NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. (AP) — Justin Thomas had his caddie place hole-sized discs on every corner of the 17th green at Aronimink on Monday, all of them perched on knobs.
Whether he was chipping or putting, it was a challenge.
Aronimink is marked by its 180 bunkers that frame the landing areas, except for the longest hitters. The first official day of practice for the PGA Championship brought a reminder that accuracy this week is more about shots into the green
than avoiding bunkers or the healthy rough.
These are big greens with big slopes.
“Off the tee it's not extremely challenging,” said Keegan Bradley, who won on a soggy Aronimink in 2018 at the BMW Championship. “But the greens get really crazy, and they are really mounded and hilly just like a lot of Northeast courses. So to put the ball in the right spot is really important.”
The course was full, inside and outside the ropes, despite temperatures that struggled to reach 60 degrees Fahrenheit (15 Celsius), which can happen with the PGA Championship moving to May and being held in northern part of the United States. Bethpage Black was even colder in 2019 until it warmed as the week went on, and that's expected to be the case this week.
Thomas was among the few who made a scouting trip during one of his weeks off. It was a chance to get reacquainted with a course that has fewer trees than the last time he played in 2018, and was in perfect condition. The last day for member play was Nov. 2.
“It's pretty generous off the tee,” Thomas said. “I don't remember, but it feels like at some point you can tell they took out a lot of trees. The holes that feel open, the rough is healthy. But the greens have a lot of slope. It's going to be dependent on how firm and fast they can get.”
There was another reason for an early trip to Aronimink. He could get in 18 holes without feeling as though he lost an entire day. That's typical in the days leading to a major championship.
“Practice rounds at the PGA are the most miserable ever,” Thomas said after playing nine holes Monday morning as the first one out on the back nine. “Unbearably slow.”
More than the U.S. Open?
“Tied for last,” he replied.
And to emphasize the importance of the heavily contoured greens, Thomas said practice rounds look like players working on the short-game area with so much chipping and putting.
“It certainly seems like it’s going to be distance control on your approach shots,” Jordan Spieth said. “Because if you’re able to really be hitting your mid- to short irons, controlling the spin and getting it into these tiers, you can actually ... have a lot of pretty close looks for birdie if you get in the right section. If you miss the section, they are going to be really difficult to either get up-and-down or to two-putt. Just lots of pitch on the greens.”
Spieth has a lot to gain this week, as has been the case since he showed up at the PGA Championship in 2017. A victory would give him the final leg of the career Grand Slam, a feat achieved by only six players, most recently Rory McIlroy last year at the Masters.
“If I can win one more tournament in my life, it would obviously be this one for that reason,” Spieth said. “But the easiest way to do that is to not try to, in a weird way. Just go out and get ready for the first hole, get a good game plan in and attack it the way it needs to be attacked.”
Brandt Snedeker and Sudarshan Yellamaraju of Canada were the final two additions to the 156-man field at Aronimink. The 45-year-old Snedeker qualified by winning the Myrtle Beach Classic last week for his first PGA Tour title in eight years; Yellamaraju was added because the winner of the Truist Championship, Kristoffer Reitan, already had qualified through his world ranking.
Tom Hoge got in as an alternate when Jake Knapp was forced to withdraw with a thumb injury.
The PGA Championship strives to have the top 100 in the world ranking, and it was close until Lucas Herbert won LIV Golf Virginia and Shaun Norris was runner-up (by 14 shots) on the European tour. Both cracked the top 100. Neither is at Aronimink.
Scottie Scheffler, the world's No. 1 player and defending champion, played nine holes. That was the case for most players, with Matt Fitzpatrick being an exception. This is his first time at Aronimink, and he saw the entire course. One part stood out.
“The green complexes, yeah, for sure,” Fitzpatrick said. "They are very severe in spots. It will be interesting to see where obviously the pins get put. There’s certainly two or three holes where you can’t have more than four pins.
“I look at the golf course that I just played, and it definitely favors length off the tee because a lot of the bunkers will be taken out of play,” he said. “So I think for me, the greens are going to be the defense for the week.”
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