PGA Championship – A Week at Aronimink

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The 108th PGA Championship is well under way at Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, and it has already delivered plenty to talk about — not all of it from the leaderboard.

The 2026 PGA Championship at Aronimink Golf Club

A Donald Ross Masterpiece

Aronimink is a genuine classic. Donald Ross designed it in 1928, considered it his finest work, and the course has done little to argue against him since. Precision over power is the governing principle — rolling fairways, demanding bunkering, and green complexes that have refused to yield cheaply to the world’s best players for nearly a century. World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who won last year’s PGA Championship at Quail Hollow, arrives at Aronimink looking to defend — despite three consecutive runner-up finishes on tour heading into the week. A field of 156 players is competing for the Wanamaker Trophy, with around 200,000 spectators expected through the gates across the week.

It is, in short, a major championship firing on all cylinders.

The Weather Has Its Say

Stormy weather at Aroniminik

The weather, however, has not totaly cooperated. Play was suspended on Tuesday during practice rounds, resuming just under two hours later. Saturday’s third round was halted again at 8:15 AM due to dangerous conditions on the course, with starting times pushed back and tee times restructured across both nines. May in the Delaware Valley is not without its charms, but it comes with no guarantees.

The PGA Championship will produce a worthy champion and a week’s worth of compelling golf. But for those watching from home and feeling that familiar urge — to play rather than observe — May on the Iberian Peninsula remains one of the more straightforward arguments in European golf travel.

May on the Iberian Peninsula

South Course Quinta do Lago

May is one of the more reliably beautiful months in the golf calendars of both Portugal and Spain. The Algarve’s courses tend to be at their finest condition of the year — fairways lush from the winter rains, greens running true, the mornings warm and still. The Costa del Sol tells a similar story. Neither is a secret, exactly, but both bear repeating when the alternative involves weather warnings and shelter announcements.

We cover Portugal and Spain in full, from tee times to hotel stays and transfers. If the mood is taking you, it’s a good time to start looking.

Green Fees in the UK causing valid concern

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£495 for a Round of Golf. Seriously.

Green fees in the United Kingdom have always been climbing. But 2026 has delivered a number that deserves a moment of quiet contemplation: £495. That is the peak visitor green fee at Royal Birkdale this summer — up 24% on last year, and enough to make even the most devoted links pilgrim pause mid-swing.

Royal-Birkdale-Golf-Course-Southport

The Numbers Are Startling

Royal Birkdale is not alone. In 2021, the average green fee across the UK’s top 100 courses was £161. In 2026, that figure stands at £265 — a five-year increase of nearly 65%. The most recent annual rate of increase has outpaced inflation by more than three times. Fifteen courses in Great Britain and Ireland now charge £400 or more for a peak visitor round, up from just eight last year. Add a caddie to your Birkdale round and you are looking at well north of £575 before you have bought a sandwich. 

A Round at Birkdale or a Weekend in the Algarve?

Here is where it gets interesting. £495 is, give or take, the cost of a return flight from London to Faro, two nights in a decent Algarve hotel, and a round at one of the finest courses in Portugal — with change left for a very good dinner and a bottle of Alentejo red. The arithmetic is not flattering to Southport.

Golden-Triangle-Golf-Quinta do Lago

Portugal’s top courses — Quinta do Lago South, Monte Rei, Oitavos Dunes, Vilamoura Old — charge green fees that rarely exceed €180 at peak. They are played in reliable sunshine, on immaculate surfaces, with the Atlantic visible from half the tees. Nobody is suggesting they are Royal Birkdale. But at a third of the price, on a warm May morning with no wind chill involved, they make a compelling case.

The Links Dream Is Not Dead — Just Expensive

To be fair to Birkdale, The Open Championship returns there in July for the 11th time — and playing a major venue in its Open year is a genuine bucket-list experience. The club has also launched a ballot offering UK golfers a round for £99, which is a thoughtful gesture. But for the majority of visiting golfers, £495 is simply the asking price, take it or leave it. 

There Is Another Way

Golden-Triangle-Golf-Vilamoura-Old

For golfers who want exceptional courses, reliable weather, and a holiday that does not require remortgaging, the Algarve, Lisbon, and the Costa del Sol have been making that argument for years. In 2026, with UK green fees climbing past £495, the case has never been easier to make.

Browse our Portugal golf holidays and see what £495 can really buy you.

From Vila Nova de Gaia to the DP World Tour

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Daniel Rodrigues Shines at the Turkish Airlines Open

Daniel Rodrigues Shines at the Turkish Airlines Open

Sunday’s final round at the Turkish Airlines Open in Belek was not supposed to go like this for Daniel Rodrigues. He is 23 years old. He is playing his first full season on the DP World Tour. Six months ago, he was grinding through all three stages of Qualifying School — a six-round marathon at INFINITUM in Spain — just to earn his card. And yet there he was, standing on the 18th green at National Golf Club, finishing tied second on eight under par, two shots behind winner Mikael Lindberg.

Not bad for a debut season.

The boy from Gaia

Rodrigues is from Vila Nova de Gaia — the historic city that faces Porto across the Douro River — and his story is a good one. The former number one amateur in Portugal, he won the Portuguese Amateur title and was national Under-18 and Under-16 champion before crossing the Atlantic to study and play golf at Texas A&M University. He turned professional last summer. He made it through Q-School at the first attempt. And then, in just his second season of professional golf, he nearly won a DP World Tour event on a rain-soaked Sunday afternoon in Turkey.

Drama on moving day

The week was not without its drama. Rodrigues shared the lead heading into the final round, having carded a composed third-round 68 — birdying four of his first six holes — before a two-hour lightning stoppage threatened to break his rhythm. It did not. He and Lindberg went into Sunday tied at the top, the air still damp and the occasion very real.

Turkish Airlines Open at National Golf Club Belek Turkey

When Lindberg held firm

Lindberg, to his credit, was magnificent. The 33-year-old Swede closed with a 69 to take his maiden DP World Tour title, earning himself a debut major appearance at the PGA Championship at Aronimink later this month in the process. But Rodrigues — sharing second with Italy’s Guido Migliozzi — will have taken enormous confidence from the week. These are the results that define careers.

A Portuguese double act

It was, quietly, a fine weekend for Portuguese golf in general. Ricardo Melo Gouveia tied for seventh on six under — a steady, experienced performance from the man who has flown the flag for Portuguese golf on the DP World Tour almost single-handedly in recent years. Now, for the first time in a long time, he has company worth having.

Ricardo Melo Gouveia tied for seventh

Portugal, is producing leaderboard golfers again, which is only fitting for a country that also produces some of the finest golf courses in Europe.

Time to book your piece of Portugal

The Algarve, where Rodrigues cut his teeth as an amateur, remains one of the great destinations for any golfer who takes the game seriously. The courses are exceptional. The conditions are kind. And if watching a young man from Porto nearly win on the DP World Tour has stirred something in you — well, there is really only one thing to do about it.

Browse our Algarve golf holidays and start planning your own Portuguese story.