“I don’t think I’ll do it justice,” Guarika, one of India’s top women’s players, tells TG of Rai’s stunning final round 65 to claim his maiden major. “He’s one of the hardest working guys out there and the way he conducts himself doesn’t change. Whether he wins or he misses the cut, he’s still going to go out and do exactly the same thing. For him, the game is bigger than any trophy. We always believe that he has the game and more than that, that he has the work ethic of a champion.”
Around two hours after his final putt dropped, Rai finally entered the interview room with the Wanamaker and tried to articulate his achievement as well as Guarika just had.
“There’s a lot of incredible and historic English players over those hundred years who have gone on to achieve incredible things and had phenomenal careers,” he told TG. “But to win this event and then to be the person that’s the first one to have won it in a long time from England is an amazing thing and something to be extremely proud of.”
Rai’s unique backstory has been well told. He has covers on his irons, an ode to his father Amrit who taught him the value of what he was bought in his modest youth. He wears two gloves because he grew used to the grip digging into the dirt during the harsh winters in the English Midlands. He uses castle tees and a six-year old driver. Rai has never been afraid to do things his own way. He’s also proof that relentlessly hard work pays. As a 15-year-old, Rai nailed 207 10-foot putts in a row over a 90 minute period, breaking a Guinness World Record. That repetition has become ingrained and he had his infallible technique to lean on as he battled from a stuttering start to storm to the finish line.
In an era of entourages and clingers-on, Rai does not have an agent. The lone wolf from Wolverhampton has always plowed his own furrow, quietly climbing from the depths of the EuroPro Tour to these major stages, one diligent practice session at a time. He has never felt a need to give a public opinion on an ugly civil war that has divided so many of his peers, either.
“Even the labels that you see on him, it’s not a gimmick,” Guarika explains. “These are people who’ve been with Aaron since he was pretty much 10. His sponsors, they’ve been supporting him since Aaron was a very small kid. Me and My Golf, they’ve known Aaron since he was nine. Everything on Aaron is years and years of hard work by all those guys as well. He has changed no one from the team. It’s been a massive, massive team effort by everybody for us to be stood here where we are.”
Until now, there hadn’t been many fireworks in Rai’s career. He is certainly no huge underdog, arriving here a winner on both the PGA and DP World Tours and inside the world’s top 50. But now Rai has entered a different stratosphere. He started slowly, but an eagle on the ninth sparked him into life and that magical run on the back nine, as Rai made birdies on 11, 13 and 15 before delivering the coup de grâce from 68 feet on the 17th, is what his legacy will now be built upon.
“That putt on 17 was incredible,” Rai beamed. “I was just trying to focus on speed and get it close. It started to look really good line-wise with probably about 15 feet to go. It conspired all together for that ball to go in the hole. But an incredible putt and a real bonus to see that one go in.”
The mother of all understatements, and Gaurika was in awe of what she was watching.
“The way he was carrying himself and the way he was so calm and composed after the first 8 holes when things were exactly not really tipping towards his way, that was enough win for me,” she says.
“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. Even if we wouldn’t have lifted the trophy today, I knew that he’s ready to lift it very soon. That for me was a very, very important step towards him cracking what it takes to win a major.
“It’s four days of really good golf on a really, really tough course to even lift a trophy like that. It doesn’t sink in. As a golfer myself, seeing the four majors and everything that it means for people, I appreciate it, and I’m so grateful to everybody, to the God as well, to think that we’re worthy of this. Because I think without his blessings, it’s all a bit incomplete.”
Rai’s press conference took an emotional turn when he was asked about Guarika’s influence in his life. The couple practise together at TPC Sawgrass near their home in Jacksonville, but their relationship means so much more than that.
“I’m not exaggerating when I say that I wouldn’t be here without her,” he said. “Both as a companion, as a friend, as someone I’m sharing my life with, but also as a real support system for my game. She’s a professional golfer herself so her mindset, her advice, her thoughts, whether it’s technique or the way I’m holding myself is absolutely invaluable. She encompasses so many different sides in her opinions.
“We even had a conversation yesterday for 30 minutes in the car just before we got back to the hotel, just speaking a little bit about today. Some of the things that she mentioned in the conversations were really with me today. I really wouldn’t be here without her.”
Twenty-two players began within four shots of the lead on this chaotic Sunday and the logjam didn’t clear before the back nine. Rai began two back from Alex Smalley and as the greens crisped up into the late afternoon, birdies were gold dust. It was not so much a cavalry charge but a struggle to hold on. At times it was a disorientating watch as the lead continued to flip before Rai broke free from the pack.
Justin Thomas was for a long while interested in the clubhouse after his rousing 65. Cameron Smith has finally recovered his splendour but treated the fairways like lava when the chance arose and fell just short. Jon Rahm began like a freight train and did not do much wrong, only succumbing to Rai’s brilliance. Rory McIlroy found four fairways. It was then a big ask for the unheralded final group of Smalley and German Matti Schmid, who had no answers as Rai romped three clear at the finishing line.
“Anybody that wears or uses head covers on 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? It shows a lot about a person,” a beaten but classy Rahm said afterwards, perfectly encapsulating the feeling here around Rai.
“What he did today was nothing short of special.”
