NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. — You can see a lot from the hillside between Aronimink Golf Club’s 11th green and 12th tee box. A whole expanse. For this week’s PGA Championship, the course’s fairways and greens are lined by fans and concessions and grandstands, but you can still see clear across much of the property.I was there midday Friday with an old friend, one who’s spent much of the last 25 years caddying at Aronimink. He can’t be named here without risking his loops at the club, but trust that his local knowledge includes which Delaware County bartenders reliably tally a light check and how to navigate every inch of Aronimink. He remembers when trees crowded every hole on this course. He remembers when every one of those trees came down during the club’s mass renovation. He remembers previous pro events held here — PGA Tour events in 2010, 2011 and 2018, and the 2020 Women’s PGA Championship.What he does not remember is what he saw on Friday.“Dude, the pin on 6,” he said, “I have never seen that.”The sixth green at Aronimink measures roughly 90 feet wide. This unicorn cup? It was cut maybe 6 feet off the left edge.“And that,” he continued, pointing way out in the distance to the 14th green, “look how far back they put that pin on 14.”Yes, from where we were standing, the flagstick on 14 appeared to be painted onto the front of the grandstand behind the green. The cup not only occupied one of the deepest areas on the 215-yard par-3, but also sat atop a spine bisecting the green.“Brutal,” my pal said.That’s one word for it.Scottie Scheffler had another: “Absurd.”Chris Gotterup offered yet another: “Aggressive.”Here’s one more to consider: revealing.The pins at Aronimink this week, selected and cut by the PGA of America, and currently subject to endless conversations in the golf ecosystem, are not targets. They are signposts, ones pointing both to what it takes for golf’s classic courses to stand a chance against hulking athletes and space-aged equipment, and to the choices faced by the game’s governing bodies when walking the invisible line between what’s too easy, what’s too hard, and how open to leave oneself to criticism.Much was made about how this week might play out just outside Philadelphia. Predictions were made of a winning score ballooning to 20 under or better. Rory McIlroy made it sound like poor Aronimink might as well be fitted for a windmill.