There are so many things to admire about Aaron Rai, the newly crowned PGA Championship winner, but everyone you speak to, are going to point out two things about him – how hard he works on his game, and how humble he is despite all his success.
Everyone has their favourite story of Rai’s work ethic. I, too, have one and I never tire of repeating it.
It’s 2018 and he is playing his first full season on the DP World Tour. I had travelled to Muscat to attend the inaugural NBO Oman Open. At the time, I was writing for Sport360, a 36-page sports-only daily newspaper that was published in Dubai. My job was to fill up four pages with golf stories. That’s a lot of words to type out and I’d usually be the last one to leave the media centre.
After the second round on Friday, I finished around 8:30pm and was trudging out in near darkness towards the temporary clubhouse of Al Mouj Golf Club, when I saw a solitary player on the putting green. That made me curious, because the day’s play had ended around 6pm, and I did not expect any player to be hanging around at the time.
As it turned out, that player was Rai. He was already known in the golfing circles for winning three Challenge Tour titles the previous season and earning a battlefield promotion to the main tour. The other talking point about him was his Guinness Book of Record-endorsed effort of 207 consecutive putts from 10 feet as a 15-year-old.
We chatted for a few minutes, and he told me he had finished his round around 5pm. So, he had been there for nearly three-and-a-half hours. I remember leaving the place with just one thought – this man was destined for greatness because such hard work will never go unrewarded.
Another England star, Paul Waring, recalled an even better story of Rai’s dedication. At the 2022 Scottish Open, Waring also saw Rai on the putting green, all alone, one evening. Difference was, Rai was wearing a rain suit and completing his putting drills in pouring rain (Waring called it ‘biblical’) this time.
“It was hammering down, he was soaked, and he still stayed out. I cheered every putt he holed with a Guinness in my hand under cover of the terrace. Maybe there’s a lesson in that,” he tweeted after Rai’s win.
Sahith Theegala, one of Rai’s best mates on the Tour and the man with whom he teamed up for last month’s Zurich Classic, told me at the 2024 Hero World Challenge: “I thought I worked hard on my game, and then I saw Aaron. Man…that guy is a machine. His ability to put in the hours is just off the charts.”
But don’t think that the soft-spoken Rai is a machine. There are very few elite sportsperson who are more humble and more respectful than him. There is no doubt he is a great golfer, but he is an even better human being.
Here are some quotes by players on Rai after his PGA Championship victory…
Rory McIlroy: You won’t find one person on this property who’s not happy for him.
Jon Rahm: I haven’t spent a lot of time with him. But I have consistently heard that there are very few people kinder and nicer than Aaron Rai. Anybody that uses head covers in his irons because he coveted them when he was a kid, and to still do it? The fact that he’s still doing it, shows a lot about a person.
Xander Schauffele: I’m super happy for him. He’s such a good dude. Rarely do you feel like people work way harder than you. I feel like I’ve played a pretty good amount of time, and Aaron is always there. He’s always in the gym. He’s always on the range. At the Scottish, I’m staying right on site there. I thought it was fun for Austin (Kaiser, his caddie) and I to go putt and Aaron is finishing up his little putting session at 9:00pm and going to the gym at 9:45. I think that’s what it’s about to be a major champion. You put the work in when nobody’s looking. Super pumped for him and his team.
He’s such a nice guy. All-world gentleman, no doubt.
Matti Schmid: Aaron is a super hard-working guy. Maybe the most hard-working guy on the Tour. He does everything so deliberate…. practices with so much intention. I think he does a lot of things the right way, and that’s why he’s the winner.
