NEWTOWN SQUARE, PENNSYLVANIA | Let’s shout this out because Aaron Rai, the new PGA champion, won’t. He won’t boast about being the first Englishman to win the PGA Championship since Jim Barnes did it in 1919 because that goes against his softly spoken, understated and exquisitely polite character.
Rai, 31, who last raised his voice in the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, moves around the place as if he doesn’t want anyone to see him. The most noticeable thing about him is that he wears a black glove on each hand. If he were a burglar he would leave others to smash down the front door while he moved to the back of the house and shinnied up a drainpipe or picked a lock.
With Rai there are no histrionics, no flamboyant gestures, just a slow smile and, occasionally, a clenched fist of his right hand. Quietly and undemonstratively he scrutinised the various difficulties of Aronimink, which were causing so many problems for so many of his rivals, and then set about disassembling them one by one for his second U.S. victory in his 13th major-championship start. His rounds descended pleasingly: 70, 69, 67 and 65 for a 72-hole total of 271, 9-under par, good enough for victory by three strokes.
On leaving the eighth green Rai was embraced by Mark Fulcher, Justin Rose’s caddie, among others, giving evidence of his popularity. He is a man of the people, one who describes himself as working class and not coming from a well-off background. He didn’t learn his golf in a well-known golf centre or golf club. He was born and grew up in Wolverhampton, nearly in the geographical centre of England. Turning pro in 2012, when he was 17, he did not go to a college in the U.S. In his slow and steady upward climb he has learned the importance of hard work and the value of a pound or a dollar.
“So, yeah, it’s a really long journey to even get to compete at major championships, at events like the PGA.”
Aaron Rai
His father, Amrik, used relatively large sums of money that he could ill afford to buy his son the best golf clubs, and one set of irons was so expensive he used to clean them with baby oil, using a pin to dig out any dirt in the grooves. That taught Aaron about money and taking care of things. From that day to this he has protected his irons with head covers. “It’s out of principle now,” he says now in his soft voice that you have to strain to hear. “The value of not losing the perspective of what I have had and where I am. The covers are going to stay, I’m sorry.”
Rai’s mother, Dalvir, was born in Mombasa, Kenya, and she and her husband realised they had a prodigy on their hands when as a 4-year-old he finished second in a competition for under-10s. At 15 he holed 207 consecutive 10-foot putts, setting a new record as he did so. At 20 he graduated from the third-tier EuroPro Tour.
Rai’s golf last week was like a piece of music that rose in a crescendo, getting louder and better the longer it went on. He was tied for 15th after 36 holes, moved to joint second after 54 holes, was three strokes behind after eight holes of his last round and then spread-eagled his rivals with a near-faultless run of eagle and four birdies in his last 10 holes.
He didn’t back into this victory. He seized it with both hands, playing some shots that those who saw them will not forget in a hurry. There was an eagle on the ninth thanks to a 40-foot putt across the green. More impressive than that was his second on the 13th, a 40-yard bunker shot that he dared to fly at the flag as if he were playing darts so that it ended only a few feet from its target on the green’s top tier.
There were more: his arrow-straight 5-iron to the 16th that set up his fifth birdie of the day; on the 17th came one of those putts on Aronimink’s large greens that start in New York and end in Pennsylvania (it was 68 feet) for another birdie; on the 18th, with victory in sight, he smashed a drive that split the fairway.
Rai’s journey to this major-championship victory has been slow and steady. He finished fifth in the PGA Tour’s opposite-field Myrtle Beach event two Sundays ago.
He is two months past his 31st birthday and many golfers are younger than that when they win their first major championship. There is something so solid about his character that suggests he will not be a flash in the pan.
“Everyone playing in the field this week has a great journey to be able to share, and I’m no exception to that,” he said. “So much goes into it from being a junior golfer to developing the game to having aspirations of turning professional. Then you realize once you turn professional how good some of these guys are and how strong the level of professional golf is, not just on the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour, and all the feeders that go into it.
“So, yeah, it’s a really long journey to even get to compete at major championships, at events like the PGA. Yeah, to be stood here, it still hasn't sunk in for sure. Amazing journey.”
It hardly needs to be emphasized that Rai said these words in typical Rai fashion – quietly and thoughtfully. His was a calming presence as darkness gathered over Aronimink Sunday night at the end of a championship that had been tumultuous and memorable. How appropriate that an Englishman won in the very state that was founded nearly 350 years ago by an Englishman named William Penn.
Top: Aaron Rai celebrates after sinking a long birdie putt on the 17th hole.
Carl Recine, Getty Images