Credit: James Lang-Imagn Images
Rai and mighty: Englishman outlasts Aronimink grind for PGA Title
NEWTOWN SQUARE, PA. — When a somewhat foreign sports tournament comes to the Philadelphia area, it’s no surprise that the winner turns out to be a local. Major golf championships don’t visit our area all that often, but the last two that have come here were both won, not by players from the area, but by the golf courses.
Like Merion for the U.S. Open back in 2013, Aronimink Golf Club was the big winner of the 108th PGA Championship, challenging the field of almost all of the top 100 in the world on each and every drive, approach, chip and putt during the four-day event. In the end, England native Aaron Rai bettered the course more than anyone to gain his first major championship with a final round 65 that gave him a three stroke win and the coveted Wanamaker Trophy.
On another day where the course seemed to swat away many attempts by players to overcome it’s stubbornness, Rai calmly shot a four under par on his back nine to take over what was sort of a stagnant field for most of the final 18 holes to become the first Englishman to win the PGA since Jim Barnes in 1919.
For a sports tournament that often uses phrases such as birdies (birds for short), eagles and flyers (top-spinning shots out of the rough), it is only fitting that Aronimink left an undeniable frustrated feeling among players not named Rai as they departed the area after four days of head-scratching, shoulder-shrugging and foot-stomping.
Rai, who lowered his rounds on each of his four days, took control of the tournament when he hit a short birdie put on 13 to take a two-stroke lead at seven under. A wonderful approach from Rai at the par-5 15th from 215 yards led to another birdie and practically pretty much put the nail in the coffin. But if there was still any doubt, Rai drained a putt seemingly from Lincoln Financial Field, actually 68-feet, on the par-3 17th for birdie that put him at nine under par and had the engraver on the Wanamaker Trophy sharpening her tools.
“Yeah, it definitely feels like a journey,” said Rai. “Everyone playing in the field this week has a great journey to be able to share, and I’m no exception to that. Yeah, so much goes into it from being a junior golfer to developing the game to have aspirations of turning professional. Then you realize once you turn professional how good some of these guys are and how strong the level of professional golf is, not just on the PGA TOUR, the DP World Tour, and all the feeders that go into it. So, yeah, it’s a really long journey to even get to compete at major championships at events like the PGA. It still hasn’t sunk in for sure. Amazing journey.”
The 31-year-old, who still wears gloves on each hand as he did as a youngster in England just to keep them warm and head covers on his irons, never seemed to let the enormity of the day get in his head or his swings. He simply waited the day out.
In the span of about 20 minutes, not long after Rai had teed off, a plethora of action hit the course, like a flurry of punches in a defensive boxing match.
John Rahm birdied his first hole to get him to five under par and one shot back. About the same time, Justin Thomas birdied 15 and 16 to get himself to five under. Meanwhile, Rory McIlroy missed a birdie attempt at three that would have put him a stroke off the lead. Rahm then birdied No. 2 to gain a tie for the lead.
Ludvig Aberg missed a put for a chance at a tie of the lead and Scottie Scheffler did hit a birdie at 13 to give fans a thought the world’s No. 1 may be making a march. It was a wild time in what was mostly a mundane day as far as anyone pulling away. Until Rai entered the back nine. Then it became his tournament to knock out.
“Definitely wasn’t trying to hole that putt,” said Rai of 17. “The shadow of the pin gave a really nice line for probably the last 10 feet. So that definitely helped with the visual of the putts. But it was so long that I was just trying to put good speed on it and make a good putt, and it just tracked extremely well on the last half. Yeah, amazing to see that one go in.
“Golf is an amazing game. It teaches you so many things, and it teaches you so much humility and discipline and absolute hard work because nothing is ever given in this game no matter what level you’re playing, no matter what course you’re playing on. So I think it just teaches so many amazing life skills. And I think pretty much every guy on tour are incredible people, and I think the sport should be very proud of the ambassadors that represent the PGA TOUR and represent the PGA of America.”
The national audience this week saw a very cool tribute to the city of Philadelphia, with opening-day announcers that included Jeffrey Lurie, Merrill Reese and “Big” Dom DiSandro. Constant reminders of what a great sports city this is and constant replays of E-A-G-L-E-S chants aimed towards Dallas Cowboys fan Scottie Scheffler were outstanding. And so was the crowd for the four days, which was close to the 200,000 mark. But no one or nothing performed better than Aronimink.
Justin Thomas, who left the course as the clubhouse leader about three hours before the tournament ended and sat at five under par, let it be known what a tough four days it was.
“Obviously the first three days, I mean, the wind, it was nice to play some holes in not 25-mile-an-hour wind today, selfishly,” said Thomas, who carded a 65 on Sunday. “But it’s just weird, you have so many scoring clubs, like you really can make — I feel like you can make a lot of birdies, you just have to hit a really, really good shot. And it’s very tough around the greens, and the greens are difficult to where, you know, you have to be putting it well. I feel like it’s all about getting in the fairway. The ball’s going a long way. You have some short clubs, but you definitely have some opportunities on the back nine, but you also have some holes that, if you miss the fairway, you’re grinding to make par.”
Rahm wasn’t far from Thomas in his thinking about the course.
“Well, most of Monday and Tuesday, I spent thinking what was wrong with me because everybody was saying we were going to shoot 15-to 20-under here, and I didn’t see any chance in the world of that happening'” he said. “Nine and six (under par) is still lower than what I expected.”
As for Sunday, the course was exactly what Rahm did expect.
“I think it got quite a bit firmer,” he said. “Shots that maybe in the morning are a little easier to stop on greens, in the afternoon, especially towards the end, it becomes a little trickier. That combined with the greens getting a little bit slicker, it just becomes a little bit more difficult. Even though towards the end the wind did not die down, but it wasn’t as much as it’s been the last few days. I would say, again, the topic of all week has been the course setup, where the pin positions are placed, where they just managed to tuck them just enough to where, even if you hit a good shot, still makes you think. With the firmness and dryness, the moisture going away, fairways are harder to hit. Then it’s even harder to hit it close to the pin. Even more credit to Aaron. With three bogeys to shoot 5-under today is quite remarkable.”
As was the whole week at Aronimink. For those who have forgotten, Philly is a terrific golf city, too.
