If someone is going to run away with the 2026 PGA Championship like Scottie Scheffler did a year ago at Quail Hollow, it’s certainly going to take something special on Sunday, as this leaderboard at Aronimink Golf Club has been congested since the moment the season’s second major kicked off.
Following Thursday’s opening round, an astonishing seven players were tied at the top, with 33 players in total within two shots of the lead. And it’s been nothing but more of the same since, as no one player, whether it be a veteran, a rising star, or an underdog, has been genuinely able to separate himself from the pack, making every single shot and putt immensely important as the weekend has progressed.
As such, the likelihood of a playoff seems extremely high, so what exactly does the tiebreaker situation look like at Aronimink for this 2026 PGA Championship?
PGA Championship playoff format: Is it sudden death or an aggregate?
The PGA Championship has a three-hole aggregate playoff, rather than a sudden-death tiebreaker to decide a champion after 72 holes. In terms of the four major championships, it’s the PGA Championship and The Open Championship that both still have a three-hole aggregate, with the PGA of America making this switch for format back in 2000. In both the PGA and Open Championships, if the players are still tied after three holes, it then becomes sudden death.
In terms of the other two majors, they have different formats as well. The US Open is also an aggregate playoff, but it lasts only two holes instead of the three we see at the PGA. Meanwhile, the Masters Tournament is the only one of the four that has a sudden-death playoff format.
PGA Championship playoff format: What holes at Aronimink Golf Club will decide who hoists the Wanamaker Trophy?
If we do see a PGA Championship playoff, those atop the leaderboard will engage in a three-hole aggregate score playoff on Nos. 10, 17, and 18. And if there’s still a tie after those three holes are completed, it then becomes a sudden-death situation in which the participants will play No. 18 over and over until a winner is determined.
The 10th hole at Aronimink is a 472-yard par-4 that features a pair of fairway bunkers that come into play off the tee and a treacherous lake that guards the front-left portion of the green.
The 229-yard par-3 17th includes trouble on both sides, as bunkers sit in front of the right side, while any tee shot to the left could very well trickle down into the water.
The closer is the 490-yard par-4 18th, where players are faced with tree trouble on both sides as well as a trio of bunkers down the right side off the tee, and then an uphill approach to a large, terraced putting surface.
When was the last playoff at the PGA Championship?
Since the PGA Championship implemented the three-hole aggregate format back in 2000, it’s been needed five times, the most famous instance being that very first year when Tiger Woods took down journeyman Bob May at Valhalla.
In 2004, Vijay Singh defeated Chris DiMarco and Justin Leonard at Whistling Straits, which also served as the setting for the next one, as Martin Kaymer beat Bubba Watson at that same venue in 2010. One year later, in 2011, Keegan Bradley bested Jason Dufner at Atlanta Athletic Club.
And lastly, the most recent playoff at the PGA Championship was four years ago, when Justin Thomas vanquished Will Zalatoris at Southern Hills.
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