Aronimink Golf Club has proven to be a pleasant surprise at this year's PGA Championship. Many expected the world's best players to tear through the course, but the combination of gusting winds and punishing rough has created a formidable challenge over the first two rounds.

To make matters even tougher, the PGA of America set difficult pin positions on Friday, leading to higher scores across the board. But those challenging conditions came at a cost: rounds stretched to nearly six hours, an absurdly long time for 18 holes of golf.

The root of the problem? A critical design oversight that created a major bottleneck in the middle of the round. Aronimink placed pins on the very edges of most greens to test the players, but this decision backfired on holes 8 and 10. These two greens sit dangerously close to each other, and with pins positioned facing the opposite green, players on the fairways had to wait for both greens to clear before playing their approach shots.

The result was double the wait time for each hole, causing a massive backup that rippled through the entire field. The situation became so absurd that Rory McIlroy was spotted sitting on the 10th tee box with his eyes closed, patiently waiting for the fairway to clear ahead of him.

This isn't a new problem in golf. St Andrews' Old Course faces a similar challenge with its seven massive double greens, but greenkeepers there have a smart solution: they place white flags (outbound holes) and red flags (inbound holes) at opposite ends of the putting surface. This maximizes the physical distance between pins and ensures that groups putting on one hole don't interfere with players approaching the other.

While Aronimink's pin placements created an incredible test of skill, it was a costly oversight with 156 players still in the field. For golf fans and players alike, the lesson is clear: even the best-laid plans need to account for the flow of the game.