It is settled law, GAP*-style, that the Aronimink Golf Club course is solidly one of the top-10 courses in greater Philadelphia. Yep, that’s how good the Donald Ross course, in Newtown Square, Pa., is. The 108th PGA Championship will be played there this week.

(*The Golf Association of Philadelphia, founded in 1897.)

For further proof of Aronimink’s high standing, I’d like to bring in an expert, Doug Borgerson. Borgerson is the borough manager of a nearby West Conshohocken, where there is a Marriott, home for many players are staying this week. But Borgerson’s expertise for this exercise is not in balancing a municipal budget. It derives from his side gig, as the boys’ golf coach at the elite Episcopal Academy, just down the road from Aronimink and closed this week for the tournament. Borgerson has an ideal job if you’re looking to play courses you might not otherwise sniff.

I know this territory myself. In the late 1980s, I was a member of the Philadelphia Newspapermen’s Golf Association, and it was through the PNGA that I first got to play the sublime Merion West course. (Lee Trevino won a U.S. Open on its sister course, Merion East, also good.) Merion West has a trio of holes called Oh Sh*t Corner, not named by Herbert Warren Wind.

This corner of the course comprises No. 6, a crazily downhill 120-yard par-3; No. 7, a 280 par-4 where your only goal is to finish with the ball with which you started; and No. 8, a 240-yard par-4 up a suburban mountain. Some of the local high schools play their events at Merion West. It’s perfect. Herb Wind, you may know, did invent the phrase Amen Corner for that nook of Augusta. The same Herb Wind once told me that the U.S. has three great golf capitals: Chicago, New York and Philadelphia.

Golf is an elemental part of Philadelphia’s sporting culture, along with squash, court tennis (don’t ask) and (of course) the Flyers. Most of the high schools have golf teams for girls and boys, many of the clubs still have thriving caddie programs, and there is excellent public golf and private-club golf for almost every budget. Borgerson, who has lived in and around Philadelphia all his 47 years, knows all this well. Between his coaching and his recreational play, he has played golf everywhere in the region. I asked him to name his top-10 greater Philadelphia courses. It was a struggle, limiting himself to 10. Without further ado: 

Doug Borgerson’s Top-10 Greater Philadelphia Courses with Random Commentary

1. Pine Valley, opened in 1919, designed by George Crump, et al.

“More British than anything in Britain,” Nick Faldo once said. Gorgeous, in an Old Spice sort of way.

2. Merion Golf Club, East Course, 1912, Hugh Wilson.

Justin Rose, winner of the 2013 U.S. Open there and a member, plays it annually. Lee Trevino, upon winning the Open there in 1971: “I just fell in love with a girl named Merion and I don’t even know her last name.” Mixes speeds like few other courses, starting with six holes of drama, followed by six holes of comedy and ending with six holes of tragedy. 

3. Huntingdon Valley, 1928, William Flynn. 

“A symphony of a golf course that never plays the same, one day to the next,” says Borgerson, a former member there.

4. Rolling Green, 1926, William Flynn.

When the U.S. Open was played at Rolling Green in 1976, Sandra Palmer and JoAnne Carner tied for first at eight over par through 72 holes. Carner won the 18-hole playoff by two — with a Monday 76. It’s hard. Also great.

5. Philadelphia Cricket Club, Wissahickon Course, 1922, A.W. Tillinghast.

(Full disclosure: I’m a member.) Borgerson’s fifth is my first, my favorite course in Philadelphia: quirky in places, beautifully bunkered, mystery-theater green, with you-can-find-your-ball rough and a lovely call home, to an awninged porch overlooking a winding 18th hole bisected by a creek where Tillinghast’s ashes were dispersed.

6. Aronimink, 1926, Donald Ross.

“Big ballpark,” Borgerson says. Big in every way and big enough for the PGA Championship or any other event. Gary Player won the ’62 PGA there. A perfect condition course, with an affluent membership. The club had a beautiful pool. The club moved to build an outdoor event space. The country star Luke Bryan performed there the other night.

7. Saucon Valley, Weyhill Course, 1966, William Gordon, David Gordon.

Just 50 eagle-flying miles from the Liberty Bell in downtown Philadelphia, a stunning and often overlooked greater Philadelphia course that was once a hideaway for Bethlehem Steel executives. “My favorite of the three Saucon courses,” says Borgerson, and all three Saucon Valley Country Club courses are really good. “So dramatic.”

8. Applebrook, 2001, Gil Hanse.

“It’s my house course,” Borgerson says, “but I liked it before I joined it. It doesn’t kick you in the shins, and there are three par-3s on the back nine.” It brings to mind something else Herb Wind once said: You may sooner insult a man’s wife than his home course. Or (as the phrase is rendered today) you may sooner insult a person’s life partner than his or her or their home course. Playful and playable. 

9. Atlantic City, 1897, John Reid and many others since him, including Tom Doak.

Windswept, gorgeous. “You have to hit every shot,” Borgerson says. In 1901, Walter Travis, an Australian, defeated Walter Egan, an American, in the U.S. Amateur. The battle of the Walters. People are still talking about it, along with the grillroom floors pocked by spike marks. 

10. Gulph Mills, 1919, Donald Ross.

This has been said before and it will be said again: “You know the Duke brothers, Randolph and Mortimer Duke of the trading firm Duke & Duke, depicted in the classic Philadelphia movie ‘Trading Places’? They would be members of Merion, of course. But they would play their golf at Gulph Mills.” Incredibly charming, start to finish, with a letter from Bob Jones to the members hanging on a clubhouse wall, inviting the gents to board a private southbound train to check out his new course, in Augusta, Ga., in case anybody was looking for a winter club to join.

“Nice list,” I said to Borgerson when he was done. “But what about Jeffersonville?”

“Jeffersonville!” the coach said, followed by a lot more. A true muni, owned by West Norriton Township. Borgerson regularly sings about Jeffersonville to the West Norriton township manager. Borgerson says that if he could play Jeffersonville — Donald Ross, 1931 — unimpeded (it can get crowded and slow), he would put it in his top 5.

On and on we went, and round and round.

We also talked about Merion West; the St. Martins nine-hole course at the Cricket Club; the LuLu Country Club course; Manufacturers; Whitemarsh; Philadelphia Country Club; Wilmington, or one of its courses; Stonewall, or one of its courses. Somehow, one of the best did not get raised — Lancaster. Lancaster! 

Doug Borgerson could have worked the PGA this week. His club, Applebrook, is marshaling the 9th hole, a 600-yard par-5, where a lot can go wrong. But Borgerson is not working the event. There’s no way. He wants to watch. He wants to hang, see the action on a course he knows well. The fellas are coming to town. They’re playing a very, very good course. One of our best.

Did I mention Llanerch? Oh, it’s special. Dow Finsterwald won the 1958 PGA Championship there, the first at stroke play, and people are still talking about that. Some people really are.

Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@Golf.com.

There’s officially no doubt about it: For the next seven days, Philadelphia is a golf town.

Thanks to the Sixers, who saw themselves out of the NBA playoffs in a sweep at the hands of the I-95 rival Knicks, the runway is officially clear for major championship golf’s grand return to Philly this week. Aronimink Golf Club, one of Philly’s plethora of golden-age, generally beloved golf clubs, will play host to the latest edition of the PGA Championship.

Last year, the golf world saw Philly’s golf bona fides when it felt like half the city showed up to Philadelphia Cricket Club for the Truist Championship, which was rescheduled to Philly to make space for the PGA at Quail Hollow. Now, the big show itself is in town, and catching the golf world at a time when the intrigue is at an all-time high. So before you watch this weekend (on CBS or ESPN), and before the spin of the big week sinks its teeth into you, let’s run through the biggest stories worth paying attention to.

8 biggest PGA Championship storylines

8. What the hell is happening with LIV?

The golf world has lapsed into a state of prolonged confusion about the broader machinations of LIV in the wake of the Saudi retreat. But the questions are only getting louder. Case in point: My colleague Alan Bastable’s interview with LIV CEO Scott O’Neil from LIV Virginia, in which the head of the embattled league admitted they were still owned almost entirely by the Saudis, and did not comment on whether that meant the Saudis retained decision-making control over potential future investors in the league.

The questions will surely continue for the weekend in Philly, where — much like the U.S. Open at LACC just a few short years ago — the action has already been set against the backdrop of broader LIV confusion.

7. What’s happening with LIV’s star players?

The funny thing about major weeks in the LIV era is that they serve as some of the few times that everybody in the golf world mingles. This week, Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau will be in the same place as Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler and Jordan Spieth. Presumably, they’ll find some things to talk about regarding the current state of affairs.

Of course, the stakes for Aronimink aren’t exactly Yalta, so we probably shouldn’t be expecting any tectonic movements in the golf world to emerge from PGA week, but rest assured, people will be talking.

6. What’s happening with *the rest* of LIV’s players?

Nobody will be losing sleep about the long-term competitive prospects of players like Talor Gooch, who surrendered his major championship future at arguably his career’s highest watermark for a LIV contract, and now has his very own team (OKGC, nee Brooks Koepka’s Smash GC). But perhaps we oughta be thinking about him!

Gooch is one of a handful of players from the LIV midfield who could be disproportionately impacted by the radical change likely coming to the league in the next 12 months. Unlike Rahm and DeChambeau, who will have sponsors and major-championship invites and competitive futures no matter what happens to LIV, players like Gooch sacrificed their status for the chance at life-changing money. Fortunately, they got their paydays. Unfortunately, their futures are now in greater question than ever before.

Ironically, Gooch (whose martyrdom around some of the major championship drama of the early LIV days earned him some flak) won’t be in the field this week at the PGA after receiving a special exemption in 2024. It’s a fitting glimpse into the state of the LIV midfield, and it raises the stakes on those who did make it into the field at Aronimink to show well. The tournament could have future employment potential at stake.

5. The year of Rory?

Last year, I remember being struck by the vision of Rory McIlroy, who arrived at the PGA Championship. After his thrilling win at Augusta National, I figured McIlroy would be floating on air — and carrying the kind of calm of someone without anything left to prove. It led me to predict that he’d win a bunch more majors, perhaps as soon as 2025.

Then he showed up at Quail Hollow looking cantankerous, abrasive and generally peeved. He never quite moved on from that worldview for the rest of the ’25 major season.

It wasn’t until he arrived at Augusta National for the first time as champion that the switch flipped. McIlroy arrived in 2026 at the Masters with all of the quiet, self-assured confidence I assumed I’d see from him in Quail Hollow. Then he won his second green jacket, and talked about resetting after feeling as if the grand slam was his career’s final “destination.” He said he’s found new hunger and enthusiasm in competing in the majors in this stage of his life — and if that’s true, this week could provide confirmation of a new kind of Rory.

4. Where art thou, Scottie?

Far be it from me to suggest that Scottie Scheffler is not playing great golf. He’s still the No. 1 player in the world. He’s still the biggest threat to win every tournament he plays in. He’s still pretty good at playing a really, really hard sport — as he often reminds us with a chuckle.

But Scottie Scheffler has not been the same untouchable force in 2026 that he was in most of 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025.

A couple of thoughts on that: 1. It’s not inherently a bad thing that this is true — Scheffler would have to be the greatest golfer in history to survive half a decade without a single lull in his game, and even then it might be unrealistic to think. 2. It’s not as if Scheffler’s “fall off” has been pronounced: DataGolf’s world rankings still have him as the best player in the world by three-quarters of a shot. 3. It’s still early in the season — early enough that a victory would quickly remove these conversations in their entirety.

In other words, Aronimink is Scottie’s chance to make us all shut up.

3. Forever Young

Hard to picture a player who better fits the profile of a winner this week than Cam Young, a burly northeasterner playing a burly northeast golf course. Young has been playing the best golf of his life in 2026, grabbing wins at the Players Championship and Doral en route to a career-best OWGR rank of World No. 3.

He profiles as the kind of ball-striker to win at least one major championship in his career, and his recent success in normal golf tournaments and major championships suggests his game is peaking in time for this week. This is a storyline worth monitoring.

2. New leadership

If you’ve only been paying attention to golf’s myriad other existential shakeups, it’s possible you’ve missed the leadership challenges happening at the PGA of America, where new CEO Terry Clark will preside over his first major championship since taking over for the brief tenure of Derek Sprague.

Clark has his plate full already at the PGA of A, including addressing matters of the golf ball rollback, the PGA Championship’s role in the greater golf hierarchy, the development of a true championship identity and the path to avoiding the persistent rake-steps that have dominated the governing body’s last several years ($800 Ryder Cup tickets and World No. 1 player arrests among them). We’ll get our first glimpse at his governing philosophy during a presser this week, and we’ll be paying close attention to what comes next.

1. Philly, baby!

Philadelphia is one of pro golf’s most overlooked cities, and there’s no really good reason for it. There might be no metro area in the United States with a better combination of great golf courses and rabid golf fans. The city will play a major role in the fun this week, and hopefully make a good case for golf in a regular major-championship rotation.