Aronimink commissioned Donald Ross in 1926 to lay out a full relocation course on a new 300-acre tract at Newtown Square after selling its Drexel Hill site; the club opened the new course and clubhouse on Memorial Day 1928. Contemporary club history places the planning in 1926 and the construction/opening in 1928, and preserves Ross’s own rededication quotation on site.
Ross was also filmed and photographed on the property during construction, evidence later used by restoration architects to verify field decisions as-built rather than merely as-drawn.
Ross’s stated design intent at Aronimink is unusually explicit: in 1948, two decades after opening, he told the club, “I intended to make this my masterpiece, but not until today did I realize that I built better than I knew.” The club displays the quotation at the first tee and repeats it in its official history.
In the club’s course narrative, Ross’s scheme was conceived to stress first-shot positioning and “the supreme test” of long-iron approaches, a theme reflected in the opening hole’s severe up-and-over valley climb and in the demanding long par-3s that anchor the front nine.
There is no evidence in public records that Ross returned for a wholesale second build after 1928, although period imagery shows him supervising construction and adjusting details on site. Subsequent major phases were undertaken by other architects (see “Current condition / integrity”).
Unique design characteristics on the ground
Aronimink’s routing pivots around a broad central depression locals call “the sink,” with corridors draped across its flanks and rim; this landform is not generic Ross folklore but the specific engine of variety here, with holes 6, 7, 15 and 16 demanding tee shots and approaches played from and into side-hill lies. The PGA of America’s hole-by-hole analysis emphasizes how these fairways, set across significant grades, influence stance, curve, and landing choices.
Ross’s par-3 palette at Aronimink is both polarized and precise. The 5th (178 yards during recent championships) plays slightly downhill to a green whose restored perimeter created tougher front and wing hole locations; it was the only par-3 to average under par during one PGA Tour event week, and it now functions as a short but exacting counterpoint to the bruising 8th. The 8th—restored to a ~238-yard test in modern setups—proved the toughest hole on the course for the BMW field, underlining Ross’s use of elevation and a narrow, exacting target.
Bunker architecture is the single most distinctive Ross fingerprint surviving—and now re-revealed—at Aronimink. Using 1929 aerials and ground photos, Gil Hanse’s team confirmed that Ross clustered hazards here in threes and fours far more than is typical elsewhere, creating fields of decision rather than isolated pits. The restoration returned the course to well over 170 bunkers (published counts vary by source between 174, 176 and 178, reflecting whether a few cluster elements were intentionally omitted for playability), with No. 11 singled out for its “rows and rows” of landing-zone bunkers feeding into a severely elevated green.
Ross’s opening 1st embodies the property-specific drama: a tee shot down into a valley followed by a ~250-yard uphill climb to a green that is largely blind on the approach, a sequencing choice that sets the “test” immediately rather than easing into the round.
At the turn, the 10th asks for a controlled long iron or fairway wood into a green guarded by water front-left—an uncommon water presentation on Ross courses, but one explicitly described in championship materials for Aronomink. On the homeward side, 16 (a ~545-yard par-5 from club guidance) is purposely a late scoring hinge; Hanse notes the hole’s strategic staging for modern events while keeping Ross’s corridor and green character intact.
Which holes read clearest as Ross, today? After restorations aimed at 1928 intent, the 5th and 8th par-3s and the 11th par-4 most plainly display Ross’s Aronimink ideas: short-iron exactness at 5, brute-force precision at 8, and clustered, diagonal fairway defenses into a pitched, elevated target at 11. Each has published, hole-specific documentation of returned green pads, expanded perimeters or bunker fields aligned to Ross’s drawings and 1929 imagery.
Historical significance within Ross’s body of work
Aronimink matters in Ross’s chronology because it captures a late-1920s, large-canvas commission where the architect controlled routing and detailing on a fresh, expansive site and then publicly declared the finished work his “masterpiece.” The on-site plaque and club record of his 1948 comment provide unusually direct authorial testimony relative to other Ross clubs.
The course’s tournament record has repeatedly tested those ideas at the highest level: 1962 PGA Championship (Gary Player), 1977 U.S. Amateur (John Fought), 2003 Senior PGA (John Jacobs), 2010 & 2011 AT&T National (Justin Rose; Nick Watney), 2018 BMW Championship (Keegan Bradley), and the 2020 KPMG Women’s PGA (Sei Young Kim)—with the 2026 PGA Championship scheduled, making Aronimink the first venue to host all three of the PGA of America’s rotating major championships.
Modern raters routinely place Aronimink among the nation’s leading classical courses; recent Golf Digest and other national lists highlight the restored 11th as an exemplar of Ross’s creative bunkering here, and national coverage in 2018–2025 emphasized how the restoration re-centered the Ross identity in advance of major events.
Current condition / integrity
The routing remains Ross’s, and the club’s 2016–2018 restoration program explicitly sought to “repaint” the 1928 picture using 1929 aerials, period film of Ross on site, and surviving ground photographs. The work widened fairways, re-expanded greens to original perimeters, added more than 100 bunkers to restore clustered schemes, and built 18 new tee boxes to maintain original hole intents at modern yardages.
Greens gained back tens of thousands of square feet in aggregate and long-suppressed vistas were reopened through tree management, further revealing Ross’s corridor scale.
Earlier 20th-century layers complicate any simple “percentage Ross” metric. In the 1950s, William Gordon eliminated out-of-play fairway bunkers and moved others nearer greens; Dick Wilson then “toughened” the course prior to the 1962 PGA, George and Tom Fazio made additional post-1977 U.S. Amateur edits, and Robert Trent Jones Sr. undertook further work in the mid-1980s.
A 2003 restoration by Ron Prichard re-established Ross green shapes and bunker style from original drawings and widened fairway presentation, laying the groundwork for the later Hanse/Wagner campaign.
The Hanse effort, initiated mid-2010s and completed for the 2018 BMW Championship, used the 1929 imagery to return Ross’s multiple-bunker clusters and larger green targets (e.g., at 11 and 15) and stretched holes only as needed to keep their original playing roles. Published restoration counts list 174 bunkers (The Fried Egg), 176 (Hanse news feature) and 178 (Hanse “Five Things”), reflecting minor differences in how small cluster elements and practice hazards are tallied.
Today the green sites and perimeters largely match Ross’s as-built outlines (per the aerial control), the bunker networks read again as clustered and diagonal rather than isolated, and the tree lines have been thinned to the historical scale; the routing and most tee-to-green corridors are Ross’s, though some individual hazards reflect modern placements chosen to preserve his original hole intentions at 21st-century distances. Specific examples include the restored bunker fielding and recaptured hole locations at 11, the short-par-3 5th with re-established edges, the long-par-3 8th’s demanding carry, and the late-round strategy at 16.
The 10th still presents water tight to the left front of its green, a feature documented in USGA/PGA materials.
Wikipedia
Uncertainties and points of dispute
Two details deserve flags. First, counts of present-day bunkers differ between 174–178 in reputable sources because the restoration intentionally omitted a few early-era cluster elements that only punished the weakest players and because various tallies treat certain small pits and practice hazards differently. Treat any single number as an approximation of a restored clustered scheme, not a fixed census.
Second, while some enthusiast sources assert that an “extra” nine from Ross plans was never built, this claim rests in forum discussion rather than published club records; until plan sheets or minutes are publicly released, treat “unbuilt holes” at Aronimink as unconfirmed.
Sources & Notes
Aronimink Golf Club — History (official site): commissioning in 1926; opening in 1928; on-site Ross quotation; championship list including 1962 PGA; 1977 U.S. Amateur; 2003 Senior PGA; 2010/2011 AT&T National; 2018 BMW; 2020 KPMG Women’s PGA; 2026 PGA Championship.
Aronimink Golf Club — Home page (official): on-site display of Ross’s “masterpiece” quote; club relocation facts.
PGA of America: 2026 PGA Championship pages confirming dates and venue.
PGA.com feature, “The Sink at the Mink”: landform and hole specifics (6, 7, 15, 16).
Hanse Golf Design news/features: restoration scope, clustered-bunker evidence from 1929 imagery; counts; hole-specific notes (11, 15, 18) and project timeline.
The Fried Egg, “Restoring the Mink”: restoration philosophy; bunker count and rationale for omitting certain cluster elements.
Philadelphia Inquirer (2010, 2016): records of Dick Wilson pre-1962 changes; Fazios post-1977; RTJ in mid-1980s; preview of added bunkers at 11 during restoration.
Top100GolfCourses (news): tree removals and ~30,000 sq ft green expansion during restoration.
Top PGA Tour/Hanse notes: par-3 5th (178y) as the only par-3 to play under par; 8th as toughest hole for touring pros in 2018.
Aronimink Course Tour (official): opening hole’s down-then-up profile; 16th at ~545y; long-iron “supreme test” language.
KPMG Women’s PGA Championship site: hole descriptions; 11 (rows of bunkers) and 1 details; water guarding 10.
Forum note (GolfClubAtlas): claim of unbuilt Ross holes at Aronimink—treated as unconfirmed pending primary documentation.