- Address3600 St Davids Rd, Newtown Square, PA 19073, USA
- Championships hosted
The course in play today at Aronimink Golf Club opened in 1928 and Dornoch’s most famous son, Donald Ross, originally designed it. Since then, the course has been altered many times down the years, while remaining true to Ross’s original design principles: to ensure even the best players are put to the “supreme test”.
Named after the chief of the Lenape tribe who once occupied the farmhouse that was used as the original clubhouse, the Aronimink Golf Club was established at the end of the 19th century and its members played golf at a couple of locations before upping sticks from Drexel Hill and settling on a 300-acre site at Newtown Square in 1926. The first play on the Ross-designed course took place on Memorial Day two years later.
Aronimink’s opening hole sets the tone with a long par four that plunges down into a valley then rises uphill to a well-protected green. It’s the first of many challenging two-shot holes that golfers will face during their round.
There are a number of demanding doglegs on the outward half, particularly the par four 7th, where the approach must carry a cavernous bunker protecting the front of the green and this hole is followed by perhaps the toughest one-shotter on the card, a par three that plays 237 yards downhill to a narrow putting surface.
The back nine begins with another strong par four measuring 454 yards from the back markers and its narrow fairway leads to a bunkerless green that’s protected by water to the front left of the putting surface. The 18th doglegs slightly right to a magnificent, castle-like clubhouse and this tough uphill closing hole plays to every inch of the 436 yards indicated on the card.
In 2003, Ron Prichard completed a restoration project to recapture many of the classic Ross features that had become diluted over time with greens returned to their original shape and bunkers returned to their intended size.
The course has hosted several national competitions in the modern era including the 1962 PGA Championship which Gary Player won, the 1977 US Amateur when John Fought beat Doug Fischesser 9&8 in the final match, the 1997 US Junior Amateur when Jason Allred defeated Trevor Immelman 1-UP in the final and the 2003 Senior PGA Championship, won by John Jacobs.
Following the recent discovery of old photographs from 1929, the club approved a further restoration project under the stewardship of Gil Hanse. Bunkers have been returned to their original shapes and greens complexes have been restored to their former Donald Ross roots. Work completed in spring 2018 ahead of the club’s hosting of the BMW Championship in September, which Keegan Bradley won after defeating Justin Rose in a play-off.
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Donald Ross worked with Old Tom Morris at St Andrews in 1893 then spent part of the following season at Carnoustie before returning to serve under the Dornoch club secretary John Sutherland.
