Aaron Rai Wins the PGA Championship at Aronimink as a 68-Foot Birdie Seals His First Major

Aaron Rai spent the first eight holes on Sunday going backward. He spent the last 10 taking the PGA Championship away from everybody.

The 31-year-old from Wolverhampton, England, shot 5-under 65 at Aronimink Golf Club to finish at 9-under 271 and win his first major by three shots over Jon Rahm and Alex Smalley. Rai is the first English-born winner of the PGA Championship since Jim Barnes in 1919, and the first player from outside the United States to lift the Wanamaker Trophy since Jason Day in 2015, snapping a 10-year run of American champions.

"To be here is outside my wildest imagination," Rai said, per the PGA TOUR.

A Slow Start, Then a 5-Wood

Nothing about Rai's front nine said champion. Starting the day two back at 4 under, Rai made three bogeys against two birdies in his first eight holes, and a short bogey putt on the eighth dropped him three behind Matti Schmid, who had grabbed the solo lead.

Then came the ninth. Rai hit 5-wood into the par 5 and poured in a 40-foot eagle putt, and the round flipped. That eagle kicked off a run of seven straight one-putt greens. Rai saved par from 10 feet on the 10th, stuck a wedge to 4 feet at a dangerous pin on the 11th for the birdie that gave him the outright lead, and got up and down from behind the 12th green. At the 292-yard 13th, Rai splashed out of a bunker to 6 feet and made birdie to reach 7 under, the first player all week to get there. A tap-in birdie at the 16th made it 8 under. Rai hit every fairway on the back nine, per ESPN.

The Putt on 17

Rai already led by two when he stood over a birdie putt of 68 feet on the par-3 17th, per ESPN. Nobody else in contention birdied that hole on Sunday. Rai rolled it across the green and into the cup, and that was the tournament.

"That putt on 17 was incredible," Rai said, per ESPN. "It started to look really good line-wise with probably about 15 feet to go."

A par at the last closed out the lowest round of his major career, and he played the 16th, 17th and 18th, the stretch he had called particularly challenging on Saturday, in 2 under.

How the Leaders Fell Away

Smalley, the 54-hole leader, lost his grip early. Smalley found long, thick rough on the sixth and made double bogey, and the lead slid to Schmid, who birdied the same hole to move to 6 under. Smalley battled back to birdie the 18th for a 70 and a share of second, a career-best major finish for a player who had never been better than 20th in one. Schmid gave a shot back at the 10th as Rai surged, but holed a 5-foot par putt on the 18th to finish tied for fourth and lock up a first trip to the Masters next year.

Rahm, who had been within two of the lead on the back nine, could not find enough birdies. Front-nine bogeys slowed Rahm, and he added only one birdie coming home for a 68. The tie for second is Rahm's best major finish since leaving for LIV Golf at the end of 2023. Rahm was gracious about the winner. "What he did today is nothing short of special," Rahm said.

Justin Thomas, a two-time PGA champion, made a run from the pack, posting 65 with six birdies after an early bogey and briefly pulling within one. A 16-foot par save on the 18th secured a tie for fourth at 5 under with Schmid and Ludvig Åberg (69). Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele and Cameron Smith tied for seventh at 4 under. A bogey on the 13th stalled McIlroy's bid to add the PGA to his Masters title. Nick Taylor, part of the five-way tie for second to start the day, stumbled to a 74.

The shot of the morning belonged to Kurt Kitayama, who began the day at 4 over, went out in 30 and signed for 63, tying the lowest final round in major championship history. It lifted Kitayama into a tie for 10th. Defending champion Scottie Scheffler shot 69 to tie for 14th, his first finish outside the top 10 in a major since the 2024 U.S. Open.

Two Gloves and a Lot of Respect

Rai arrived at Aronimink ranked 44th in the world, with one PGA TOUR win, at the 2024 Wyndham Championship, and a best major finish of a tie for 19th. He had battled low back and neck problems early in the season and only recently felt healthy. "Zurich Classic was probably the first event in a good three months that I felt fully healthy," Rai said Saturday, per NBC Sports.

He is also one of the most recognizable players in the game for reasons that have nothing to do with his score. Rai wears two gloves, a habit born of cold English winters, and keeps covers on his irons, a nod to his father, Amrik, who used to clean every groove after practice. With the win, Rai joins Vijay Singh as a major champion of Indian heritage.

The respect from the locker room was immediate. "You won't find one person on property who's not happy for him," McIlroy said. Åberg went further. "If there's one guy I'd love to lose to, it's probably Aaron," Åberg said, per ESPN.

What It Means

The win is worth far more than the $3.69 million first prize. Rai earns a five-year PGA TOUR exemption, spots in the Masters, U.S. Open and The Open, and a lifetime invitation to the PGA Championship. On a week when Aronimink broke the spirits of nearly everyone who played it, the quietest player in the field outlasted the loudest leaderboard in recent major history.

Relive the week through our Round 1 recap, Round 2 recap and Round 3 recap. Final results are on the official PGA TOUR leaderboard (opens in a new tab), and the TOUR's final-round recap (opens in a new tab) has more.

Sources: PGA TOUR (final-round recap, live notebook and leaderboard), AP, ESPN, NBC Sports. More golf coverage on Undrafted.

Photo: PGA TOUR.