he was the 1st Round leader at Quail Hollow in his outing before winning the PGA at Kiawah Island and was still 10th after 36 holes.

And the World Golf Championship-status Bridgestone Invitational the week before at Firestone South was always a real indicator of who went on to win the PGA Championship. The Firestone-based tournament became the PGA ‘warm up’ in 2006, and from that point onwards the winner of the PGA Championship was firstly always in the Bridgestone field and secondly was always in the top 28 of the tournament.

We also have other precedents here. 2016 saw the Olympic Golf Competition creating massive changes with the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational moving to July. Instead the RBC Canadian Open directly preceded the PGA Championship, where Jimmy Walker finished fast on Sunday to grab 11th spot at Glen Abbey.

Excellent immediate tournament form was also key to both Mickelson and Singh’s triumphs in 2005 and 2004 respectively. Mickelson finished 10^th in Colorado before jumping on his private jet to New Jersey and winning the following weekend at Baltusrol.  Singh won his prior tournament 2 weeks before the PGA at Warwick Hills, before travelling across to neighbouring Wisconsin to capture his 3^rd Major at Whistling Straits. Even Rich Beem in 2002 won at Castle Pines (The International) and then won a fortnight later at Hazeltine.

For me, I will be keeping a very close eye on the preceding Cadillac Championship, Truist Championship and LIV Virginia tournament leaderboards to ascertain who is playing great golf prior to arriving in Pennsylvania.

Strokes Gained Tee-to-Green

We all love a statistic, and in the era of the PGA Tour’s Strokes Gained analysis we have plenty to wade through.

Looking at PGA champions’ last tournament performance since 2010, it’s fascinating to see that there are real similarities across the Strokes Gained Tee to Green numbers. Koepka, Thomas, McIlroy (twice), Dufner and Kaymer all ranked within the top 10 of that category at Firestone the week before. 2019 saw Brooks Koepka rank 6th for Strokes Gained Tee to Green and 8th for Greens in Regulation at the Byron Nelson played at Trinity Forest the week before triumphing at Bethpage Black. And in outliers Jimmy Walker – who played the RBC Canadian Open at Glen Abbey – Jason Day (at Firestone), and 2020 champion Collin Morikawa, they still ranked in the top 27 for the SG Tee to Green category and finished 14th, 12th and 20th respectively in their warm-up event, with Jason Day and Collin Morikawa ranking in the top 5 and top 10 respectively for Greens in Regulation.

2022 saw Justin Thomas play the week before the PGA at the AT&T Byron Nelson at TPC Craig Ranch in Texas. JT continued this trend of strong Tee to Green play in the outing prior, ranking 10th for that category as he finished 5th.

From a LIV Golf League angle, Strokes Gained weren’t captured across Brooks Koepka’s LIV Tulsa event before capturing the PGA Championship at Oak Hill. The fact he ranked 8th for Greens in Regulation, 6th for Total Accuracy and 6th for Ball Striking in Tulsa certainly helped me to back him at 18/1 to take his 5th Major title.

Xander Schauffele went head-to-head, or mano e mano, against Rory McIlroy at Quall Hollow prior to winning his first Major Championship at the PGA. To push Rory so close on what is arguably McIlroy’s favourite course highlighted just how well the Californian was playing and sure enough he ranked 1st for Greens in Regulation and 2nd to McIlroy for Tee to Green.

Scottie Scheffler dominated his home CJ Cup Byron Nelson at TPC Craig Ranch shooting a 61 on Thursday, leading from start to finish and breaking the -30 under par barrier – unsurprisingly he ranked 1st for both Greens in Regulation and Strokes Gained Tee to Green.

Naturally 50 year-old (at the time) Phil Mickelson, who won the PGA in 2021 at a uniquely coastal and windswept Kiawah Island, destroys this trend completely, but in general it’s clear to deduce that those struggling to keep the ball in front of them immediately prior to playing the PGA Championship ultimately don’t win it.

Driving Distance is the Key

So what’s the key player attribute that a PGA Championship winner needs in his arsenal to get the job done?

Well with the PGA Championship being played on a stretching circa 7,500 yard, Par 70, a premium advantage will inevitably return to longer drivers of the golf ball. In recent times that’s always been the case.

Taking 2013’s visit to Oak Hill and 2020’s visit to TPC Harding Park out of the overall picture as they were both untypically tight PGA Championship set-ups, every winner of the PGA Championship since 2011 has been a minimum 301 yard hitter from off the tee.

That 301 yard number goes all the way back to 2011 and Keegan Bradley, and putting that into perspective he ranked in the top 20 for Driving Distance on the PGA Tour arriving in Atlanta before winning his PGA Championship.

This is Steve Bamford’s pre-event trends and pointers article. Steve’s final US PGA Championship tips for 2026 will be published here on the Monday of the event.

Thoughts or comments? You can post to Steve on X here: @Bamfordgolf

This article was last reviewed by Steve Bamford at 14:37BST 14.04.26.

Steve Bamford is co-founder and part of our editorial team at Golf Betting System and he focuses mainly on the PGA Tour. Steve has been involved in the gambling industry for over 15 years and has a passion for golf as well as football, horse racing and MMA, where he has developed a deep understanding of both online and offline betting gathered through practical experience. Steve also hosts the popular Golf Betting System podcast.

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