Last golf major at Aronimink: Revisiting Gary Player's 1962 PGA Championship win in Newton Square

Last golf major at Aronimink: Revisiting Gary Player’s 1962 PGA Championship win in Newton Square originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

The 2026 PGA Championship is taking place at a relatively lesser-known golf course, as Aronimink Golf Club will serve as the host for the year’s second major.

Aronimink has played host to several golf tournaments across different tours but hasn’t been part of the men’s major rotation for a while. Located in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, Aronimink has been around for over a century but has only hosted one other men’s major.

Still, that one major is an important one in golf history, as it was part of the ascension of one of the game’s best-ever players. As another PGA champion will be crowned at Aronimink this weekend, here’s a look back at the first time the PGA Championship was held at this course.

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What was the last major at Aronimink?

While Aronimink has hosted the Senior PGA Championship and the Women’s PGA Championship, the course hasn’t hosted a men’s professional major since 1962. At the time, the PGA Championship moved from a match play tournament to a stroke play tournament just fie years earlier and was played in the middle of July.

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Who won the 1962 PGA Championship?

Gary Player won the 1962 PGA Championship, his first of two PGA Championship titles and the third of his eventual nine major championships. Player was 26 years old at the time and was playing in just his second PGA Championship after finishing tied for 29th a year earlier.

Player also became the first foreign-born player to win the PGA Championship in the stroke-play era and the first South African to win the tournament.

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How Gary Player won 1962 PGA Championship

The 1962 PGA Championship featured a field of 170 people and two different cut lines, one after the second round and another after the third round. Player opened with a two-over 72, which was six shots behind the leader, but went on to shoot four-under over the next three days to secure a one-shot win at -2.

Player held off Bob Goalby, who was the only other player under par at -1. Goalby shot a three-under 67 in the final round to vault up the leaderboard and threaten Player’s spot at the top, but Player held him off in the end.

“The PGA was always the hardest major to win because it always has the strongest field of only professionals,” Player said. “When you win the PGA, you’ve really won a tough tournament. That win was a very major step in my career.”

Other notable finishes include Jack Nicklaus, who was tied for 3rd at +1, and Bobby Nichols, who was in sixth place at +3.

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1962 PGA Championship leaderboard (just do top 10

Rank	Player	Score
1.	Gary Player	-2
2.	Bob Goalby	-1
T-3.	George Bayer	+1
T-3.	Jack Nicklaus	+1
5.	Doug Ford	+2
6.	Bobby Nichols	+3
T-7.	Dave Regan	+4
T-7.	Jack Fleck	+4
T-7.	Paul Harney	+4
10.	Jay Hebert	+5