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When the AT&T National was created in March 2007, host Tiger Woods demanded that his tournament be played on an historic course worthy of major championships.

One minor drawback was quickly apparent; Woods' chosen venue, Congressional Country Club's Blue Course, will in fact host a major championship: the 2011 U.S. Open. Forced to find a temporary site while Congressional prepared for the Open, tournament organizers used the same guidelines and found another course with a championship pedigree.

Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, Pa. also happens to be a course with which Woods is intimately familiar. In 1992, at the age of 16, he won the second of his three consecutive U.S. Junior Amateur Championships there.

The AT&T National announced in October that Aronimink, rather than another Washington, D.C.-area course, will host the tournament in 2010 and 2011. It will return to Congressional in 2012 and is contracted to the Bethesda course through 2014, with an option for another three-year commitment after that.

"Aronimink is an amazing course with a rich history in golf," Woods said in a statement at the time of the announcement. "We are thrilled to bring the AT&T National to the local Philadelphia community, knowing that fans can expect the same exciting golf that has quickly become a tournament tradition."

The club's current layout was designed by famed course architect Donald Ross. Ross also designed Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina, which in 2014 will host its third U.S. Open in 15 years.

In addition to the 1992 Junior Amateur, Aronimink hosted the 1962 PGA Championship, won by Gary Player, 14 years before Congressional held the same event. It was also the site of the 1977 U.S. Amateur and 2003 Senior PGA championship. The course has never hosted a regular stop on the PGA Tour.

Like Congressional, Aronimink plays to a par-70 for professionals, with four par-3 holes and two par-5s split evenly between the front and back nines. The course is 7,152 yards in length according to its scorecard, 103 yards shorter than the Blue Course.

According to general manager Dick Naumann, Aronimink added new back tees to the short par-4 second hole and the par-5 ninth, taking the latter to over 600 yards in length.

But Naumann said the main challenges are still to be found in Ross' original layout.

"It's a very, very classic Donald Ross-designed golf course," Naumann said. "The fairways are generous, but the rough is very lush, very punitive. Keeping it in the fairways is very crucial. ...

"[Ross] protected par on the green complexes. The greens have difficult undulations and unique cupping areas."