With a 5 under par final round, England’s Aaron Rai is your 2026 PGA Championship winner, becoming the first English born golfer to win the event in over a century.
Prior to Sunday, Rai was known more for his fashion choices rather than his on course victories. Rai regularly wears two gloves while playing, and is one of the more beloved players on tour amongst the players.
“I’m super happy for him,” two-time major champion Xander Schauffele said. “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. I think that’s what it’s about to be a major champion. You put the work in when nobody’s looking.”
The 31 year old began the day innocently enough. However, an Eagle on number 9, followed by 4 birdies and no bogeys on the back nine propelled him to the top of the leaderboard. On a day where the rest of the field seemingly couldn’t get anything to drop, Rai was draining 68 footers to take a commanding 3 stroke lead when he tapped in on 18.
Aronimink Golf Club proved to be a tough test for many of the world’s best on Sunday, as the three round leader Alex Smalley posted an even par final round to finish 3 shots back. Spain’s Jon Rahm finished in a tie for second at 6 under par, while Ludvig Aberg stalled out in 4th place after going -1 for his final 18.
Scottie Scheffler, who finished tied for 14th for the tournament, told reporters how difficult he found the course layout throughout the event. “Most of the pins today were, I mean, kind of absurd,” Scheffler said. “This is the hardest set of pin locations that I’ve seen since I’ve been on Tour, and that includes U.S. Opens.”
Nevertheless, you’d be hard pressed to find a player who wasn’t happy to see Rai breakthrough for his first career major.
“I haven’t spent a lot of time with him, but I have heard consistently there’s very few people that are nicer and kinder human beings than Aaron Rai,” Rahm said. “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.”
“I have heard absolutely nothing but good or great things about Aaron Rai. He’s been playing great golf. He’s a fantastic golfer. What he did today is nothing short of special.”
For his efforts Rai will take home $3.69M in tournament winnings, and is sure to see a sizeable bump in his world golf ranking on Monday. Up next for the PGA Tour is the CJ Cup Byron Nelson at TPC Craig Ranch.
Photo: Jhansen23. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.