[Photo: Richard Heathcote]
One by one they fell. And there were many of them.
A tightened leaderboard heading into the final round at Aronimink Golf Club surely meant there would be chaos late, with the survivors all doing what they could to win the PGA Championship and get their respective hands on the Wanamaker Trophy.
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It didn’t turn out as most thought.
Proven heavyweights Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele, Jon Rahm and Justin Thomas were among the contenders. None of them won. Alex Smalley and Matti Schmid made up the unlikely final pairing with a combined zero PGA Tour victories and little major championship experience. Neither won.
In the end, it was England’s Aaron Rai who struggled through the first eight holes of the final day in one-over to find himself three shots off the lead, then unleashed a wonderful 10-hole blitz that had the Philadelphia gallery going bonkers.
Yes, 31-year-old Aaron Rai, ranked 44th in the world, with one PGA Tour victory to his credit, stood strong down the stretch and calmly, smoothly and patiently won his first major championship in this, only his 13th major start. The man who wears two gloves and uses iron covers shot 70-69-67-65 to shoot nine-under 271 total and capture the PGA Championship by three shots.
“Very surreal,” Rai said. “It’s been a bit of a frustrating season. So to be stood here is definitely outside my wildest imagination.”
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Rai eagled the par-5 ninth hole to spark his comeback. Birdies followed at 11 and 13 to put him squarely in the mix, then he made consecutive birdies at 16 and 17 to slam the door shut. It was a two-putt birdie on the par-5 16th, but a bomb from 68 feet on the par-3 17th effectively handed him the goods.
“Definitely wasn’t trying to hole that putt,” Rai said. “It was so long that I was just trying to put good speed on it and make a good putt and it tracked extremely well on the last half.”
Rai is the first Englishman to win the PGA since Jim Barnes won in 1919 and the first international player to win since Jason Day took the title in 2015. There had been a streak of 10 straight American victors.
Speaking of Americans, it looked like for most of the afternoon that Justin Thomas would have a chance to win his third PGA title. He went out early on Sunday and shot 65 to get to five-under total and was the leader in the clubhouse for four hours. Xander Schauffele made two bogeys early in the back nine to take himself out of contention. World No.1 Scottie Scheffler battled a baulky putter for three of the four days at Aronimink. He tied for 14th place and will head to the US Open at Shinnecock Hills looking to complete the career Grand Slam.
Rahm and Cameron Smith both gave it a go, trying to prove that playing in LIV Golf events has done nothing to diminish their respective chances of contending in majors. Smith, the 2022 Open champion, shot consecutive 68s on the weekend and tied for seventh place. Rahm, the two-time major winner who is LIV’s best player this season, made bogeys on holes three and seven but otherwise played well to stay in contention. He tied for second place with Smalley, the 54-hole leader.
“We compete to win, and it was nice to get the heart rate up and, you know, feel your hands and your legs get a little bit jelly,” said Smith, who had missed his six previous major cuts. “It was cool.”
Said Rahm: “As far as I’m concerned, to be in the mix again and hit it as good as I did and perform as well as I did this weekend, it’s been a great week… Can’t really ask too much more of myself.”
McIlroy did not win his second consecutive major for one simple reason: par-5 play. There are only two par 5s at Aronimink, so McIlroy had eight chances to do damage. But the six-time major champion and Masters winner played them in even-par for the week. He shot 69 on Sunday and tied for seventh place.
Photo: Jamie Squire
But none of that matters now. Rai’s late surge fended off all comers in a town that is known for, among other things, Rocky Balboa. Rai didn’t take any body shots over four days from any of his fellow competitors, but he did handle everything that Aronimink threw at him.
He’s calm, cool and collected. He doesn’t show a lot of emotion, or at least, he didn’t after making an easy par on the 72nd hole. But there’s more to the man than that.
“He’s such a nice guy,” Schauffele said. “All world gentleman, no doubt.”
And now a PGA champion.
