The site of Aronomink GC operated as a cricket club until 1900 before the current golf course opened in 1928, remarkably keeping all the same holes to this day. (Photo: Scott Taetsch / PGA of America / Getty Images)
It’s a club that’s steeped in history, dating back to 1896 when it started out as Belmont Golf Association — a few simple golf holes as an add-on for the Belmont Cricket Club. The club moved a few times before landing at its current location in Newtown Square, Pa. Located just outside of Philadelphia on 300 acres, the club hired Donald Ross to build the new Aronimink Golf Club.
That was almost 100 years ago. This year, the club celebrates the 250th anniversary of America’s founding — a semi-quincentennial — in nearby Philadelphia by hosting the 2026 PGA Championship.
John Gosselin
“This started off as a cricket club — it was a cricket club until 1900. We’ve had several locations, this golf course opened up in 1928,” Superintendent John Gosselin says. “The coolest thing is, the golf course, all the holes are still the same. The greens are still the same — they’ve never been rebuilt. They’re almost 100 years old. We lost corners here and there and then we recaptured them with Gil Hanse. The last two opportunities to do work on the golf course were in the early 2000s with Ron Prichard, and then in 2016 with Gil Hanse and his team. We really turned back the clock.”
The course is no stranger to major championship golf, but it’s been a minute since there was a men’s major at the club. Go back to 1962, when Gary Player won the PGA Championship there, and admission was free (see Golfdom Files).
The course has also hosted the U.S. Amateur (1977), the U.S. Junior Amateur (1997), the Senior PGA Championship (2003) the AT&T National (2010, 2011), the BMW Championship (2018) and the Women’s PGA Championship (2020).
All the support we need
As of press time, Gosselin said the course was ahead of schedule on things they needed to complete, but Mother Nature wasn’t fully cooperating. For the last several years, the course has only seen a dusting of snow and then it goes away.
“Lo and behold, this year we got a monster snowstorm, and we’ve had snow on the ground for about three weeks now,” Gosselin says. “We push snow out of the way and they’re building the suites. We have a nice blanket of snow that we’re not worried about yet. But if we get up to the 30-, 40-day mark? Then we’re going to start to worry.”
Even if Mother Nature isn’t fully supporting the PGA Championship yet, the City of Brotherly Love is. Gosselin and his crew will have the support of the greater Philadelphia golf community and beyond, as well as area vendors.
“We’ll have about 70 different clubs represented from around the country,” he says. “The support has been phenomenal. The different vendors, not just the ones we deal with, want to be a part of it, and they’ve really stepped up to the plate.”
Gosselin says many of the partners have opened their wallets so the volunteers can have a great experience. Housing, clothes, shuttles, meals and headlamps are just some of the ways they’re supporting the crew and volunteers.
“It really does take the whole golf community, the agronomic community, to pull this off,” he says. “We’re awfully lucky, we’re in a big area, the Philadelphia area, and that helps. There are so many clubs in the area, and we have all the support we need, and then some.”
A mentor to many
Gosselin has been at Aronimink for more than 20 years now. He came to the industry because of his love for the game. He wanted to follow his passion, he says. The Penn State grad previously spent time at DuPont CC, Wilmington, Del., where he served as superintendent, then sports and facilities manager for DuPont Hospitality which included DuPont CC and Hotel DuPont, and Rolling Green GC, Springfield, Pa.
“I started working at a golf course in high school, and I’d go off and do other things, and for one reason or another, I kept coming back to the golf course,” Gosselin says. “The public course in the community I grew up in, it was just the place where a lot of people hung out. It had the pool, the ice-skating rink, the pizzeria, the disco — that should date me.
“Barry Laverty, the superintendent there, told me about the Penn State two-year program,” Gosselin continues. “From there, I did what I needed to do. Once I got into that, I did an internship at Merion for Richie Valentine, and that started my career.”
A past president of the Philadelphia Association of Golf Course Superintendents (2010-2011), Gosselin was awarded the Eb Steiniger award by the association last year for his dedication to the industry and mentorship of future superintendents.
Gosselin thinks back to when he was working at DuPont CC as the sports and facilities manager, a position he calls a “very good job,” and the moment he decided to leave that position to become the superintendent at Aronimink.
“When I worked at DuPont, I was spending a lot of time with the facilities. We had a hotel in downtown Wilmington. Even though we had three golf courses, I just wasn’t hardly getting on the golf course,” he recalls. “It was a little bit of a crazy move to just jump and leave that job. But looking back, it was the right move. Everything’s worked out great.”
The mentor to many in the industry advises others not to be fearful of change, because change can be good.
“Don’t be afraid to change jobs,” Gosselin says. “Some of the biggest salary increases I’ve gotten is when I’ve changed jobs. Don’t be afraid to take the next challenge, if that’s what drives you.”