PGA CHAMPIONSHIP '26: A growing list of stars converge on Aronimink for PGA

In the 32 days between Rory McIlroy holding off Scottie Scheffler to win another Masters and the start of the PGA Championship, golf no longer seems to be a two-man show.

Scheffler and McIlroy are still Nos. 1 and 2 in the world, no debate. They remain the betting favorites at every tournament they play, particularly the majors.

But they have more company now.

Cameron Young earned his signature win at The Players Championship, played in final group at the Masters and played three rounds with Scheffler in a signature event at Doral, beating him by six shots. Matt Fitzpatrick beat Scheffler in another signature event, the RBC Heritage, and then teamed with brother Alex to win in New Orleans. Fitzpatrick has three wins since March.

Chris Gotterup has won three times since the last PGA Championship.

They all are part of the strongest field in golf — everyone from the top 100 in the world — who gather at Aronimink Golf Club outside Philadelphia for the 108th edition of the PGA Championship that starts May 14.

Young was at No. 62 in the world going into the PGA Championship last year, a talented American known as the ultimate bridesmaid — six runner-up finishes without having won, nearly all of them because someone simply played better.

And then he won big last August for his first title. He was the best player for the Americans at the Ryder Cup in September. He won The Players, contended at the Masters, won again at Doral. And it didn't feel like he was doing anything extraordinary, even if his name at No. 3 in the world ranking might suggest otherwise.

“I always thought I might be more comfortable having myself up there in the world rankings," Young said. "I thought it might mean something in terms of how I thought I was going to play or my level of belief. But I feel like those things, I've built before I've gotten to this place.

"And I have a really good understanding that world No. 3 ranking can come and go and it doesn't really guarantee me anything going forward.”

This comes from the no-nonsense New Yorker who once said in a PGA Tour commercial, “This is a hard game. And there's a lot of people who are really good at it. My goal is to be in contention as much as possible."

Scheffler is just as daunting even with only one win at the start of the year. He is coming off three consecutive runner-up finishes, by one shot at the Masters after trailing by 14 going into the weekend. As for McIlroy? That second green jacket brought more bounce in his step. He no longer wonders what will go wrong in the majors, only what can go right.

“I'm excited for the road ahead,” McIlroy said. “I'm excited for Aronimink, Shinnecock (U.S. Open), Birkdale (British Open). I feel like if anything, I'm more motivated after what happened at Augusta this year than I've ever been.”

While the PGA Championship leans on having the strongest field, there remains the question of how it identifies itself apart from the other three majors.

Players know to expect at Augusta National, and depending on the weather, the test they get each year on links golf at the British Open. The U.S. Open has a reputation (most of the time) for narrow fairways, thick rough and hard greens composing the toughest test in golf.

Only at the PGA Championship — held on 75 golf courses over 108 years — is there something new. Perhaps the identity is it has none. Birdies galore at Bellerive. Single digits under par at Southern Hills and Oak Hill.

“That variety of traditional courses, new courses, middle-aged courses, it’s unique and different,” said Kerry Haigh, the PGA’s championships director in charge of presenting the test. “That’s what our identity is. Every year is a different challenge, different venue, different corner of the country.”

Two-time PGA champion Justin Thomas, the son of a longtime professional, appreciates what the PGA Championship is and the variety it offers. He marvels at what Haigh faces.

“He'll have some years of Oak Hill where 6 under might win or Valhalla where 20 under might win,” Thomas said. "His goal is to create the best test. It's more of what golf should be. It shouldn't be, ‘How do we get this as close to par as possible? How do we get the setup right because we didn’t like the scores the day before?'

“It's very much giving us what the course offers,” he said. “Aronimink should be good.”

Aronimink is not entirely new.

Twenty-nine players in the PGA field were at Aronimink in 2018 for the BMW Championship, where Keegan Bradley beat Justin Rose in a playoff. The Donald Ross design went through a restoration by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner, which included restoring 75 bunkers that bring the total to somewhere around 180, 20 of them on the 11th hole.

This is the second time for Aronimink to host the PGA Championship. Gary Player won his first Wanamaker Trophy there in 1962.

The club was supposed to host the PGA in 1993, but it was caught up in the Shoal Creek controversy of 1990. The PGA of America began mandating clubs have a diverse membership. Aronimink did not have Black members, and because it had a seven-year waiting list for any new member, it said it could not comply in time for the championship.

Aronimink wound up waiting 33 more years for another one.

Jordan Spieth hopes he doesn't have to wait long for the final leg of the career Grand Slam. This is his 10th attempt at joining golf's most exclusive club. The latest member was McIlroy last year at the Masters. Odds on the next member favor Scheffler next month at the U.S. Open.

“You ought to think a U.S. Open fits his game really well. I think he's going to get there really soon,” Spieth said before adding with a smile, “It would be fun to get there first.”

“Because he needles, and it would be fun to get the needle back,” Spieth said. “When we play our games (in Dallas), I used to have needles back. I don't have them anymore.”

Not many do. Scheffler is coming up on three straight years at No. 1 — only Tiger Woods has been atop the world ranking longer — and it hasn't been particularly close. Neither have his four majors, winning all of them — two Masters, a PGA and a British Open — by three shots or more.

Scheffler will try to join Woods and Brooks Koepka as the only back-to-back winners of the PGA Championship in stroke play. The way this year has gone, there figures to be more cars on the road to get there.

AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

Matthew Fitzpatrick, of England, reacts to a missed putt on the 18th hole during first round of the Truist Championship golf tournament at the Quail Hollow Club, Thursday, May 7, 2026, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

Scottie Scheffler, left, leans to watch Cameron Young's putt on the ninth green during the final round of the Cadillac Championship PGA golf tournament Sunday, May 3, 2026, in Doral, Fla. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

FILE - The Wanamaker Trophy is displayed during the first round of the PGA Championship golf tournament at Bellerive Country Club, Thursday, Aug. 9, 2018, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson, File)

FILE - Scottie Scheffler holds the Wanamaker trophy after winning the PGA Championship golf tournament at the Quail Hollow Club, Sunday, May 18, 2025, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)

LONDON (AP) — British voters cast ballots Thursday in local and regional elections that could shake up the country's politics and deliver a heavy blow to embattled Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Starmer’s center-left Labour Party is bracing for big losses in polls that will choose about 5,000 local councilors and a handful of mayors across England, as well as semiautonomous parliaments in Scotland and Wales. They are the biggest set of elections since Labour swept to power in a landslide in July 2024, and Starmer’s opponents have painted them as a midterm referendum on the prime minister.

Polls closed at 10 p.m. (2100 GMT), and some local authorities will count ballots overnight, but the bulk of the results are likely to be declared on Friday afternoon.

A rout could trigger moves by restive Labour lawmakers to oust a leader who led them to power less than two years ago. Even if Starmer survives for now, many analysts doubt he will lead the party into the next national election, which must be held by 2029.

Starmer’s popularity has plunged after repeated missteps since he became prime minister in July 2024. His government has struggled to deliver promised economic growth, repair tattered public services and ease the cost of living — tasks made harder by the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, which has choked off oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.

The prime minister has been further hurt by his disastrous decision to appoint Peter Mandelson, a scandal-tarnished friend of Jeffrey Epstein, as Britain’s ambassador to Washington.

Labour is defending about 2,500 seats on English local councils, and party members are apprehensive it may lose many of them.

Starmer already survived a crisis in February, when some Labour lawmakers, including the party’s leader in Scotland, urged him to quit over the Mandelson appointment.

He has vowed to serve out his five-year term, but a bad result could spark a challenge from a high-profile rival such as Health Secretary Wes Streeting, former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner or Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham. Alternately, Starmer could face pressure from the party to set a timetable for his departure after an orderly leadership contest.

Luke Tryl of pollster More in Common said the local elections are likely to see “the total collapse of the traditional two-party system” that was dominated for decades by the Labour and Conservative parties.

The big winner is expected to be hard-right party Reform UK, led by Nigel Farage, which is aiming for working-class, former Labour strongholds in England’s north and on London’s outer edges with its anti-establishment, anti-immigration message. The Green Party is also likely to gain hundreds of council seats in urban centers and university towns.

The main opposition Conservative Party is also expected to lose ground, with the centrist Liberal Democrats making some gains.

Starmer didn’t even mention the Conservatives in his final preelection message, framing it as a choice between “progress and a better future” under Labour and “the anger and division offered up by Reform or empty promises from the Greens.”

Farage said on the eve of the election that a strong result for Reform would mean Starmer is “gone by the middle of summer.”

Both Reform UK and the Greens have grown rapidly in the last year or two, and are facing increased scrutiny as a result. Farage is facing questions over a 5 million pound ($6.8 million) donation from a cryptocurrency billionaire that he accepted in 2024, but did not declare. He says it was a personal gift.

The environmentalist Greens, who have stressed their pro-Palestinian credentials under self-described “eco populist” leader Zack Polanski, have fired several candidates for antisemitic social media posts.

Reform also is eyeing breakthroughs in Scotland and Wales, though pro-independence nationalists the Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru are likely to form governments in Edinburgh and Cardiff.

“Labour’s going to lose to Reform in some places, Greens in others, and here and there they’ll lose one or two seats to the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives as well,” said Tony Travers, a professor of government at the London School of Economics. “They’re fighting on four fronts in England — five in Wales and Scotland.”

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer and wife Victoria leave a polling station in central London, Thursday, May 7, 2026 after casting their votes in the local elections.(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Britain's Reform Party leader Nigel Farage poses for photographers with an ice-cream on the beach after casting his vote at a polling station in Walton on the Naze, England, Thursday, May 7, 2026.(AP Photo/Richard Pelham)

A dog jumps outside a polling station in London, Thursday, May 7, 2026 as it waits for the owner during the UK 2026 local elections.(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

A voter holds a polling card as she queues at a polling station in Walton on the Naze, England, Thursday, May 7, 2026 to cast her vote in the UK local elections.(AP Photo/Richard Pelham)

Flaeda the poodle, named after the eldest daughter of Alfred the Great, poses for a picture outside a polling station in London, Thursday, May 7, 2026 as she waits for her owner during the UK 2026 local elections.(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Britain's Reform Party leader Nigel Farage shows his socks as he arrives at a polling station in Walton on the Naze, England, Thursday, May 7, 2026 to cast his vote in the local elections.(AP Photo/Richard Pelham)

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer and wife Victoria arrive at a polling station in central London, Thursday, May 7, 2026 to cast their votes in the local elections.(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer and wife Victoria arrive at a polling station in central London, Thursday, May 7, 2026 to cast their votes in the local elections.(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer and wife Victoria arrive at a polling station in central London, Thursday, May 7, 2026 to cast their votes in the local elections.(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

A Reform UK political sign put up by the householder to show support ahead of local council elections in London, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

A Green Party political sign put up by the householder to show support ahead of local council elections in London, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

Liberal Democrats political sign put up by the householders to show support ahead of local council elections in London, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

An election campaign poster is displayed at a shop for the upcoming local council elections, in London, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Ballot boxes and signs are dispatched to polling stations around Edinburgh from Edinburgh City Council's storage area at the Sirius Building in the west of the city ahead of the Scottish Elections on May 7, in Edinburgh, Scotland, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (Jane Barlow/PA via AP)