{"id":980616,"date":"2026-05-23T21:20:32","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T21:20:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/980616\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T21:20:32","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T21:20:32","slug":"aaron-rai-still-waiting-for-damaged-wanamaker-trophy-but-has-humble-plan-for-record-3-69m-pga-prize-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/980616\/","title":{"rendered":"Aaron Rai still waiting for ‘damaged’ Wanamaker Trophy but has humble plan for record $3.69m PGA prize money"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aaron Rai secured glory at the PGA Championship, but he hasn’t been allowed to take the iconic Wanamaker Trophy home just yet.<\/strong><\/p>\n

At Aronimink last Sunday, the Wolverhampton-born golfer became the first Englishman to win the historic major<\/a> in more than a century.<\/p>\n

\"Aaron<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Rai has been made to wait to take the Wanamaker Trophy homeCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

Jim Barnes was the last to triumph, 107 years ago in 1919, \u00a0when it was still a matchplay event.<\/p>\n

After Rai pulled away from a world-class field on Sunday<\/a>, en-route to shooting a nine-under-par total of 271, he posed with the 28in tall, 27lb Wanamaker Trophy on the green.<\/p>\n

Aaron Rai yet to receive PGA Championship prize<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old was seen beaming alongside wife Gaurika Bishnoi Rai, relishing his first major win.<\/p>\n

But he hasn’t yet been able to put his hefty prize on display at home.<\/p>\n

READ MORE ON GOLF<\/p>\n

“We actually haven’t received it yet,” Rai said of the Wanamaker, during a call with UK media on Thursday evening. <\/p>\n

“I think there was an issue with a bit of damage on the trophy, so they said they will send it in the coming days.<\/p>\n

“I’m not sure what exactly happened. But there was just a little bit of damage towards the top of the trophy, which they wanted to fix before it went anywhere.”<\/p>\n

When the trophy does finally arrive, Rai will hold the original until next year’s tournament at PGA Frisco. <\/p>\n

He will then be handed a replica to keep. <\/p>\n

Rai, described by many fellow players as one of the hardest working on the PGA Tour<\/a>, was not among the pre-tournament favorites to win at Aronimink. <\/p>\n

\"Aaron<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Rai is one of the hardest working and most respected players on tourCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

He went off at 150-to-1, but a breakthrough on the biggest stage has been bubbling for quite some time.<\/p>\n

“The one thing that was a really big catalyst, was just feeling healthy body-wise, probably over the last four weeks or so,” he said of his winning performance last weekend. <\/p>\n

“That then enabled a bit more normality in terms of practice routines, in terms of getting out on the course, in terms of getting back into the gym a little bit more. <\/p>\n

“I think just being able to have some consistency over the last, probably four weeks, was really important in continuing to build.”<\/p>\n

Aaron Rai reveals humble plan for PGA Championship prize money<\/p>\n

While he will be made to wait a little longer to take possession of the Wanamaker Trophy, Rai’s bank account has been bolstered by record PGA Championship prize money<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Thanks to a $1.5 million injection from the PGA of America, this year’s purse was $20.5m. <\/p>\n

\"Aaron<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Rai’s win at the PGA Championship landed him record prize moneyCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

As the winner, Rai walks away with an impressive $3.69 million\u00a0cut. <\/p>\n

Despite a big payday, which takes his total PGA Tour earnings to just over $16m, the 31-year-old is staying humble.<\/p>\n

“Honestly, that’s something that I haven’t really thought of just yet,” Rai said, when asked if he plans to treat himself after the win. <\/p>\n

“I think, for me personally, I have a really nice house in Jacksonville that I’ve been at for three years now, which I absolutely love.<\/p>\n

Aaron Rai praises unsung hero behind major win<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Rai paid tribute to wife Gaurika Bishnoi Rai, who helped him visualize his major triumph<\/p>\n

“She’s extremely honest with me. Through the positives that she sees, but sometimes through the areas in which maybe I’m lacking. So I think probably the deeper consistent message is just honesty through the good and through the not so good.<\/p>\n

“One particular piece of advice, she was really reassuring on Saturday night and even on Sunday morning.<\/p>\n

“She said, ‘You’re ready’ on a few occasions. And that felt really powerful when she said it, because she said it on the Saturday night and she said it before starting on Sunday as well.”<\/p>\n

“I imported my car from the UK three years ago and I wouldn’t change that for anything. So nothing really comes to my mind for myself.”<\/p>\n

The major champion, though, does want to get his close family — which he describes as a ‘huge support system’ — a memento to remember the win. <\/p>\n

“I would like to get a couple of my family members something, but I wanted to also be thoughtful, rather than just something that is worth ‘X’ amount,” he added. <\/p>\n

Read More on talkSPORT<\/p>\n

“So I’m definitely going to sit with that and think about that a little bit more before choosing what that might be.”<\/p>\n

Stay up to date with golf across all our talkSPORT platforms – subscribe to our YouTube channel for the latest news, opinion, exclusive interviews and our daily unfiltered, unscripted show ‘The S* Word, from 8am ET<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aaron Rai secured glory at the PGA Championship, but he hasn’t been allowed to take the iconic Wanamaker…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":980617,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4106],"tags":[49090,272820,272825,272814,272815,272818,272816,272822,272824,2826,4366,272819,16021,272817,272823,272826,272813,4298,79,16,15,272821],"class_list":["post-980616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-aaron-rai","tag-aaron-rai-aronimink-highlights","tag-aaron-rai-maiden-major","tag-aaron-rai-major-wins","tag-aaron-rai-pga-championship-win","tag-aaron-rai-record-winnings","tag-aaron-rai-wanamaker-trophy-damaged","tag-aaron-rai-wife-gaurika-bishnoi","tag-english-golfer-wins-pga-championship","tag-golf","tag-golf-news","tag-how-much-did-aaron-rai-win","tag-pga-championship","tag-pga-championship-2026-prize-money","tag-pga-championship-purse-2026","tag-pga-championship-trophy-broken","tag-pga-championship-winner","tag-pga-tour","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-wanamaker-trophy-repair"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/980616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=980616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/980616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/980617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=980616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=980616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=980616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}