Aaron Rai punches back to win PGA Championship, first major

The final round of the PGA Championship was destined to be more like a boxing match than a golf tournament. No one was running away from the field. No two stars stood alone at the top. But with so many players in the mix through 54 holes, the haymakers, we thought, would be coming from everywhere.

Turns out it was Aronimink Golf Club that threw the majority of the punches — and only Aaron Rai who punched back.

The 31-year-old emerged from a packed field of contenders to shoot five-under 65 and win his first major title on Sunday, becoming the first Englishman to win a major since Matthew Fitzpatrick in 2022.

Before Sunday, Rai had only one PGA Tour victory, at the 2024 Wyndham Championship, although he had won three times on the DP World Tour, most recently at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship last November. He had never recorded a top 10 in 12 major starts, although he had made the cut in each of the last eight.

Sunday’s final round had all the makings of a chaotic finish, but the story ended up being that too few players were able to really make a move. And Rai, who played the last 10 holes in six under, was the only one who finished with a flurry. The last hour of the tournament was simply a coronation.

Alex Smalley started the day as the 54-hole leader at six under, but the 29-year-old former Duke Blue Devil had never won on the PGA Tour and had played in only four majors. Five players — Matti Schmid, Nick Taylor, Jon Rahm, Ludvig Aberg and Rai — were two back of Smalley, and 21 total players were within four shots of the lead.

The final pairing of Smalley and Schmid, with eight career combined major starts to their name, teed off at 2:37 p.m. local. The four pairings that went off before them accounted for more than 200 major starts and 11 major titles.

But at that point, players already knew there were good scores to be had. Teeing off six hours before the final pairing, Kurt Kitayama put up a 63 — tied for the lowest final round in major history — and jumped into the top 10. Then, not long after Smalley and Schmid started their rounds, Justin Thomas drained a 17-footer for par on the 18th hole to shoot 65. He took the clubhouse lead at five under but was still one back of Smalley. Did it have a chance of holding up? We had to wait hours to find out.

Smalley started with five straights pars but made double-bogey on the 6th to drop down the leaderboard and hand the solo lead to Schmid, who got to six under with a birdie on No. 6. Schmid made the turn in six under and in the solo lead, with five players one behind at five under and three at four under.

At that point, a ton of juicy storylines started to seem realistic.

Could Rory McIlroy win the first two legs of the season-long grand slam? Could Cameron Smith, 2022 Open Championship winner, arise from the abyss? Could Rahm win amid a season of LIV Golf uncertainty? Or would Thomas win this third Wanamaker Trophy after simply hanging out for four hours as Aronimink ejected the competition one by one? Or, another: would we see a first-time major winner?

Rai started the day with three bogeys and two birdies in the first eight holes, but he eagled the ninth and then birdied the 11th — just as Schmid bogeyed 10 — to take the solo lead. He pushed his lead to two when he birdied the short par-4 13th, although Schmid got one back with a birdie on 13, cutting the deficit to one.

But as the day wore on, fewer players stuck around. Smith shot 68 and finished four under. McIlroy 69. Rahm 68. Aberg 69.

Rai kept plugging along. He made a two-putt birdie on the par-5 16th and led by two again, and then he landed the biggest punch of the day on 17, rolling in a 69-foot birdie putt to take a commanding lead. Paired with a Schmid bogey around the same time, Rai’s lead ballooned to four.

After a two-putt par on 18, all that was left was to wait for the last two pairings to finish before accepting the Wanamaker.

Before Sunday, Rai was perhaps more known for wearing two gloves and using iron covers than he was for his PGA Tour resume. But now? That’s certainly not the case anymore. From here forward, he will always be known as a major champion.