winner of the PGA Championship<\/a>.<\/p>\nNext to him on a small table was the Wanamaker Trophy, big and silver and shiny.<\/p>\n
Rai couldn’t resist a quick glance at the 27-pound trophy and all those names.<\/p>\n
Jim Barnes won the first two PGA Championships in 1916 and 1919, and there had never been another winner from England until Rai won at Aronimink on Sunday. And there was Tiger Woods, once a mythical figure on VHS tapes to a young boy growing up in Wolverhampton.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe used to watch them a hell of a lot, probably two, three times a week, if not more,\u201d Rai said of the tapes of Woods winning U.S. Amateurs and his early feats as a pro. “I just remember being in awe just watching all of the things that he could do.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, yeah, to have my name even with him on this trophy is incredible, really.\u201d<\/p>\n
Practically everything about Rai’s victory Sunday was incredible.<\/p>\n
He was among 22 players separated by four shots going into the final round, a logjam the likes of which the PGA Championship had never seen. He was just another name on the leaderboard midway through the final round, three shots behind and coming off two bogeys in three holes.<\/p>\n
What followed was the stuff of major champions \u2014 seven consecutive one-putt greens, including a 40-foot eagle on the par-5 ninth that turned his fortunes. He was 6 under over the last 10 holes. The last time anyone did better to win a major was Jack Nicklaus in the 1986 Masters.<\/p>\n
Rai’s first love as a boy was Formula 1 and he dreamed of being a driver. He certainly drove like one on the back nine, zooming into the lead, leaving behind the likes of Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm, Xander Schauffele and Cameron Smith, Justin Rose and Justin Thomas.<\/p>\n
Now he takes his place in golf history as a major champion, his fifth career win worldwide that moves him to a career-best No. 15 in the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone playing in the field this week has a great journey to be able to share,\u201d Rai said. \u201cAnd I’m no exception to that.\u201d<\/p>\n
His stands out.<\/p>\n
He wears two gloves because that’s what he did as a kid to fight off the cold English winter. Rai has a work ethic that rivals anyone, regardless of the temperature.<\/p>\n
How many major champions \u2014 or any elite player \u2014 has plastic iron covers? For Rai, it’s a reminder of his roots. He once said his father sacrificed to buy the nicest golf clubs and then would clean the grooves with baby oil after his son was done playing. Rai has left the iron covers on since then \u201cto remember where I came from and to respect what I have.\u201d<\/p>\n
He never got teased because he didn’t spend much time around other junior golfers. Rai said only when he was about 12 did he graduate to starting the hole on the forward tee box instead of the fairway. That was the idea of his father to get him in a place where making par didn\u2019t feel so impossible.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t really mix with a lot of other junior golfers, which didn\u2019t give me a perspective of what was normal,\u201d he said. “So I think he kind of sheltered me to be able to develop in a way that made sense for me, in a way that I guess was a little bit unique with two gloves, with iron covers.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy the time he probably allowed me to play more club golf … I felt like I was strong enough in why I did certain things to be able to continue to move that forward. I knew the reasons why I do them. I believe in the reasons why I do them.\u201d<\/p>\n
It’s all about respect, and the greatest respect he showed was to Aronimink.<\/p>\n
Rai figured there were too many players \u2014 too many stars \u2014 on the leaderboard for him to worry about. And Aronimink, with its wildly contoured greens and tough pins, required so much focus that he didn’t have energy for anything but the next shot.<\/p>\n
The performance was worthy of a major champion.<\/p>\n
Rahm couldn’t make enough putts for birdie. McIlroy couldn’t handle the par 5s (he played them even for the week). Alex Smalley and Matti Schmid couldn’t avoid the key mistakes. That left Rai to finish strong for a 65 to win by three over Rahm and Smalley.<\/p>\n
There was a lot of disappointment to go around, but also joy for the winner. Rai is enormously popular with his peers, and it was evident.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou won\u2019t find one person on property who\u2019s not happy for him,\u201d McIlroy said.<\/p>\n
Schauffele referred to him as an \u201call-world gentleman.\u201d<\/p>\n
But this isn’t just about being a nice guy. Golf is loaded with those. Schauffele still remembers a late summer night in Scotland when he and his caddie went out for a putting contest. There was Rai at 9 p.m., and when he finished the Englishman was off to the gym.<\/p>\n
\u201cRarely do you feel like people work way harder than you,\u201d Schauffele said. \u201cThat\u2019s what it\u2019s about to be a major champion. You put the work in when nobody\u2019s looking. Super pumped for him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aaron Rai, left, hugs Justin Rose’s caddie Mark Fulcher after finishing on the 18th green during Sunday\u2019s final…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29919,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[415,1120,1111,1104,1127,1133,1136,1109,1115,1113,882,1114,1119,1108,1132,1126,1107,1130,1118,1105,1121,899,1134,1124,54,1110,1112,1125,1106,1116,1129,1128,1117,1135,1123,1122,1131],"class_list":["post-29918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-aaron-rai","tag-aaron-rai","tag-bruin","tag-butler","tag-butler-eagle","tag-cabot","tag-callery","tag-cherry-valley","tag-community-news","tag-connoquenessing","tag-cranberry","tag-crime","tag-east-butler","tag-eau-claire","tag-education-news","tag-evans-city","tag-fairview","tag-government-news","tag-harmony","tag-harrisville","tag-high-school-sports-news","tag-karns-city","tag-local-news","tag-mars","tag-mount-chesnut","tag-news","tag-obituaries","tag-pennsylvania","tag-petrolia","tag-political-news","tag-portersville","tag-sarver","tag-saxonburg","tag-slippery-rock","tag-valencia","tag-west-liberty","tag-west-sunbury","tag-zelienople"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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