Aaron Rai’s PGA Victory: Mr Nice Guy breaks century-old English drought; family and roots shine

So, we bumped into Aaron Rai at the Indian Open last year.


That was the Women’s Indian Open last Oct, where he was happy to fly under the radar, caddying for his wife Gaurika Bishnoi. It was the day she missed the cut at the DLF G&CC, but golf’s ‘Mr Nice Guy’ wasn’t in a bad mood, just felt a little awkward as he waited for a quiet nod from his wife.


He may have stolen the limelight then, but ironically, it was Gaurika’s tee shot at the Masters Par-3 contest and her follow-through ‘hip-bump’ that had the Augusta crowd and the internet in splits.


This give-and-take spilled over to the iconic moment when a calm Rai walked down the puzzling Aronimink Golf Club, stretching his neck over a bunched leaderboard. He had climbed the ‘72 Rocky steps' with gloves on both hands to lift the hefty Wanamaker trophy, and collected a giant-sized cheque for $3,690,000, under the suburban skies of Pennsylvania.





The 31-year-old stayed the course 20 miles away from Rocky Balboa’s fictional scene, signing cards of 70-69-67-65, thus becoming the first champion in US PGA Championship history to lower his score in each round. Fun fact!


A day earlier, when he was tied-2nd, he had a half-an-hour conversation with his wife in the car en route to the hotel, one that played a big part in his mindset as he walked into Aronimink the next morning.


It was his eagle at the ninth that provided the momentum, followed by birdies on 11, 13, 16 and 17, his 68-ft putt on the penultimate hole effectively marking his name on the trophy, a moment he celebrated with an understated low fist pump. “It seemed everything conspired to get that into the hole.”


There was a surreal moment at the news conference when the Wolverhampton-born golfer spotted his name close to ‘Tiger Woods’ and that rewound VHS memories of the superhuman’ he had idolised since he was five.


Rai had come this far by being human.


And it wouldn’t be a surprise, when it finally sinks in, if he harks back to the day in 2018 when he had played a practice round with Denmark’s journeyman Soren Kjeldsen.


“It was my first year on the European Tour,” he had told TOI then, “and I remember him saying to me, that the game always knows. And by that, he meant sometimes when you don’t practice enough, the game finds you out. If things are not quite right in your personal life, internally, the game always finds you out. So I think the point of him saying that was, stay true to things, keep focused, and keep working hard. Because the game knows if you’re not. But then the game rewards you if you are.”


It was this once-in-a-lifetime week when the golfing gods decided to give back to this gentleman, for his work ethic, discipline, humility and deep-rooted sense of family.


Before PGA glory, which is top of the list now, Aaron’s favourite Major moments were his practice rounds with his father Amrik Singh, who quit his job to accompany his son through wind, rain and sunshine.


“In 2021, I played my first Open at Royal St George's. I went there a couple of weeks before the event, and we stayed until late in the evening, and my dad and I were walking down the 18th fairway with all the stands deserted, no one was there apart from me and him, and I thought that was really special,” Rai recalled.


“Then this year (2025), I was lucky enough to play the Masters for the first time.”


Father and son lingered on the course till dusk again. “This was a good four weeks before the tournament. We finished when it was dark at Augusta. Just sharing those quiet moments with him were the highlights of those weeks.”


And then, there was that emotional high with his mom Dalvir.


“In 2017, when I won the Kenya Open, that was a Challenge tour event, but it fell on Mother’s Day and my mom was with me that week,” he had shared with TOI. “She was born and raised there and she hadn’t been back for 46 years. Although I was lucky enough to win higher-ranked tournaments later, that was most special.”


Until Sunday. He missed his parents but Gaurika was by his side.


It was his mother who introduced the Delhi pro to Aaron, after Gaurika had struck up a conversation with her while following her brother who was a volunteer in Rai’s group at the 2018 Hero Indian Open.


“I’m not exaggerating when I say that I wouldn’t be here with a Major trophy without Gaurika,” he shared the spotlight with a trademark grin.


For someone who doesn’t “tend to check the rankings, or the leaderboard”, the updates and accolades are inescapable after such success. He is World No. 15 now, and there will be expectations. “Golf teaches you so much humility and discipline and absolute hard work because nothing is ever given in this game,” he reminded.


Things will change for Rai, but yet it will remain the same.


Final round: 9 Aaron Rai (England) 70 69 67 65; -6 Jon Rahm (Spain) 69 70 67 68; Alex Smalley (USA) 67 69 68 70; -5 Justin Thomas (USA) 69 69 72 65; Ludvig Aberg (Sweden) 72 66 68 69; Matthias Schmid (Germany) 69 72 65 69


FAST FACTS

• THE VICTOR: Aaron Rai made six birdies in his last 10 holes for a 5-under 65 to win by three shots at 9-under 271.
• THE SPOILS: Rai won $3,690,000. He can play the PGA Championship the rest of his career and has a five-year exemption to the Masters, U.S. Open and British Open.
• 1 Rai becomes the first English winner of the PGA Championship since Jim Barnes in 1919 and the first non-American winner since Jason Day in 2015.

THE QUIRKS

Why does he wear two gloves?

• Because that's what he did as a kid to fight off the cold English winter.

Why does he have plastic iron covers?

• It's a reminder of his roots. He once said his father sacrificed to buy the nicest golf clubs and then would clean the grooves with baby oil after his son was done playing. Rai has left the iron covers on since then “to remember where I came from and to respect what I have.

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