{"id":146,"date":"2026-05-18T12:09:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T12:09:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movingtohawaiiguide.com\/?p=146"},"modified":"2026-05-18T12:09:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T12:09:13","slug":"aaron-rai-emerges-to-win-first-major-first-pga-for-england-since-1919","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movingtohawaiiguide.com\/?p=146","title":{"rendered":"Aaron Rai emerges to win first major, first PGA for England since 1919"},"content":{"rendered":"
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NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. \u2014 Aaron Rai undersold the reaction to the mammoth putt that sealed his first major championship.<\/p>\n

Read more BIIF football: Gomes, Fronda sign with Utah Islanders<\/a><\/p>\n

His tee shot at the par-3 17th landed clear on the other side of the green, 68 1\/2 feet from the pin. His putt traveled up one ridge and down a second, aligning perfectly with the shadow of the flagstick as it tracked straight into the cup.<\/p>\n

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Rai\u2019s facial expression barely changed. He shared one solitary hand-slap with his caddie, something less than a full high five. No one was going to catch him, but Rai waited till completing the 18th hole to finally exhale and celebrate winning the PGA Championship on Sunday at Aronimink Golf Club.<\/p>\n

On a weekend where fans studied the leaderboard and wondered, \u201cWho\u2019s that?,\u201d Rai showed exactly who he is.<\/p>\n

Rai, 31, drained a series of increasingly long putts to write himself into the history books as the first Englishman to win the PGA Championship since Jim Barnes in 1919. Americans had claimed this major each of the last 10 years.<\/p>\n

He made a 40-foot eagle putt at the par-5 ninth hole to cap an uneven first nine, then pulled away with four birdies on the back and converted his remarkable birdie at No. 17 to remove any doubt.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe shadow of the pin gave a really nice line for probably the last 10 feet. So that definitely helped with the visual of the putt,\u201d Rai said during the trophy presentation. \u201cBut 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rai began the day in a five-way tie for second behind Alex Smalley. His 5-under-par 65 brought him to 9-under 271 for the week, three strokes ahead of Smalley (70) and Jon Rahm of Spain (68).<\/p>\n

The first English major winner since Matt Fitzpatrick took the 2022 U.S. Open title, Rai was one of several less familiar names on the 54-hole leaderboard. But he was ranked No. 44 in the world entering the week, with one win on the PGA Tour and three more on the DP World Tour for his career.<\/p>\n

He previously had not finished better than T19 at a major.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a really long journey to even get to compete at major championships at events like the PGA,\u201d Rai said. \u201cYeah, to be stood here, it still hasn\u2019t sunk in for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Justin Thomas (65), Sweden\u2019s Ludvig Aberg (69) and Germany\u2019s Matti Schmid (69) tied for fourth at 5-under 275.<\/p>\n

Thomas was the leader in the clubhouse at about 3:05 p.m. local time, and that held up for most of the afternoon as players battled Aronimink\u2019s more demanding back nine. Thomas had improved on his Saturday 72 by seven shots.<\/p>\n

\u201cI vented and kind of got everything off my chest to my wife Jill last night,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cCredit to her, she gave great advice. She was like, \u2018Well, use that tomorrow.\u2019 She\u2019s seen me play pissed off. I\u2019ve done it in Ryder Cups a lot, and it\u2019s like sometimes it brings a little different energy and different side out of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I\u2019ve got to give her a lot of credit for that because I tried to use that out of my finish and round today to play today and shoot as low as I could.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smalley, Rahm, Rai and Schmid each held at least a share of the lead at 6 under at some point. Smalley \u2014 seeking his first professional win of any kind \u2014 harmed his chances with a messy double bogey at the par-4 sixth and a bogey at No. 8.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew it was going to be a difficult round mentally and just because the golf course was drying out, it was warm, ball was bouncing a lot, rolling a lot,\u201d said Smalley, who rallied in part because of an eagle at No. 16. \u201cHung in there. Kind of gave myself some stress on the first few holes again. Made a couple of back-to-back mistakes on No. 6 and paid for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Schmid, playing in the final pairing with Smalley and also winless on the PGA Tour, took the lead from him at No. 6 when he got a 19 1\/2-foot birdie to fall. But his bogey on No. 10 opened the door for Rai.<\/p>\n

Rai\u2019s putter was far from the only club working for him. He gave himself 4-foot birdies with tight approaches at Nos. 1 and 11, though he overshot the greens at Nos. 3 and 6 to lead to two of his three front-nine bogeys.<\/p>\n

Everything turned when Rai lined up his eagle putt at No. 9. He left in the pin for the downhill, left-to-right putt and watched it turn straight toward the hole.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just trying to focus on speed. Hit a great putt, great speed, and we were lucky it went in,\u201d Rai said. \u201cDefinitely helped and provided a bit of a boost to the round.\u201d<\/p>\n

The birdie at No. 11 drew Rai even with Schmid, and he became the first player to touch 7 under all week at the short par-4 13th. Rai\u2019s tee shot went in the front-right bunker, but he got his 39-yard sand shot to stop inside 7 feet to set up birdie.<\/p>\n

Rai was one of the only players who managed to tame the back nine. Northern Ireland star Rory McIlroy could not muster a late rally, posting 69 and landing at 4 under. He tied for seventh with Australian Cameron Smith (68) and Xander Schauffele (69).<\/p>\n

Kurt Kitayama played Sunday morning and fired a bogey-free, 7-under 63 to tie the record for lowest final round at a major championship. He tied for 10th at 3 under with Chris Gotterup (69), Patrick Reed (70) and England\u2019s Justin Rose (69).<\/p>\n

Reigning champion and World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler had a ho-hum 69 and finished seven behind Rai at 2 under.<\/p>\n

Rahm had the greatest chance to pressure the less experienced contenders when he hit fine approaches into Nos. 1 and 2 and collected birdies to reach 6 under. He could not keep that going and gave them back with bogeys at Nos. 3 and 7.<\/p>\n

\u201cI played really good golf. That\u2019s the only way to look at it,\u201d Rahm said after his best major finish since 2023. \u201cJust wish I\u2019d have done better with the speed of the greens. Just couldn\u2019t seem to get it to the hole, and that\u2019s the reason why I didn\u2019t hole any more putts.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs far as I\u2019m 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\u2019s been a great week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then Rahm praised Rai, not only for his sharp play but also for the consensus around golf that \u201cthere\u2019s very few people that are nicer and kinder human beings than\u201d the Wolverhampton-area native.<\/p>\n

A son of Indian immigrants, Rai is widely known as a mild-mannered, humble and respectful player. He is still in the habit of using iron covers, a rarity in the sport, because he came from a working-class family and it would be prohibitively expensive \u2014 and unfair to his parents \u2014 to replace damaged equipment.<\/p>\n

\u201cGolf is an amazing game,\u201d Rai said at the trophy presentation. \u201cIt 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\u2019re playing, no matter what course you\u2019re playing on. So I think it just teaches so many amazing life skills.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Read more Cavs, Donovan Mitchell dominate Pistons in Game 7, set up East showdown with Knicks<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aaron Rai emerges to win first major, first PGA for England since 1919 – Sports | Hawaii Tribune-Herald<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":145,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"\nAaron Rai emerges to win first major, first PGA for England since 1919 - Moving to Hawaii Guide<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movingtohawaiiguide.com\/?p=146\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Aaron Rai emerges to win first major, first PGA for England since 1919 - Moving to Hawaii Guide\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Aaron Rai emerges to win first major, first PGA for England since 1919 - 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