Aronimink Golf Club has been a delightful host of the 2026 PGA Championship, but superstars Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler aren’t thrilled with the setup. The top two golfers in the Official World Golf Ranking publicly bashed the golf course after the second round.
Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler speak out against Aronimink
“I think it’s a sign of not a great setup,” McIlroy said after his 3-under 67 on Friday, per Golfweek. “I think when it’s as bunched as it is, because it hasn’t really enabled anyone to separate themselves, it’s easy to make a ton of pars, hard to make birdies, and not that it’s hard to make bogey, but it feels like bogey’s the worst score you’re going to shoot on any one hole.”
To McIlroy’s point, only two players have reached 4-under par through two rounds. After 36 holes, there are 43 players within five shots of the lead.
The biggest reason why no elite player has separated from the pack has been the challenging pin locations set up by the PGA of America. According to Scheffler, they’re some of the toughest he’s ever seen.
“There’s also just some things that are out of your control,” Scheffler told reporters after his second-round 71. “You just got to continue to try to hit good shots, and most of the pins today were, I mean, kind of absurd. They were just so far into the areas where we thought the pins were going to be, and then they just—like the one on 14 was probably the hardest pin that I’ve seen in a long time just because, I mean, there’s literally just like a spine and they’re like, ‘Oh, we’ll just put the pin right on top of it.’ And you’re like, ‘Alright, well, I’ll see what I can do.’ And just you know, just challenging.”