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Local fans at the PGA Championship at Delco’s Aronimink Golf Club will have one Philly guy to root for this year after Aston-native Braden Shattuck secured one of the last 20 available spots this week.
Shattuck, the director of instruction at Rolling Green Golf Club in Springfield Township and four-time Philadelphia PGA Player of the Year, finished tied for eighth in the 2026 PGA Professional Championship in Bandon, Ore. on Wednesday, which earned him a spot on the Corebridge Financial Team, the group of 20 PGA of America club golf professionals who qualify for May’s golf “major” in Newtown Square.
Thirteen club professionals from the Philadelphia PGA section were competing in Oregon, against a field of over 300 PGA of America golfers from around the country.
Shattuck won the 2023 PGA Professional Championship, and finished with the lowest score for a club pro at the 2024 PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club, in Louisville Kentucky. This will be his third-straight PGA Championship appearance.
Shattuck’s golf career was nearly derailed when a car accident in March 2019 left him with two herniated discs in his lower spine, making it difficult to walk, let alone swing a golf club. A two-year sabbatical and tweaking his swing, while also instructing others on theirs at Rolling Green, got him back to a level where he can compete among the best golfers in the world.
The PGA Championship is one of four prestigious major tournaments each year, bringing 156 of the world’s best to compete in the second major of the golf calendar, after April’s Masters Tournament in Augusta, Ga.
The Championship is returning to Aronimink for the first time since 1962. The organization that runs the tournament, the PGA of America, also puts together the Senior PGA Championship and the Women’s PGA Championship. In 2020, Aronimink became the first course to host all three. Scottie Scheffler is the current holder of the trophy, which is named after Lewis Rodman Wanamaker, the son of department store founder Rodman Wanamaker.
The Philadelphia region played a big role in the “Golden Age” of American golf course architecture, but features relatively sporadically as tournament stops for the professional tours today, partially due to the size constraints of the properties the courses are on.
Estimates for the tournament’s economic impact on the region start at around $125 million, organizers said.
The tournament runs from Thursday to Sunday, with the pros playing one round of 18 holes each day. Championship week begins on Monday, May 11 with the PGA HOPE Secretary’s Cup, labelled as golf’s “major tournament” for military veterans, at nearby Chester Valley Golf Club in Malvern.
Tickets for practice rounds from Monday to Wednesday and verified resale tickets for the tournament days are available on the tournament’s website.
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