Nice guy Aaron Rai becomes major winner after phenomenal Philadelphia performance

Just as he did when winning the Genesis Scottish Open at The Renaissance Club in 2020, the Englishman pulled off a shock victory to land the 108th PGA Championship at Aronimink in Pennsylvania.

Jim Barnes, who won the first two editions in 1916 and 1919, had been the only English player to triumph in this tournament. But not any more.

Rai succeeded where the likes of Tony Jacklin and Nick Faldo, two of the greats of English golf, failed over the years by getting his hands on the gigantic Wanamaker Trophy.

Two-time major winner Jon Rahm started birdie-birdie in the final round as it looked as though he was going to be the man to beat in a last-day battle in the second major of the season.

Masters champion Rory McIlroy then picked himself up from the canvas after an untimely bogey at the driveable par-4 13th to stay in the hunt for a seventh major victory.

It was Wolverhampton man Rai, though, who came up with the shots that mattered on the back nine in a suburb of Philadelphia.

Buoyed by an eagle at the ninth, he then birdied the 11th and 13th and, in a week when so many players had been tightly packed on the leaderboard, he suddenly found himself two shots clear of the field.

German Matti Schmidt, out on in the last group, also birdied the 13th to get within a shot of the lead, but it was game over in the space of a few seconds.

Just as Schmid was dropping a shot at the 15th, Rai, having already birdied the par-5 16th, rolled in a monster birdie putt - the 65-footer was the second-longest putt holed all week - at the par-3 17th.

As the 31-year-old, one of the coolest customers in the game, celebrated with a little fist pump, the crowd around the green went absolutely wild and no wonder.

Rai, one of the few top players to wear two gloves, capped a superb day’s work by making a rock-solid par at the last for a closing 65 - his lowest career major round.

Finishing on nine under, he won by three shots from Rahm and Alex Smalley, with Justin Thomas, who’d set the clubhouse target after also signing off with a 65, sharing fourth spot on five under with Schmid and Swede Ludvig Aberg.

McIlroy, who’d been seven shots off the lead after an opening 74, finished joint-seventh on four under alongside two fellow former Open champions in Xander Schauffele and Cameron Smith.

Following McIlroy’s successful Masters title defence in April, it is the first time that Europeans have won the first two majors in a season.

Rai’s victory also ended a run of ten successes by Americans players in this event while he also became the second first-time major winner in less than a year after JJ Spaun landed the US Open title last year.

“Very surreal,” admitted Rai of how it felt to beat the strongest field in golf, with 97 of the world’s top 100 having been in the field, and picking up a cheque for $3.69 million in the process. “It’s been a bit of a frustrating season, so to be stood here is definitely outside of my wildest imagination.

“But I think it’s down to just really good consistency over the last few weeks in terms of practice and the body has been feeling great. I also really enjoyed the course this week. I continued to hold the rounds together as the week went on. Yeah, it is phenomenal to be stood here.”