Justin Thomas was hot on Sunday at Aronimink, but it wasn’t quite enough.
BEN JARED, PGA TOUR VIA GETTY IMAGES
NEWTOWN SQUARE, PENNSYLVANIA | Ultimately, because of the way Aaron Rai seized the PGA Championship Sunday at Aronimink Golf Club, the what-ifs likely won’t linger as long for Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas and the others who could almost touch the Wanamaker Trophy at times during the final round.
Rai won by three strokes over Rahm and third-round co-leader Alex Smalley and by four over fast-closing Thomas, Ludvig Åberg and Matti Schmid, who shared the final pairing with Smalley.
For each, opportunity proved impossible to capture.
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Cole Sherwood
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Pablo Ereno
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Leonie Harm
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Cole Anderson
“I’m proud of myself to even be here and to have a chance,” Thomas said early Sunday afternoon after closing with a 65 that had him within one stroke of the lead setting the clubhouse bar at 5-under 275 before the last groups on the course made the turn. “I fought hard [Saturday] and then fought hard today.
“If I shoot 2- or 3-under, I’m on my way to my rental house right now to get my stuff and be ready. I will happily wait here multiple hours if I have to.”
Thomas started the final round six strokes off Smalley’s lead, and even with a torrid finish he understood he needed help to win a third PGA Championship. There was satisfaction in getting from the irritation of a 2-over-par 72 on Saturday to being in contention on Sunday.
“I was pretty sour yesterday … I fought really hard to shoot the score that I did, and I felt it was the best I could shoot, but I just was upset and bummed I didn’t play better,” he said.
“I practiced a lot longer than I normally would have in a situation like that yesterday, but I just felt like I couldn’t leave the golf course in the frame of mind I was in. It was not a great chance, there wasn’t a good chance even, but I had a chance to win a major still. I needed to leave this place in a better frame of mind.”
Given his pedigree, Rahm looked like the player to beat after he birdied the first two holes in the final round to close the gap on the leaders, but he played just even par over the final 16 holes, losing ground to Rai.
“I played really good golf. That’s the only way to look at it. Just wish I’d have done better with the speed of the greens. Just couldn’t seem to get it to the hole, and that’s the reason why I didn’t hole any more putts,” said Rahm, who finished at 6-under-par 274, three behind Rai.
“Even so, what Aaron did today, catching him could have been very difficult. I don’t know if it could happen, but I would have liked a better chance playing the last two holes.”
By that point, the engraver was already at work etching Rai’s name into the silver trophy.
Smalley, in contention for the first time in a major championship, stayed out front until a double bogey at the par-4 sixth hole. After hitting his tee shot into thick rough, Smalley compounded his problems trying to extricate his ball from grass.
“Just a few errors back to back that cost you in tournaments like this,” said Smalley, who tied Rahm for second and earned an invitation to the 2027 Masters.
“As far as this tournament, in terms of my career, who knows? Maybe it’s a springboard. It gives me a lot of confidence coming away from this week to know that I can compete on the PGA Tour and even some of the major championships. So yeah, I think this week will do a lot for me.”
Ron Green Jr.
