CBS Broadcast Found Its Main Character Just In Time at the PGA Championship

Aaron Rai emerged from a pack of challengers to win his first major and help CBS finish its broadcast with a flourish.

Aaron Rai was an unlikely, yet entirely deserving winner at the PGA Championship. | Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

Aronimink was supposed to roll over and surrender birdie after birdie until it didn't.

Golf media dismissed the course's spine and defenses before the PGA Championship began, alleging it would be as penetrable as an overmatched NFL secondary. Fear-mongering about a winner clocking in at 20 under or better had already aged poorly by Thursday's afternoon wave.

But the absence of one problem just opens the door to perceive another. A predicted Boogeyman gave way to a present and potentially real one. Laments about the lackluster setup came flowing from players and commentators alike.

The leaderboard was too damn bunched. Great shots were not being adequately rewarded and bad ones weren't adequately penalized. All of which can be true. Yet—with great humility—allow me to suggest something: There is nothing casual fans, the type who may tune in for five events per year or so, want to hear less than whining or finding dark linings around silver clouds. God bless everyone who is passionate about course setup but it is simply not an animating force for the great men and women of this country letting golf wash over them from a comfortable perch on the couch.

It's not that we don't appreciate the natural architecture or artistic pin placement, it's that we care about the characters more than the set design.

A steely major champion was supposed to emerge from a historic traffic jam atop the leaderboard until they didn't. Best-laid plans and worst fears have a way of being unequally unrealized over any weekend, resulting in a big, complicated mixed bag of successes and failures.

So, CBS's task on Sunday afternoon was daunting. The most fatal flaw that can befall a final round broadcast is giving short shrift to the winner while looking at something else. Considering some 30 players had an opportunity to capture one of the sport's biggest prizes with a stellar round, it took considerable juggling to make sure viewers understood the state of play.

For a while, it looked as though the champ might be Justin Thomas. The 2022 PGA Championship winner fired a 65 to post 5 under for the tournament and headed to the clubhouse for a long wait to see if that would be enough. He did multiple interviews before the final groups even broke a sweat, highlighting just how many paths were available for victory. Then it looked as though it might be Alex Smalley or Matti Schmid, two relative unknowns. At times we felt destined to see Jon Rahm return to major glory or Ludvig Åberg capture the first of what's sure to be many.

Perhaps never before has the ever-present leaderboard been as studied. The first television person to plaster the scores up there and keep it is one of the great trailblazers the world has ever seen and is owed great gratitude. A lesser telecast may have tried to rush it, to stuff as much as possible into every moment to show everyone and everything at detriment of aerating the show. There was a tidy place of play at work in Sunday’s CBS production truck, yet they weren't rushing.

Somewhere along the back nine Aaron Rai decided to make everyone's job a little easier. He put his gloves on and went about the business of slaying a course so few had figured out, not just treading water but creating enough of a gulf between he and the others that there wasn't much doubt. It was not a dramatic ending or one that will be remembered yet that really doesn't matter. This is a cruel sport and and yet its fairly equitable. For all the consternation about pin sheets and a random result, the player who played the best emerged as the winner. Rai is workmanlike and respected for an intense commitment to the grind. He doesn't flash or dazzle and borders on the meticulous. Perhaps he is a fitting victor for a weekend that required patience.

Sometimes the hardest worker wins. Sometimes the ending is not all that cinematic. This one wasn't, as it is arguably the least thrilling major we've had in a few years. Rory McIlroy said it would be hard to find a single person on the property who wouldn't be happy for Rai after the Englishman's breakthrough win. And that's a fine story to tell. It's O.K. for the good guy to win comfortably, as long as it was an action-packed ride.

It can all be worth it for the little puns at the end. In narrating his closing vignette, Jim Nantz said “look who Rai-ses to the top.” He previously noted that Rai, like Rocky, wears two gloves. In the shadow of Philadelphia, that plays. Stuff like that always plays.

"Look who rises to the top. Aaron Rai with a life-changing, career-changing performance at Aronimink." - Jim Nantz pic.twitter.com/ZQCIvrl2uU

— Golf on CBS ⛳ (@GolfonCBS) May 17, 2026

Those one-liners amid championship mettle is kind of what it's all about. Sure, we can complain about anything along the way to the finish line. But there's something great and pure about it all being wrapped up with a tidy bow like that by a pro's pro.

There's something some timeless and classic about the hero shot and the overwritten coda that has me hope it never goes away. Think of the sheer amount of work being done in those 15 words from Nantz that tell you everything. Every so often he reached back and fires a fastball as a reminder that he's still got it, and the command is still there.

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