The 2026 PGA Championship returns to Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania from May 14–17 — the second time the season’s second major has been staged on the suburban Philadelphia track and the first since 1962. With the field locking down on May 4 (the cutoff was the conclusion of last week’s Cadillac Championship at Doral), here is the full picture of who is in, who is out, who got the last invites, and how the 156 players actually punched their ticket.
The Headlines
- 156-player field — same as the past several PGA Championships.
- 20 club professionals are guaranteed slots via the PGA Professional Championship — a quirk that distinguishes the PGA Championship from the other three majors.
- Top 70 players from the rolling PGA Championship Points list (2025 Truist through the 2026 Cadillac Championship) sealed their place last week.
- LIV Golf representation is in line with last year — players ranked inside the top 100 of the OWGR or with major-winner exemptions get in; the rest needed a special invite.
- Special invites: Aronimink officials and the PGA of America have used their flex slots on a mix of OWGR top-100 names without category exemptions and a small number of LIV pros, mirroring last year’s pattern.
How The Field Comes Together — The 12 Categories
The PGA of America builds its 156-strong field by walking down a published priority list. In broad strokes, the categories are:
- Past PGA champions — lifetime exemption.
- Past five years’ major champions — Masters, U.S. Open, Open Championship, PGA.
- Past three years’ Players Champions.
- Top 15 plus ties from the previous PGA Championship.
- PGA Tour winners from the last completed PGA Championship through the 2026 Cadillac Championship.
- Top 70 players on the PGA Championship Points list (2025 Truist → 2026 Cadillac).
- Members of the most recent U.S. and European Ryder Cup teams.
- 20 club professionals from the PGA Professional Championship.
- The current PGA of America Senior Champion — that is Stewart Cink in 2026, off the course-record 63 at The Concession.
- The DP World Tour’s top finishers via the Race to Dubai pathway.
- Special foreign and OWGR invites — used judiciously for top-100 names without another route in.
- Sponsor exemptions / discretionary invites — capped, but the PGA has used them on LIV players in recent years.
The published cutoff for the points list was May 3 — the final round of the Cadillac Championship at Trump Doral. Anyone who needed a win or a high finish there to climb in was racing the clock.
The Storylines To Watch
Scheffler vs. McIlroy, Round Two
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler arrives at Aronimink coming off a runner-up at Doral and a defense effort still on the calendar at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson the week before the major. Rory McIlroy heads in via the Truist Championship at Quail Hollow — the same Charlotte track where he has won four times. The two have alternated the FedExCup top spot all spring, and Aronimink will be the first major they meet on equal terms since the Masters.
Adam Scott’s Streak
Aronimink will mark a milestone for one of the modern game’s most consistent professionals. As we covered last week, Adam Scott is closing in on 100 consecutive major starts — a streak that runs through this very PGA Championship. His route in: lifetime major-winner exemption from the 2013 Masters.
Cameron Young’s Form
Cameron Young is one of just a handful of players to have lifted a Players Championship and a Doral title in the same calendar season — and now arrives at Aronimink as the form pick of the field. He locked his place via the points list well before Doral, but his recent runs at Sawgrass and the Blue Monster make him the player nobody wants to see on the back nine on Sunday.
The Brooks Koepka Question
The five-time major champion is again in the field via a past-PGA-champion exemption. He is using the OneFlight Myrtle Beach Classic as a final tune-up — a strategy he has openly described as the only way to get reps on PGA Tour-grade conditions before a major while playing primarily on LIV.
The Club-Pro Slot
20 of the 156 spots go to club professionals via the PGA Professional Championship. It is the most distinctive feature of this major — the only place where the local teaching pro from Pennsylvania, Texas, or California can hit the same range as Scheffler and Schauffele on Tuesday morning. Most miss the cut. The story is rarely about contention; it is about access.
The Course: Aronimink
Aronimink Golf Club, designed by Donald Ross in 1928, has been brought back closer to its original form by Gil Hanse in two restoration phases over the past decade. For the 2026 PGA Championship it will play approximately 7,267 yards, par 70, with the membership’s usual par-5 fourth converted to a long par-4 — a Ross-era detail that PGA Championship setups have leaned into elsewhere (think Oak Hill in 2023).
What this means for the field:
- Driver of the ball matters less than approach play. Aronimink’s greens are crowned and rejecting; the player hitting iron from the fairway will pick up huge strokes-gained-approach margins on those who scramble.
- Putting on Donald Ross greens is its own discipline. Aronimink has been re-grassed, but the Ross contours remain. Lag putting will be the silent winner.
- The wind is rarely the lead actor. Suburban Philadelphia in mid-May is more humid than gusty. Conditions will likely test patience over heroics.
What This Means For You As A Viewer (And Player)
If you are tuning in for the first time this season, the PGA Championship is the major most likely to deliver a leaderboard surprise. Strong fields plus a course that rewards strategy over raw distance has produced winners ranging from Brooks Koepka to Justin Thomas to Phil Mickelson at age 50 — all in the past decade.
For amateurs watching at home, Aronimink is a gift: a Donald Ross course that prizes precise wedge play and lag putting. Two practical takeaways you can borrow this weekend:
- Watch the wedge yardages. The pros at Aronimink will be hitting from 90, 105, 120 yards into crowned greens — exactly the distances most weekend players neglect to gap properly. If you have never built a wedge gapping chart, this week is a good excuse.
- Watch lag putting. Long birdie putts are usually defensive shots, not offensive ones. The winner will be the player who two-putts cleanly all week. Reading green slope is half the battle — the basics in our green-reading guide apply directly.
The Bottom Line
Aronimink is one of the great American Donald Ross designs, the field is locked, and the storylines are stacked: a McIlroy-Scheffler rematch, Adam Scott’s streak, Cameron Young’s breakout year, and a club-pro section that exists at no other major. The 2026 PGA Championship has every ingredient to be the best of the four spring-major appetizers leading into the U.S. Open at Shinnecock the following month.
The first tee shot is Thursday, May 14. Channel your viewing energy accordingly.
