The forecast for the PGA Championship at Aronimink is looking good after a damp and chilly start
Sunday "will be the pick of the weekend," with sun and highs in the 80s.
Like wedding planners, picnickers, youth-league organizers, and major league baseball teams, golfers are well-acquainted with the caprice of May weather, which isn’t always as merry as its reputation suggests.
But while the outlook for the week may have a few bunkers, after a chilly and possibly damp start it appears nature will be showing its benign side to the participants and spectators at the PGA Championship at the Aronimink Golf Course in Newtown Square.
It is unlikely that the golfers will be contending with significant wind gusts, meteorologists say, and conditions will be become progressively better from the time match play starts Thursday through the Sunday finale. Temperatures on Sunday afternoon could reach the mid-80s, which would be about 40 degrees higher than they were expected to be Tuesday morning.
“I think we’re looking pretty good,” said John Feerick, a golf enthusiast familiar with the Aronimink course and a senior meteorologist with AccuWeather Inc.
The forecast through the PGA tournament
The sun is due to return for Tuesday practice rounds, but forecast highs in the mid-60s would be several degrees below normal.
Wednesday morning should be decent, said Feerick, then showers are expected in the afternoon, with increasing winds, perhaps as high as 25 mph.
For Thursday, “some of the models are showing showers lingering,” said Eric Hoeflich, meteorologist at the National Weather Service, a self-described “pretty big golf fan.”
The sun is expected to reappear Thursday afternoon and beam unobstructed on Friday with highs around 70 degrees.
Readings may hit 80 on Saturday, and Sunday “will be the pick of the weekend,” with highs in the mid-80s, said Hoeflich, who said his golf score typically ranged in the high 80s and low 90s.
May weather in the Philly region can be capricious
Don’t be surprised if the forecasts change in the next few days. The frequency of thunderstorms, whose timing and location are notoriously hard to predict, increase significantly in May, compared with the first four months of the year.
With its afternoon update Monday, the weather service said thunderstorms were possible Thursday afternoon.
“May is certainly hit or miss around here,” said Hoeflich.
In May 2026, it’s been mostly miss, with just 0.21 inches of rain measured at Philadelphia International Airport.
The grasses in the region, however, appear to be in decent shape — due in part to the unusually persistent snow and ice covers during the winter — even though the entire region is in some state of drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
In any event, the weather this weekend is likely to be a whole lot better than it was during the BMW Championship held at Aronimink in September 2018. Feerick recalled working as a volunteer at the tournament, which turned out to be a wet one.
On the Friday of the tournament, a record 4.54 inches of rain was measured officially in Philadelphia, and the Friday through Sunday total was more than 7 inches.
That’s more than has fallen in Philly since Feb. 1 this year.
