Aronimink Golf Club prepares for 2020 KPMG Women’s PGA, its first LPGA major championship

The LPGA Championship has a long tradition as the second-oldest major on the LPGA Tour, having not missed a year since its inaugural event in 1955. Eleven of those years, 1994 through 2004, were spent at Wilmington’s DuPont Country Club with McDonald’s as the title sponsor.

However, the championship was reinvigorated after KPMG, a global accounting services firm, stepped in starting with the 2015 event, the name of which became the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. With the PGA of America also becoming involved, prize money was increased and a focus was made on competing at venues that had hosted men’s major championships.

And next year, it will be Aronimink Golf Club’s turn. The Newtown Square layout, which hosted the BMW Championship, part of the FedExCup playoffs, last September, joins Hazeltine National, Kemper Lakes, Olympia Fields, Sahalee and Westchester on the list of host courses for the Women’s PGA, one of five LPGA majors.

“Where I see the biggest difference is within the players and what we hear among the players on the tour,” Jackie Endsley, the championship director, said Monday at Aronimink. “We always hear, ‘Oh my gosh, we got to play Hazeltine,’ or ‘My goodness, we got to play Sahalee.’ And our lineup moving forward is going to continue to get better.

”We love planning golf championships regardless of where we play. We’re very passionate about it. But I do think that’s where it really hits home for me, and I love what I do even more when I hear the players talk about how wonderful not only this championship is, but they love how tough the course is set up. I think we continue to set the bar for major championships.”

Aronimink hosted the 1962 PGA Championship and the 2003 Senior PGA Championship, as well as the 2010 and 2011 AT&T National, a PGA Tour event. The club has a 2026 date to host the PGA Championship.

Last year’s BMW Championship was the first tournament held at Aronimink since the completion of a restoration project led by noted Malvern architect Gil Hanse.

Danielle Kang, the 2017 Women’s PGA champion, enjoyed an abbreviated three-hole round earlier this month.

“First glance, I really like the layout,” she told The Inquirer. “There’s a very good eye-line from the tee shots. You have to work your way around the fairways. It’s a good test of golf off the tees and around the greens, and I think that’s important for a good major championship.​”

Perhaps no one is more excited to be hosting the championship than club president Bob Willcox. A young golfer named Juli Inkster stayed annually at the home of Willcox’s parents in Malvern starting in the mid-1980s, during the years of the McDonald’s Championship at both White Manor and DuPont, before and after it became a major.

Inkster went on to win 31 events, including seven majors, and was elected to the LPGA and World Golf Halls of Fame in 1999. She will captain her third consecutive U.S. Solheim Cup in September, at Gleneagles in Scotland.

“She became very close friends with our family,” said Willcox, who will be attending the Solheim Cup matches. “To me, it couldn’t get any better than having this in Philadelphia and having this at Aronimink.

“It is in our tenets for the club that we would like to host championships that are both amateur and professional, and this being a major championship just makes it that much better.”

Another feature of the KPMG Women’s PGA is a Women’s Leadership Summit during championship week. Endsley said the event includes a charitable initiative for a Future Leaders program.

“We’re trying to not only grow the game as the PGA of America, but also trying to advance women in leadership roles around the country,” she said. “I think that kind of sets us apart. We’re more than just a golf championship. Well yes, they’re the best female golfers in the world that take part in it, and it’s more than just the game.”

Before tournament week comes around next June, there is plenty of work to be done. Endsley and her staff have been working at Aronimink since last September getting all the facets of the tournament operation into motion, including corporate sales, ticket packages, and recruitment of volunteers.

She said corporate sales have been moving nicely. Public ticket sales began earlier this month and include several packages, plus children 17 and under will be admitted free to the grounds with a ticketed adult. She said that the target number for volunteers is 1,400 and that she is encouraged by the response.

Endsley hopes that residents of the extended Philadelphia area who enthusiastically came out for the 2013 U.S. Open at Merion, the 2015 U.S. Women’s Open at Lancaster, and all those years of the McDonald’s LPGA Championship in Wilmington will want to be engaged in next year’s event in some capacity.

“I think there’s excitement in this market in Philadelphia,” she said. “All the local clubs love to support the major championships that come to town. So we’re really excited. I think that we’ll continue to see an influx in volunteer registration as we get going. Obviously, we do compete with the Eagles and training camp has started. But I think this area will definitely back this championship.”

For more information, check https://www.kpmgwomenspgachampionship.com.

Columnist Marcus Hayes contributed to this report.