The setup for the Aronimink Golf Club has been quite cruel to everyone participating. So much so that the cutline was set at 4-over par. Jon Rahm had a first-hand experience of how bad it could get in the 2026 PGA Championship this week. And he shared his concerns about the venue after the end of the third round.

“Honestly, when I heard people talking about 20-under par, it made me question my ability to read a golf course,” Rahm told the media. He added, “I was looking at the greens and where they could put pin locations and possible wind, and I actually got worried. I’m like if somebody shoots 20-under, the amount of records they’re going to break this week would be unheard of.”

Aronimink Golf Club has hosted eight big events in the past. Over the years, it has seen a variety of scores, including a 20-under-par shot by Keegan Bradley in the 2018 BMW Championship. However, the course for the 2026 PGA Championship is not set up to play for a similar score.

After three rounds of action, Alex Smalley at the top of the leaderboard is sitting at 6-under par. The rest of the field is playing at 4-under or worse. Interestingly, Smalley & Co. had finished at -4 at the end of Friday. So the leaderboard hasn’t changed much over the course of the last 18 holes. And Rahm is enjoying setup.

“Credit to the PGA for the setup. They found some incredible hard pin locations out there. Usually when we’re practicing, we put our disks out, and there’s definitely quite a few that I would have told Adam, man, there’s no way they’re going to put a pin there, and they did. So we found a way to keep it all close together. As hard as it is to play, the challenge can also be kind of fun if you do well.”

Looks like the Spaniard is enjoying himself. And why wouldn’t he? He’s one of the few who are tied at T2 with a 4-under par. Chasing Smalley, Rahm will have a shot at winning the Wanamaker Trophy and getting one step closer to a career Grand Slam tomorrow.

Interestingly, Rahm is not the only one who has been concerned about the course setup at Aronimink Golf Club. A few others also shared their worries about it.

Rory McIlroy & Scottie Scheffler shared similar views as Jon Rahm

The best in LIV Golf, Jon Rahm, seems to hold the same views as the world #1 and #2, Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler. They, too, had concerns about the course setup of Aronimink Golf Club.

Scheffler told the media, “10 is a good example. I’m sitting there, the wind’s blowing 20, 25 miles an hour right-to-left, and I got a green that goes like down right-to-left into a valley, up left-to-right, back right-to-left, and then the pin is quite literally, if I hit that chip shot and the pin’s here and it goes to there, it goes all the way over the back of the green, and now I have a very, very difficult up-and-down for bogey.”

The pin location, green variation of the greens, the windy conditions, and the entire atmosphere of the major all add up to the pressure of the situation. Scheffler specifically talked about the 10th hole here. He has scored a bogey, a birdie, and a par in the three rounds he has played there so far. However, McIlroy’s views about the venue have progressively changed.

When discussing the conditions of the third round, he told the reporters, “Better. I said no profanity today, so keep it clean.”

He finished with a 4-under 66 on Saturday that helped him jump into the top-10. However, self-admittedly, he had had a pretty “s**t” round on Thursday. That might be because of the course setup or because of a bruised toe or even a combination of both; we may never know. Either way, Rahm’s views about the venue are certainly justified by the best golfers in the world.