The Philadelphia sports fan needs no introduction. Eagles, Flyers, Phillies, Sixers. Pick any Philly fanbase, and you’ll find the same thing—fierce loyalty … and fierce expectations. Just ask poor ol’ Saint Nick, who Eagles fans infamously bombarded with snowballs in protest of the Birds’ lowly 2-11 record during a halftime Christmas parade in 1968.
That was six years after Aronimink Golf Club hosted its last PGA Championship, and though the world has changed much since then, the Philly sports fan has not. With the Wanamaker returning to Aronimink for the first time in 64 years this week, it’s fair to wonder if we’ll see the raucous and, at times, regrettable behavior that marred the Ryder Cup last fall. Will the city’s trademark boos drown out the roars? Or will the Philly faithful, with their rabid allegiances already established, even care? After talking to those who know Philadelphia golf best, however, it seems like the PGA Championship and the City of Brotherly Love might just be a match made in golf heaven.
Enter Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Marcus Hayes. 30 years ago, Hayes moved to Philadelphia from his hometown of Syracuse to cover sports for the Philadelphia Daily News. At first, Hayes largely covered baseball and football, but when the Daily News and Philadelphia Inquirer merged, Hayes found himself immersed in the topsy, turvy world golf. Now it’s not only one of his primary beats, but one his biggest passions too.
“I belong to a local country club and it’s the second local country club that I have belonged to,” says Hayes while returning from an afternoon tee time. “The last 10 years I've been a member of a club and I've carried a handicap for probably the last 15 years.”
With extensive experience in both Philadelphia’s franchise sports culture and golf culture, Hayes offers a unique perspective, and as he explains, the average Philly golfer is not what you might expect if you’ve ever seen an episode of ‘Always Sunny in Philadelphia.’
“Philadelphia has elite blue blood private clubs like Aronimink, Merion, Philadelphia Cricket Club and Pine Valley [just across the river in New Jersey]. The members there are legacy golfers—a lot of grandfathers, fathers and sons. It's their culture, it’s who they are. Everything sort of revolves around the club.”
If you include Pine Valley as part of the broader Philadelphia golf ecosystem, as Hayes does, that makes three Philly-area clubs—alongside Aronimink and Merion—on Golf Digest’s list of America’s 100 Greatest. Philadelphia Cricket Club, meanwhile, enjoys a spot on our list of America’s Second 100 Greatest. Clearly, Philadelphia's roster of historic golf venues allows it to compete with just about any city on earth, but unlike similar clubs across the Northeast and deep south, Hayes believes that the highest echelons of Philadelphia golf still adhere to the city’s collaborative ethos.
“I have friends who belong to Cricket. I have friends who belong to Aronimink. That level of club is probably as elite as any in the country as far as quality of golf, but it's not like you can't get in,” Hayes explains.
“Then you've got kind of like the middle-class golf, which is like the second tier of private clubs. There's five like club corp/invited clubs in this area and they're good, solid clubs that pretty much anybody can get in. The initiation fee and dues aren't exorbitant, but the golf is good … So if you want to play private in Philadelphia, you can probably afford it if you're middle-class.”
The public golf options aren’t quite as robust, admits Hayes, but they do provide the widest part of the city’s golf funnel. They are where Philly’s collage of blue-collar workers, families and hobbyists come together to enjoy the game of golf.
“You have a pretty decent public golf course scene, but it's not great. Mainly because most of the people in Philadelphia and South Jersey with the money are going to join a private club, so the public golf course scene sort of suffers for that,”
As far as the golfers you can expect to find at city’s public courses, Hayes likens them to “the 700 Club at the Vet,” the infamous upper section of the old Philadelphia Veterans Stadium, known for the rowdiest fan behavior.
“If you're a landscaper, if you're a plumber, if you're a construction worker and you like golf, you're going to be able to find plenty of clubs where you can be in a league on Wednesday or Thursday night and play with your shirt untucked and your hat backwards. There's lots of that, and you're going to have fun, and they're going to cater to you.”
In many ways then, the PGA Championship is not just the perfect major for the city of Philadelphia, but a reflection of it. At one end of the field, there are golf’s elite. The blue chippers like Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler and Jon Rahm, all of whom are expected to be at or near the top of the leaderboard come sundown on Sunday. At the other, there are 20 PGA Professionals from across America; names you won’t recognize who continue to strive and compete for a trophy that, in all likelihood, they cannot win. Hayes describes Philadelphia golf culture as “bifurcated,” a mix of old and new divided by wealth and opportunity. The PGA Championship is much the same. Occasionally, an average Philly golfer scores an invite to Aronimink or Merion, just as a PGA Professional, such as Michael Block at Oak Hill in 2023, gets his moment in the spotlight.
Underdog stories are not exclusive to the PGA Championship, of course. In fact, it can be argued that The Open, not the PGA, provides the most level playing field of the four men’s majors. Still, no major embraces the everyman like the PGA Championship. The Masters is about aura and tradition. The U.S. Open is a test of skill and willpower. The Open is a celebration of golf history. The PGA Championship is the working-class major, something the city of Philadelphia understands on a fundamental level.
How that presents this week remains to be seen. Hayes says anticipation levels, especially amongst the middle tier of Philadelphia golfers who love the game but perhaps haven’t had the opportunity to see beyond the gates of Merion and Aronimink, are high. “I know at least three people who are taking days off to watch a practice round,” he claims. Combine that with the fact the Flyers and Sixers were both swept out of the playoffs this week and the Phillies are still languishing below .500, and the runway is clear for the PGA Championship to take off. The only bad news is that the earliest the PGA Championship can return to Philadelphia is 2036, but if things go well this week, perhaps the Wanamaker has finally found a place to call home.