NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. — The best place to watch golf at Aronimink for this week’s PGA Championship? It may not be on property at all.
Instead it may be from the backyard of a well-appointed home that borders the 13th green, where the neighbors built an enormous platform, setting up a perfect perch from which to watch the action.
On Wednesday, as players wrapped their final pre-tournament preparations, so too did the platform-builders, readying the structure for four days of front-row viewing.
Good news for those of us not invited to the Platform Party, though: No. 13 may still be the most interesting watch of the week without an invitation to N. Newtown Street Rd. That’s because the short par-4 asks an interesting question off the tee — lay up or push it towards the green? — that players are answering in different ways.
During Wednesday’s practice round, No. 13 played downwind, which meant longer hitters could get driver greenside even from 385 yards. But a wind switch on Thursday meant a trickier decision: try to cover the bunkers or lay way back, leaving a mid-to-long iron?
Players were clearly befuddled by the wind, the bunkering and the question of club selection, which led to major dispersion off the tee on Thursday and understandable uncertainty. With no clear way to solve the riddle, the 365-yard par-4, the shortest on property, played almost exactly even par.
No. 13 will have various twists and turns as the week goes on, with wind and hole location dictating different strategies. But on at least one day — perhaps during Saturday’s third round — tournament organizers are expected to move the tee up some 50 yards, turning the hole into a truly drivable par-4.
In some ways No. 13 is an outlier; it’s the only reachable par-4 on property and the only one under 400 yards. But in other ways it typifies Aronimink’s test: you can get aggressive off the tee but you’ll pay the price if you miss the fairway — and the true defense comes around the slippery, multi-tiered undulating green, which has a couple pin positions that could make these guys shiver.
And provide plenty of good viewing for those in the neighboring backyard — or those on your couch at home.
