Prior to Thursday's first round, Gil Hanse joined Golf Channel's "Live From" set to do a hole-by-hole breakdown of the Donald Ross-designed course, which he and partner Jim Wagner completed a restoration of in 2018. The reno was the type of work Hanse has become known for: bringing back the original bunkering, cutting down a ton of trees, and preserving Ross' turtleback greens. Rory McIlroy grabbed headlines when he said there was no strategy off the tee because of the lack of trees, and Chamblee tended to agree, which led to a spicy back and forth between he and Hanse on the set. 

Then the tournament played out, and what Aronimink clearly did was neutralize the "bomb and gouge" method we've come to know, rewarding a short-knocker like Aaron Rai known for his precision throughout the bag. It wound up being quite the test, with Rai pulling away to win at nine under. The course made a believer out of Chamblee by Sunday evening: 

but when Alex Smalley holed his 20-foot birdie putt on the 18th at Aronimink, it came with an awful lot of meaning. Let's start by the fact it moved him into a tie for second with Jon Rahm, and increased his payday rose from $981,400 (for a four-way tie for fourth) to $1.8 million, essentially doubling his prize money payout. The runner-up finish also secured him a spot in next year's Masters and PGA Championship through qualifying criteria for each major. Oh, and the T-2 boosted him from 78th to 42nd in the World Ranking, which just got him into next month's U.S. Open. On Monday, anybody in the top 70 in the OWGR earns an exemption to Shinnecock Hills.

But for a little while, he had reason to be close to Aronimink in case he snuck into a playoff. Had Thomas decided to chance it and leave town, he would have followed in the footsteps of his buddy Tiger Woods. The year was 2005, and the PGA at Baltusrol carried into Monday because of weather. Although Woods finished on Sunday and was the clubhouse leader at two-under par, he didn’t even hold out hope of being relevant, confessing later he flew home to Florida Sunday night. It turns out, Steve Elkington eventually knocked Woods out of contention at three under, and eventually Phil Mickelson beat them both, winning the PGA with a birdie at the last. Regardless, former USGA executive director David Fay called Woods leaving that day potentially "the dumbest purposeful decision in the history of professional sport."

on the 17th hole Sunday. Get it close, make a par and be one step closer to grabbing the Wanamaker Trophy. "It was so long that I was just trying to put good speed on it and make a good putt and it tracked extremely well on the last half," Rai said. Interestingly, he said the shadow of the flagstick fell just along the line he was seeing to the hole, making the putt a tad bit more comfortable. No doubt we'll be seeing highlights of this putt for years to come, but I've already fallen in love with this overhead shot of it.

But if he were to stumble here at the end, and there's a need for a playoff, it's important to note that the PGA Championship uses a different format than any of the other three majors. Here's everything you need to know about the three-hole aggregate showdown that we'd see. And an interesting note: No matter how large the playoff, all the players will play in the same group for all the holes.