Justin Rose has issued his response to comments made by Rory McIlroy about the setup at Aronimink ahead of the 2026 PGA Championship.
McIlroy is certainly going to be one of the overwhelming favourites this week. Of course, he won The Masters last month despite struggling to find his best form around Augusta National.
The 37-year-old has only played in one event since winning his sixth major title, finishing just inside the top 20 at the Truist Championship this past week at Quail Hollow.
Nevertheless, there is good reason to think that McIlroy is going to be a serious threat in the coming days.
Speaking in his own press conference ahead of Thursday's opening round, the Northern Irishman was asked what he likes about the golf course.
It certainly seems that he is expecting the longer hitters to have a real advantage.
"I like the style of golf. I like the bunkering. There's a lot of bunkers. I think it provides quite a nice bit of variety with shorter par fours, a couple of longer par fours. The par threes, there's three pretty long ones and a shorter one," he said.
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"I think in this day and age I'm not sure if it's going to test all aspects of your bag. Again, as I said, strategy off the tee is pretty non-existent.
"It's, basically, bash driver down there and then figure it out from there, which I think is a lot of these newer, newly renovated, I think about Oak Hill in 2023, here. When these traditional golf courses take a lot of trees out, it makes strategy not as much of a concern off the tee.
"But the greens are, as I said at the start, the greens are the main focus this week, and I think getting yourself in the right sections of the greens, making sure you leave yourself below the hole for the most part. That's the key this week."
It should come as no surprise to anyone if Justin Rose is able to put himself in contention this week. At one stage around the turn, he led The Masters on Sunday.
He also has an impressive recent record in the PGA Championship , with four top 10s in his last six starts at the event.
McIlroy's comments were put to Rose as the Englishman spoke to the media. And he admitted that he was disappointed by what his Ryder Cup teammate had said.
"Yeah, that's a shame to hear that because that's not what a Donald Ross course is designed to be or historically has been." he said.
"So I think that that's the modernization of the golf course a little bit as it's been cleaned out a little bit and lengthened a little bit. And there's definitely some bunkers at 310 or 305 that if you can carry those the fairway does get much wider. So from that point of view I think if you have that gear I think there's a lot of players in the field that that is the case, it's not just going to suit particularly Rory, it's going to suit a lot of guys that can carry the ball 300 plus.
"But, yeah, the rough's definitely creeping up though to the point where you got to be respectful I think. I think two weeks ago the rough wasn't up. They have really worked hard I believe from what Fooch tells me anyway, to kind of get the rough growing. It's a different type of rough actually it's a very thick rough it's almost like a Kikuyu. It feels like very, it's like a very dense rooty type of grass. So, yeah, I think there's a little bit of respect needed to make sure you are hitting the fairways. The fairways are generous, but you still need to be on them."
It should not be forgotten that Rose has some positive memories of Aronimink that he can utilise over the coming days.
The 2013 US Open champion made it into a playoff with Keegan Bradley when the Philadelphia venue hosted the BMW Championship eight years ago.
Unfortunately, he ended up on the losing side on that occasion. That would prove to be the last playoff Rose would lose until he faced off against Rory McIlroy at Augusta National last year.
But Rose is back playing a lot of fantastic golf. He seems to have found a way to give himself the best chance to peak at the right time.
So he can definitely be fairly optimistic about putting himself in the mix this week.
