Inside Aaron Rai’s Unconventional Journey to PGA Championship Glory

The PGA Championship winner from England has remained humble throughout his climb to the top of the game, writes Bob Harig.

Aaron Rai celebrated with his wife and fellow pro golfer Gaurika Bishnoi. | Ben Jared/Getty Images

NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. — The guy with two gloves and covers on every iron won a major championship. Odd, perhaps. But also endearing. And true to his own self. Aaron Rai might be a bit unorthodox but there was nothing fluky about the way he won the PGA Championship on Sunday.

The English golfer of Indian descent broke free of a dense pack of competitors, shooting a final-round 65 to win by three strokes over Jon Rahm and Alex Smalley at Aronimink Golf Club.

The victory was just Rai’s second on the PGA Tour (along with three wins on the DP World Tour) and didn’t come without its share of angst and torment.

His wife, Gaurika Bishnoi, a pro golfer herself from India, lived those fretful moments outside of the ropes throughout the tournament, watching every shot Sunday as hordes of spectators blocked views and cheered for Rai and others.

Saying she “always” lives and dies with every shot, Bishnoi also noted that “the way he was carrying himself, and the way he was so calm and composed, after the first eight holes, when things were exactly not really tipping towards him, that was enough win for me,” she said. “Because when I see a professional golfer who’s able to do something like that, in such a high-intensity situation, I know he can do it again.

“And even if we wouldn’t have lifted the trophy today, I knew that he’d lift it very soon. So that, for me, was a very important step towards him tracking what it takes to win a major.”

After playing the first eight holes for the day in 1 over par, Rai stood at 3 under par and was two back of clubhouse leader Justin Thomas with Smalley and Matti Schmid three strokes ahead and a slew of others in contention.

Rai then eagled the 9th hole, added birdies at the 11th, 13th and 16th, and rolled in an unlikely 68-footer at the 17th to briefly go ahead by four.

From contender to Major Champion.

Aaron Rai’s birdie at the 17th was the moment everything shifted.#PGAChamp pic.twitter.com/suCg2DESpI

— PGA Championship (@PGAChampionship) May 18, 2026

Beating an accomplished pack of players that included Rahm, Ludvig Aberg, Rory McIlroy, Cam Smith and Xander Schauffele was an impressive performance. And one likely to be celebrated in the golf community.

“There won’t be one person on this property who won’t be happy for him,” said McIlroy, whose final-round 69 saw him finish four back and in a tie for seventh.

MORE: Final results, payouts from the PGA Championship

 “I have heard consistently there’s very few people that are nicer and kinder human beings than Aaron Rai,” said Rahm, who tied for the lead with two birdies to start his round but couldn’t match Rai on the back nine. “Anybody that wears or uses head covers in his irons because he coveted his irons when he was a kid so much that he wanted to respect the equipment so much, and to still do it? Yeah, exactly, he’s still doing it shows a lot about a person.”

Rahm’s reference to Rai’s iron covers is a story the golfer has told often about his youth, when his father bought him a set of expensive irons. “He used to clean every single groove with a pin and baby oil,” Rai said. “And then to protect the golf clubs, he thought, it’d be good to put iron covers on it.” Rai said he’s used iron covers ever since to not lose that perspective.

Those iron covers can be caddie killers—a nuisance, to be fair—but Smalley’s caddie, Michael Burns, noted how nice Rai is (“one of the top five guys out here”) and had no issue with those covers. “Who cares if you win the damn PGA!” he said. “I’d double them up.”

Rai, 31, won three times on the DP World Tour and in 2024 won the Wyndham Championship for his lone PGA Tour victory.

Rai was overwhelmed by his charge to victory on Sunday at Aronimink. | James Lang-Imagn Images

From Wombourne, England, Rai is the first Englishman to win the PGA Championship since Jim Barnes in 1919. Barnes won the very first PGA in 1916 and then again three years later following a hiatus due to World War I. He went on to win the 1921 U.S. Open as well as the 1925 British Open.

“It definitely feels like a journey,” said Rai, who won the DP World Tour’s Abu Dhabi Championship last year but after playing the Genesis Invitational in February wasn’t eligible for the PGA Tour’s signature events. Last week, he finished fifth at the Myrtle Beach Classic, an opposite field event.

“Everyone playing in the field this week has a great journey to be able to share, and I’m no exception to that. So much goes into it from being a junior golfer to developing the game to have aspirations of turning professional. 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. To be standing here, amazing journey, it still hasn’t sunk in for sure. Amazing journey.”

How Aaron Rai met his idol, Tiger Woods

Three years ago, before he had won on the PGA Tour, Rai was in the Genesis Invitational but not in the pro-am. He had never met tournament host Tiger Woods so he ventured out into the morning chill to follow him.

At the time, Rai said he began playing golf because of Woods and had watched so much of him on video growing up. “He’s been my idol since a young age,” Rai said.

Soon, he was introduced to Woods and ended up following him for the entire back nine. “He made me feel very welcome,” Rai said.

Rai makes his U.S. home in the Jacksonville, Fla., area and plays out of TPC Sawgrass with his wife, who joked that she doesn’t give him shots when they play but manages to be competitive.

She has won eight times on India’s Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour and also competes on the Ladies European Tour.

“So we do a lot of wedge competitions and that’s generally where I’m good,” Bishnoi said. “And we do a lot of putting competitions and that’s where I'm good. But when I kind of take him on with driving accuracy and approach shots, maybe that’s where I’m not so good. So we have like a lot of things to learn from one another, which we do as well, which makes us like better golfers.”

Rai was the best golfer on Sunday, capping a tournament that saw him become the only winner in PGA Championship history to score better round by round: 70–69–67–65.

On Sunday, he hit 12 of 18 greens and needed just 26 putts. Now he’ll be exempt at the PGA for life and in the other major championships for the next five years.

And it didn’t hurt to have that emotional support, both outside the ropes and throughout the journey.

“Her mindset, her advice, her thoughts, whether it’s technique or the way I’m holding myself is absolutely invaluable,” Rai said of his wife. ‘She encompasses so many different sides in her opinions.

“We even had a conversation yesterday for probably 30 minutes in the car just before we got back to the hotel, just speaking a little bit about today. Again, some of the things that she mentioned in the conversations were really with me today. Yeah, I really wouldn’t be here without her.”