The PGA TOUR has reached the second major championship of 2026. This week, the best golfers in the world will compete for the PGA Championship. The tournament rotates venues each season, and this year it visits Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, just outside Philadelphia. It should be a great week of golf on a historic and iconic venue. The PGA Championship begins on Thursday, May 14, and will award the Wanamaker Trophy to the winner on Sunday, May 17, barring any weather issues.

Let’s start the week with a look at the format, history, and course for the PGA Championship.

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The Format of the PGA Championship

This week’s elite field of 156 players will be cut to the top 70 and ties after Round 2. All four rounds are played at Aronimink, and if the tournament ends in a tie, a three-hole aggregate playoff will determine the winner, with sudden-death playoff holes after that if needed.

Since it is a major championship, the event will have a very large purse. While the exact total has not been announced, last year’s purse was $19 million, with a $3.42 million winner’s share. The winner will also receive 750 FedExCup Points, matching the most given out for a single event this season.

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The history of the tournament

The 2026 PGA Championship will be the 108th edition of the tournament. The Professional Golfers Association of America (PGA) was established in February of 1916, and in October of that same year, the PGA hosted the first PGA Championship at Siwanoy Country Club in Bronxville, New York. Jim Barnes claimed the win and the $500 winner’s share of the purse that week.

One of the early leaders in establishing the PGA was department store magnate Rodman Wanamaker, who commissioned the iconic Wanamaker Trophy, awarded to the winner each year. The Wanamaker Trophy is one of the biggest trophies in professional sports, measuring over 29 inches tall and weighing roughly 34 pounds. It has been awarded to the winner each year since 1916. The original went missing for five years but was later found and is now on display at the PGA Historical Center in Port St. Lucie, Florida. While the name of the winner is still added to the original, PGA Championship winners now pose with a newer version and receive 90% replicas to keep.

The event used to be the final major of the year for much of its history, but it moved to earlier in the calendar in May beginning in 2019. Typically, it takes place on the East Coast near a major city, with a few exceptions out West from time to time. New York has been the most common state to host the event, with Ohio and Pennsylvania not far behind. Next year, in 2027, the PGA Championship will head to Texas for the first time in over 60 years.

The prestigious event is always an important tournament that draws an elite field and boasts an impressive list of historic winners. Scottie Scheffler claimed his first PGA Championship last year at Quail Hollow. Collin Morikawa, Phil Mickelson, Justin Thomas, Brooks Koepka, and Xander Schauffele claimed the previous five titles since the COVID-19 pandemic.

The field is elite again this year. Last week’s winner at the Truist Championship, Kristoffer Reitan, was already in the field, but Brandt Snedeker earned one of the final invites by winning in Myrtle Beach at the alternate-field event. Sneds and Sudarshan Yellamaraju rounded out the field, with Yellamaraju earning his spot via the PGA Championship points list. Past major champions Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm lead a group of 11 LIV Golf players joining the regular PGA TOUR players this week.

Check out the full field and odds on DraftKings Sportsbook to see all the players teeing it up this year.

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A Closer Look at the Course

Aronimink Golf Club is a par-70 course known as one of the most beautiful and difficult in the United States. Famous golf architect Donald Ross designed the layout and said that he “intended to make this my masterpiece.” Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner restored the course to Ross’s original design in 2016-2017 and established the current layout.

Aronimink hosted the PGA Championship once before, with Gary Player winning in 1962. The PGA TOUR has returned three times since then, with the AT&T National in 2010 and 2011 and the 2018 BMW Championship, which was part of the FedExCup Playoffs that season.

The venue is unique to the PGA Championship in that it has only two par-5s in a par-70 set, which could make it more of a positional layout that rewards approach play rather than requiring players to be especially powerful off the tee. The par-3’s at Aronimink will also be an especially tough test this week, and typically play as some of the hardest holes on the course.

In addition to the thick, penalizing rough in play this week, the course features 176 bunkers. The course has bentgrass fairways and greens, with fescue rough approaching four inches in some places. The green complexes are difficult, and the putting surfaces are undulating, with different sections of the green offering a wide variation in difficulty depending on pin placement.

The course features significant elevation changes, with uphill and downhill sections throughout the layout. Several holes also cut across slopes, creating uneven stances for players as they try to strategically find the best spots to attack the angled fairways and elevated greens. The back nine is typically a little tougher than the front nine, with the three-hole stretch from holes 10 through 12 some of the most difficult on the course.

The weather will be a huge factor in how low scores go this week. In 2018, it rained before and throughout the BMW Championship, which made the course more receptive and helped Keegan Bradley reach -20 and defeat Justin Rose in a playoff. Scores could approach that level if the rain forecast for Wednesday softens the course and cooler temperatures persist through the weekend. The PGA of America usually likes the course to play tougher than that, though, and will try to get the course firm and fast with thick rough, if possible, which would lead to scores closer to par.

Strokes Gained: Approach is always one of the key indicators of success, and that will remain the case this week at Aronimink. Fewer par-5’s on the layout make scoring on difficult par-4’s and longer par-3’s metrics to consider this week, along with Bogey Avoidance, Scrambling, and past major championship finishes.

As you get ready for what should be another awesome week of major championship golf this week, be sure to get your DFS fantasy golf lineups and betting cards filled out with help from DK Network! We’ll have ongoing coverage throughout the week and exciting promotions to help you enjoy this weekend’s tournament.