[Photo: David Cannon]<\/p>\n
The weight of accomplishment in winning his first major title hit Aaron Rai only minutes after he completed his three-stroke victory in the PGA Championship<\/a> last month at Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, Pa.<\/p>\n It occurred during the trophy presentation when Rai hoisted the Wanamaker Trophy. The prize, donated by department store heir Rodman Wanamaker for the inaugural championship in 1916, is among the largest in golf at more than 29 inches. It also might be the heaviest, weighing 27 pounds.<\/p>\n Rai wasn\u2019t quite ready for the immensity of the moment.<\/p>\n Related: PGA Championship 2026: Golf needed a new hero. It has one in Aaron Rai, your new major champion<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI had heard stories about it, but I still wasn\u2019t prepared for quite how heavy it was,\u201d Rai said with a laugh on Tuesday at Muirfield Village Golf Club, where he was preparing for the Memorial Tournament, his first start since his PGA triumph. \u201cI was pretty comfortable for probably the first minute or so [holding it for photographs] and then after that I definitely started to feel it burning.\u201d<\/p>\n Fortunately, he won\u2019t have quite as much trouble with the version of the Wanamaker the PGA is sending to his home in England. The replica is only 90 per cent the size of the original.<\/p>\n Rai, 31, who is making his fourth start in the Memorial, is still coming to grips, so to speak, with other aspects of becoming a major champion. The victory was his second on the PGA Tour and eighth of his career worldwide, but nothing before he closed with a final-round 65 at Aronimink can compare. He needed some time for the win to sink in.<\/p>\n