PGA asks Aronimink to host the 2018 BMW Championship

Another PGA Tour event is likely coming in 2018 to Aronimink Golf Club, site of the 2010 and 2011 AT&T National, pending a vote of the members next month.

Sources confirmed Wednesday that the tour has invited the Newtown Square club to host the 2018 BMW Championship, the third event of the annual FedEx Cup playoffs that annually is held in mid-September. Comcast SportsNet first reported the news.

One source said club officials already have approved the offer and a vote of the membership is all that is needed to bring the tour back to the Philadelphia area. "From what I hear, it's a slam dunk," the source said.

Aronimink officials could not be reached for comment.

The top 70 players in the FedEx Cup standings compete at the BMW Championship, and there is no 36-hole cut. The top 30 in the FedEx Cup race at the end of the tournament qualify for the season-ending Tour Championship, where the 2015 Cup champion will earn $10 million.

The BMW Championship, formerly known as the Western Open, is the second-oldest event on the PGA Tour. The tournament is held in the Chicago area in odd-numbered years. It will be held this year at Conway Farms Golf Club in Lake Forest, Ill., and in 2016 at Crooked Stick in Carmel, Ind.

Aronimink, one of the most notable designs of Donald Ross, received rave reviews the last time the PGA Tour played there at the AT&T National.

If there would be any concern about the tournament, it's the timing. The PGA Tour held the SEI Pennsylvania Classic at Waynesborough Country Club in September 2000 and 2002 with less than a stellar field and the turnout was not good, especially when competing against football on the weekend.

However, the field would be decidedly better for a FedEx Cup event, with players seeking to stay alive for the final playoff weekend.

The AT&T National, which was brought to Aronimink for two years while Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Md., was undergoing renovation for the 2011 U.S. Open, drew well in 2010, when tournament host Tiger Woods was in the field. However, Woods sat out with a knee injury and attendance slipped by more than 20 percent the next year.

At the 2011 event, club officials welcomed representatives of the PGA of America and the U.S. Golf Association. Reviews of the course and the club's performance were almost universally positive, but no major has been awarded yet.

In 2013, then-club president Paul Coady said, "Our focus is going to be on a major at some time in the future. That's where our efforts are being expended."

The club has hosted the 1962 PGA Championship, the 1977 U.S. Amateur, the 1997 U.S. Junior Amateur, and the 2003 Senior PGA Championship.