Will the PGA Championship, golf's weird major, have a weird winner? Plus: The intrigue of Aronimink

Golf Briefing ⛳ | This is The Athletic’s daily newsletter for the 2026 Masters. Sign up here to receive the Golf Briefing directly in your inbox.Welcome to our special-edition newsletter covering the PGA Championship, which starts tomorrow at Aronimink Golf Club near Philadelphia. I’m Alex, a contributing writer for The Athletic. Staff writer Gabby Herzig will join us from the course in a moment.For this event, we’ll be with you daily through Sunday. Let’s get started:Major Season: Here’s a fun PGA Championship idea “Will a dark horse win this major?” is perhaps golf’s most seductive question. We even entertained it in this space ahead of the Masters, before Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler finished 1-2. Those two are again the favorites this week, so much so that Brody Miller is pondering whether we might get a true major duel between them for the first time.Plus, there’s this, from Justin Ray’s tournament preview:💬 While the PGA has featured the off-the-board winners in the past, more recently, chalk has ruled the week. Seven of the last nine PGA champions entered the week ranked in the top 15 of the Official World Golf Rankings. The two exceptions weren’t exactly no-names: six-time major winner Phil Mickelson in 2021 and five-time major champ Brooks Koepka two years later.OK, look: I shouldn’t do this. My better angels are telling me not to do it. But here goes:Rickie Fowler is 37th in the world ranking, but 12th in Data Golf’s ranking. He’s put together three top-10 finishes in a row, including a T-2 at the Truist Championship last week. It feels like he has been around forever (because he has), but he’s just 37.Advertisement