The PGA Championship is being played at Aronimink GC in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, with 98 of the top 100 players from the world ranking in the field, a reminder that the sport’s biggest stages remain tightly controlled by a small elite at the top of the rankings. The course is 7,394 yards and par 70, and Scottie Scheffler is the defending champion after winning by five shots last year.
Who Gets the Stage
Scheffler closed with an even-par 71 to win last year and became the first player since Seve Ballesteros to win his first three majors by three shots or more. The PGA Championship returns to Aronimink for the first time since Gary Player won there in 1972. The tournament has been played on 75 golf courses since it began in 1916, and next year it will be held at Fields Ranch East at PGA Frisco.
The field is stacked with the same names that keep cycling through the top of the sport. Jordan Spieth needs to win the PGA Championship to become the seventh player with the career Grand Slam. Rory McIlroy and Scheffler have combined to win four of the last five majors. McIlroy will try to become the first player since Spieth to win the first two majors of the year. Americans have won the PGA Championship the last 10 times, the longest such streak of any major.
The Hierarchy at the Top
The Philadelphia area last had a major championship in 2013 at the U.S. Open. Justin Rose, who won the 2010 AT&T National, and Keegan Bradley, who won the 2018 BMW Championship, are past winners at Aronimink. The top 60 in the world after this week will be exempt for the U.S. Open, another reminder that access to the next stage is controlled by ranking and exemption rules rather than anything resembling open competition.
The tournament’s structure keeps the hierarchy neat and profitable. The biggest names get the spotlight, the rankings decide who stays in the pipeline, and the rest are left outside the frame while the apparatus celebrates its own prestige.
The Money Circuit in Cincinnati
The LPGA Tour is at the Kroger Queen City Champions in Cincinnati at Maketewah CC, which is 6,416 yards and par 70. Prize money is $2 million, with a winner’s share of $300,000. The tournament is being televised Thursday through Sunday from 3-6 p.m. on Golf Channel.
Charley Hull is the defending champion. Nelly Korda is the Race to CME Globe leader and will be going for her third straight victory. She won her third major at The Chevron Open, then the Riviera Maya Open at Mayakoba before taking off last week. Jeeno Thitikul won the Mizuho Americas Open last week and is in the field.
Korda has played in the final group in each of her six tournaments this year, with three wins and three runner-up finishes. The last player to start a season with six events and no worse than second place was Annika Sorenstam in 2001. The field features seven of the top 10 from the women’s world ranking. Korda, Thitikul, Hyo Joo Kim and Hannah Green each have won two times on the LPGA Tour this season. A year ago, it took until October before Thitikul became the first multiple winner of the season.
The tournament is in its fifth year and has moved to May after previously being in September. Maketewah is the third course used for the tournament. Next tournament is the ShopRite LPGA on May 29-31.