Aaron Rai was plodding along in the PGA Championship, going 1-over-par for his first eight holes, but then he got hot and torched one of the most impressive, tightest leaderboards at a major championship.
Rai played his last 10 holes in 6 under with an eagle at the par-5 ninth and four birdies, including an improbable 70-foot birdie putt on the 17th hole.
That putt was the exclamation point on Rai’s first major title. It gave him a three-shot victory over two-time major champion Jon Rahm and Alex Smalley, and was four shots better than two-time PGA champ Justin Thomas and five ahead of seventh-place Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele and Cameron Smith.
The 22 players within four shots of the lead going into the final round was a PGA Championship record.
“Obviously, I knew there were a lot of people that were relatively close, but I think regardless of how bunched that it was, it still required a really good, strong round of golf,” said Rai, whose final-round 5-under-par 65 put him at 9-under 271 at Aronimink Golf Club outside Philadelphia, Pa.
“The course really demanded it this week, and it was very punishing. I think the focus was very much on the course, on the game, on continuing to run through some good processes and to just kind of see where that put me during the round.”
Rai Turns It On Over Last 10 Holes
Thomas was the clubhouse leader for nearly four hours after a 65 before the course turned hard under a hot sun.
What followed was a master class from golf’s newest major champion.
After hitting a 5-wood second shot from 260 yards to 40 feet on the 589-yard ninth hole, Rai drained the putt for an eagle.
“It landed just short of the green, and came up very, very well,” Rai said, adding that on the putt, “I was just trying to focus on speed. Hit a great putt, great speed, and we were lucky it went in. That definitely helped to get things moving in a better direction.”
Rai birdied four of his last eight holes, taking the lead for good on the 299-yard par-4 13th after driving into a greenside bunker, hitting a 40-yard shot to seven feet and making the birdie putt.
Rai, 31, became the first English-born player in more than a century to win the Wanamaker Trophy. The last was Jim Barnes, who won the PGA in 1916 and 1919.
“I’m extremely, extremely proud,” Rai said. “There’s a lot of incredible and historic English players over those hundred years who have gone on to achieve incredible things and had phenomenal careers, but to win this event and then to be the person that’s the first one to have won it in a long time from England is an amazing thing and something to be extremely proud of.”
Good Tournament for Rahm, Smalley
Rahm had his best finish in a major since joining LIV Golf at the end of 2023. He was slowed by a pair of bogeys on the front nine and managed only one birdie on the back nine for a 68.
Smalley began the final day with a two-shot lead but lost it with an ugly double bogey on the sixth hole. He rallied with an eagle at 16 and a birdie at 18 to finish the day at even par. The runner-up finish gets him into the next four majors, including the Masters.
McIlroy, who closed with a 69, played the par 5s in even for the week, and he chopped up the reachable par-4 13th for a bogey.
Defending champion Scottie Scheffler missed a 4-foot birdie putt on the third hole and twice missed 3-foot par putts on the back nine in his closing round of 69 to tie for 14th, his first time out of the top 10 at a major since the 2024 U.S. Open.
Scheffler defends his title this week at The CJ CUP Byron Nelson outside Dallas, Texas. He went wire-to-wire last year to win by eight shots.
