On a day when the Wanamaker Trophy was there for the taking, with 22 players within four shots of the lead to start the final round of the 108th PGA Championship at Aronmink, England’s Aaron Rai went out and took it.
The 31-year-old was 1-over for the day through eight holes on Sunday. Then, everything changed on the par-5 ninth when he made a 40-foot putt for eagle to go out in 1-under 34.
That set the tone for the rest of the day.
“We hit 5-wood,” said Rai, who was making just his 13th major start this week, of his approach to the par-5 ninth. “I think it was 260 yards to the pin. Slightly downwind, landed just short of the green, and came up very, very well. The putt going good on the green for eagle was definitely a bonus. Again, it was probably a 45-footer. I was just trying to focus on speed. Hit a great putt, great speed, and we were lucky it went in. Definitely helped and provided a bit of a boost to the round. I think previous to hole 9, we bogeyed No. 6 and bogeyed No. 8. So that definitely helped to get things moving in a better direction.”
Rai was unflappable on the back nine. As his fellow competitors couldn’t seem to get out of neutral, Rai was making every big putt he needed.
Rai joined the leaders at 6 under after holing a 4-foot birdie putt at No. 11. After rolling in a 7-foot birdie at 13, he took the lead at 7 under and never looked back.
Rai would add a birdie at the par-5 16th to take a two-stroke advantage over Matti Schmid at 8 under.
But that wasn’t it for the fireworks.
At the par-3 17th, Rai sent the spectators into a frenzy, ramming in a nearly 70-foot putt for birdie to pull three strokes ahead of his nearest competition and put an exclamation point on his first major win.
“Definitely wasn't trying to hole that put,” Rai admitted. “The shadow of the pin gave a really nice line for probably the last 10 feet. So that definitely helped with the visual of the putts. But it was so long that it was just trying to put good speed on it and make a good putt, and it just tracked extremely well on the last half. Yeah, amazing to see that one go in.”
Rai’s winning total was 9-under 274, three strokes better than Jon Rahm and Alex Smalley who tied for second. Major winners Cam Smith, Rory McIlroy and Xander Schauffele tied for seventh at 4 under, while Kurt Kitayama, Chris Gotterup, Justin Rose and Patrick Reed rounded out the top 10 at 3 under.
“Golf is an amazing game,” Rai said. “It teaches you so many things, and it teaches you so much humility and discipline and absolute hard work because nothing is ever given in this game no matter what level you're playing, no matter what course you're playing on. So I think it just teaches so many amazing life skills. And I think pretty much every guy on Tour are incredible people, and I think the sport should be very proud of the ambassadors that represent the PGA Tour and represent the PGA of America.”
2025 PGA Champion and world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler finished tied for 14th at 2 under.
Prior to this week, Rai – the 44th-ranked player in the world – had three career wins on the DP World Tour and his lone PGA Tour victory came in the 2024 Wyndham Championship.
Now he’s a Major Champion.
“So much goes into it from being a junior golfer to developing the game to have aspirations of turning professional,” Rai said. “Then you realize once you turn professional how good some of these guys are and how strong the level of professional golf is, not just on the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour, and all the feeders that go into it. So, yeah, it's a really long journey to even get to compete at major championships at events like the PGA. Yeah, to be stood here, it still hasn't sunk in for sure. Amazing journey.”
Until Sunday, Americans had won each of the last 10 PGA Championships. The last non-American to win was Jason Day in 2015 at Whistling Straits. The last European to win the PGA Championship before Rai was Rory McIlroy in 2014 at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky.
In the era of the four current majors, dating back to 1934, there had never been a year where the first two majors were won by Europeans.
With McIlroy’s win at the Masters in April and now Rai’s triumph at Aronimink, that isn’t the case anymore.
Rai earned $3.69 million for the biggest win of his career. Along with that, he also earns a lifetime exemption into the PGA Championship and five-year exemptions into the Masters, U.S. Open, Open Championship and the Players Championship.
