'Kind of absurd:' On the PGA, 'dicey' pin locations push pros over the edge

NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. – Big tournaments should be tough. The mental test required to lift one of golf's four awards must be grueling and exhausting. The challenge for tournament organizers is that it should not happen either.

The question is: Where is the line? And did we get it during the first two rounds of the 2026 PGA Championship at Aronimink Golf Club?

“I like the hard tests of golf, but it's also the hardest game in the world, and we try to make it difficult, and there are different ways you can do that,” said the World No. “You can do that on a golf course like this, I mean, I really believe they can get the winning score to be whatever they want it to be. It could be over the top if they want it to be, based on the pinning locations. Is that the best test? Who knows. It's a different test.”

A week in, there was talk that the best in the world would tap the Donald Ross gem on the outskirts of Philadelphia. Rory McIlroy has complained about the “lack of” driver technique needed to break the course. The assumption was that low scores would be in the forecast.

Instead, Kerry Haigh and the PGA of America have given Scheffler, McIlroy and other golf stars a heavy dose of diabolical pin locations, many of which are placed on spines or steps from steep slopes. Friday morning also brought winds gusting up to 30 miles per hour, and strengthening greens. That combination led to several stars pulling out of the PGA Championship on Friday afternoon after being beaten by an opponent who was expected to win. Even those who were lucky enough to book a tee time on the weekend walked off the course looking shocked, having spent hours trying to decide how to attack the unassailable.

“A lot of the pars today, I mean, were stupid,” Scheffler said after posting 2-under in 36 holes. “They were so far away from places where we thought the pins were going to be, — like that one on 14 was probably the hardest pin I've seen in a long time, just because, I mean, there's literally like a spine and it's like, 'Oh, we're just going to put a pin on it.' And he's like, 'Okay, I'll see what I can do.' And you know, just a challenge.

“This is the toughest set of points I've seen since I've been on tour, and that includes the US Opens, which includes Oakmont.”

Shane Lowry shot a second round 76 to fall to the cut line at 4 over par. The 2019 Open Champion scoffed at how tight the pins were on the steep green at Aronimink. Lowry made it clear: he wasn't “whining” about the tough setup. You've seen many tricky pins before. But their persistence in Aronimink was unusual. He called for a left pin on No. 5 at Augusta National is “the boundary,” for example, but he noted that Augusta often follows that pin by placing the pin on No. 6 in a bowl. No endorsements so far this week at Aronimink.

“People in the big leagues don't know how hard it is,” Lowry told several reporters with a laugh. “Like, I just got to the 10th hole today, and I was like, 'Oh my God.' By the way, it's a really solid hole. It's not like a wedge hole. It's a really tight hole, and with that pin position, it's like, I don't know. I don't know. This is a great golf course. No need to try to fool you.

“There wasn't a pin in the bowl there today. I felt like every pin was on the bonnet of the car.”

Lowry rubbed his face and said he just hoped he'd have time over the weekend to get two more cracks at the golden design.

“I've never had so many footers that I felt like I could take off the green, honestly,” Lowry said. “Every time I hit a good shot on the pin it was like I was in the crown, up and over, in the grain, the low grain. It's very treacherous, with winds up to 20 miles an hour. I haven't had that since Pinehurst. That's what it feels like when you're at Pinehurst.”

Next up was Patrick Reed, who shot 2 over on Friday and will do the same for the weekend. It was a day when Mhlanga was not at his best, and his weaknesses were exposed by the exact setup that wanted to control.

“The pins are brutal,” Reed told GOLF and the Philadelphia Inquirer after his round. “There aren't any in the bowls. There are only crowns here and they put all the pins in the crown. Two pins are easy to say the least, but at the same time, one kind of expected it to be that way.”

Reed bogeyed the par-3 hole, which played 243 yards in Round 1 and stopped play, calling it a “dumb hole.” But aside from the par-3, Reed felt the first 36 holes were major tournament quality. The test is as it should be. If you hit a good shot, the reward is there. Good will not do.

“Pin positions are tight, but if you hit a quality iron, you have a chance to get it closer,” Reed said.

That was the overwhelming feeling of the players on Friday at Aronimink. The pin locations are on the edges, yes. They want. But if you pull off the required shot, you can still score. You just have to understand. There is almost no room for error.

“I'm going to try to answer this correctly. I don't think it's fair,” said Chris Gotterup, who shot 5 under on Friday. “Fourteen today is aggressive, I'll say. You hit a 4-iron into the 10-foot circle, and if it doesn't go there, it's off the green, and if you hit it 40 feet, you've got a very solid putt. [Robert MacIntyre] he made a birdie on my team, and hit a great shot. So it's unfair, maybe not.”

Scheffler played his first two rounds with Justin Rose and Matthew Fitzpatrick. Scheffler said he asked his caddy, Ted Scott, and Rose's caddy, Mark Fulcher, if they had ever seen pins like this before. Both say only Shinnecock, who hosts the US Open next month, is more balanced. Even last year's US Open host, Oakmont, isn't on this level because the slopes on those greens are different than Ross designed at Aronimink.

“It's different in a sense on this golf course, because Oakmont, the greens are very hard, but they're very hard on one side,” Scheffler said. “Here, it's like the green can slide all the way [gestures right to left] then we put the pin down here[pointing to the slope]and there is a slope over here [gestures left to right]. And as it is not, how can you say, natural in the existing slopes. There is more, I think, produced in vegetables, and it is more difficult.

“It's hard to get the ball close to the hole. It's hard to bend putts especially when you have big slopes and wind, and I think that's why the scores are so close for par.”

Reed saw one silver lining as he walked to the parking lot and prepared to charge for the weekend in Philadelphia's affluent Newtown Square. Pin locations should, in theory, be simple.

“I feel like they knew what the pins were really going to be, they really sold them and they pulled them out of the way when the greens were too soft,” Reed said.

For those who survived to make the weekend, that's something to hope for.