NEWTOWN SQUARE, PENNSYLVANIA | By the time Aaron Rai put his hands on the silver Wanamaker Trophy early Sunday evening, both of his black golf gloves had been tucked away in his bag and the deep joy of having done something perhaps only he thought possible had deepened his smile.
For all of the legends written into the major-championship story across the decades, there are weeks like this one at Aronimink Golf Club when everything seems gently slanted toward the unexpected.
Rai and Aronimink stand as examples of why golf has a will of its own, often unbound by reason and as comfortable with expectations as a puppy wearing a new collar.
This PGA Championship was compelling in a slow-reveal kind of way, like stacking a stone wall one rock at a time. Rather than fireworks, it gave us what felt like a 6-3 football game filled with punts disguised as 50-foot birdie putts.
At the end of a week spent searching for its leading man, this PGA Championship ultimately delivered Rai, the 31-year-old Englishman who persevered when his more famous pursuers could not, and he did it with a workmanlike style that Aronimink seemed built to accept.
One week removed from playing in an opposite-field event in Myrtle Beach, Rai shot 5-under-par 65 on Sunday, the kind of splashy score that will sparkle even more over time, and it left him holding the trophy while everyone else walked away with their emptied lunch pails.
For all the Nicklauses and Woodses and McIlroys who have crafted the major-championship narrative, there are players like Rai who have the week of their golf lives at just the right time.
“It definitely feels like a journey. Everyone playing in the field this week has a great journey to be able to share, and I’m no exception,” Rai said.
The week began, as PGA Championship weeks often do, debating what distinguishes this major championship, a question never asked of the other three. The PGA Championship demonstrated again that it’s at its best being itself.
Until the final hour on Sunday, this PGA Championship leaderboard had the feel of cars inching along on a crowded freeway, each one searching for an open lane only Rai ultimately found.
Aronimink fit the Philly model, tough and unforgiving even if the infamous local fans tempered their bellicosity. The random “E-A-G-L-E-S” cheers felt almost forced, especially when directed at Dallas Cowboys fan Scottie Scheffler, who was too busy missing makeable putts to engage the galleries.
With a handful of notable exceptions – Justin Thomas’s near-miss 65 on Sunday, Kurt Kitayama’s final-round 63 and Rai’s 68-foot, tournament-clinching birdie on the 71st hole – Aronimink specialized in exasperation. Player smiles were harder to come by than flat 10-footers and the championship often felt like it was stutter-stepping toward its conclusion rather than finding its full stride, until Rai provided a big-bang finish.
That speaks to Aronimink’s stern character, which was enhanced initially by cool, windy conditions before turning summer-like by Sunday afternoon when the color of the putting surfaces began to gently fade as they got firmer.
Maybe because Xander Schauffele shot 21-under par to win at Valhalla two years ago, there’s a bit of misconception about how the PGA Championship typically plays. Scheffler won at 11-under last year at Quail Hollow Club and, in the three years preceding Valhalla, the winners all finished in single digits under par.
PGA of America setup man Kerry Haigh doesn’t protect par. He recognizes it and lets the math take care of itself. Haigh may have been too aggressive with a couple of hole locations the first two days but over the course of four days, Aronimink never relented.
The PGA of America prides itself on representing approximately 30,000 people who work behind shop counters, stand on lesson tees in the sweltering heat and abide the quirks and questions of their hard-to-satisfy clientele.
On Sunday, the organization crowned a champion who wears two black gloves while playing, keeps plastic covers on each of his irons and can appear so mechanical in how he plays the game that it’s easy to wonder if he might be a creation of AI.
Aaron Rai and fans celebrate his birdie putt on No. 17.
Richard Heathcote, Getty Images
There is something appropriate about that, finding a winner who embraces his own individualism even if it runs counter to convention because one size does not fit all, even in matching black gloves.
“All-world gentleman, no doubt,” is how Schauffele described the game’s newest major champion.
Rory McIlroy was left to think about his failure to birdie either par-5 in the final round and the bogey he made on the drivable par-4 13th that doomed his chances. It was almost enough to let him forget about the four closing bogeys he made at the end of the first round that forced him to play catch up for three days.
Scheffler ranked 72nd of 82 players in strokes gained putting and never seemed comfortable here. Jon Rahm birdied the first two holes Sunday then downshifted into neutral.
Cameron Smith resurrected his mullet power after going to work with swing coach Claude Harmon III, who advised him to embrace feel over mechanics and it worked. He ended a streak of six consecutive missed cuts in majors and looked more like the guy who won the Claret Jug four years ago.
“It was nice to get the heart rate up and, you know, feel your hands and your legs get a little bit jelly. It was cool,” Smith said.
Ludvig Åberg can’t seem to make the putts he needs when he needs them and Justin Thomas started too far behind in the final round.
It was Rai who moved to center stage. An eagle at the par-5 ninth offset two bogeys in the three previous holes. It also jump-started a finishing kick in which Rai played the last 10 holes in 6-under par.
The next time someone asks what it takes to win a major, point them to what Rai did over the final 10 holes at Aronimink.
As the sun slanted across the 18th green late Sunday, Rai was still trying to make sense of it all during the trophy presentation.
“To be … here is definitely outside of my wildest imagination,” he said.
Top: Ludvig Åberg congratulates Aaron Rai on the 18th green.
Darren Carroll, PGA of America via Getty Images
