Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry didn't hold back their frustration with the conditions at the 2026 PGA Championship, calling the setup unfair and inconsistent.
McIlroy, fresh off back-to-back Masters wins, took aim at the Pennsylvania course after the weekend. He argued that the setup made it too easy to grind out pars without any real separation among the field. 'A bunched leaderboard like this is a sign of a not-great setup,' McIlroy said. 'It hasn’t really enabled anyone to separate themselves. It’s easy to make a ton of pars... it feels like bogey’s the worst score you’re going to shoot on any one hole.'
His close friend and fellow Irishman, Shane Lowry, echoed those sentiments. Lowry, who finished 44th, didn't mince words after the third round. 'I think it’s a great golf course, but I think it has been set up pretty poorly,' he said. 'And I guess that people sitting at home on the couch can say, Well, people are making birdies, some people are shooting good scores. That’s always going to happen, they’re the best players in the world.'
Lowry went further, pointing to a specific problem: 'I feel like when you see the best players in the world struggling from 10 feet, you know that there’s something wrong somewhere.' He criticized the tournament organizers for adjusting the difficulty between rounds, saying, 'It looks like they’ve... it was certainly a little bit easier today, and it looks like that’s kind of maybe a reaction to the first two days, which is not right either. We want to play a similar setup every day, you want to play a golf course that gets harder as the week goes on, especially in these major championships.'
The complaints come as Aaron Rai claimed the title with a solid -9 performance, but the chatter around the course conditions has overshadowed his victory. McIlroy's frustration was visible throughout the tournament, and he even wore a $250,000 watch that seemed to mirror his mood—expensive but not quite hitting the mark.
Lowry's critique also touched on the broader issue of consistency in major championship setups. He argued that the PGA Championship should follow the traditional pattern of increasing difficulty as the week progresses, rather than fluctuating based on player feedback. This isn't the first time McIlroy has voiced concerns about major setups; he previously blasted the Aronimink setup during another PGA Championship.
Despite the grumbling, the tournament delivered a tight leaderboard and dramatic moments. However, for two of the game's biggest stars, the memory of this major will be less about the winner and more about what they saw as a flawed playing field.
As the golf world debates the merits of their complaints, one thing is clear: McIlroy and Lowry want major championships to test every facet of a player's game, not just their patience.
