Speaking to the media following his stunning victory at the 108th PGA Championship, Aaron Rai reflects on the hard work that he, his family and his support network have put into making him such a hard man to beat.
How proud are you to become the first Englishman to win the PGA Championship since 1919?
AARON RAI: I wasn’t aware of that fact coming into the week, but it got mentioned a couple of times during media interviews on Saturday, so I was aware of it coming into today.
So, yeah, I extremely proud. There have been a lot of incredible English golfers over those hundred-plus years who have gone on to achieve incredible things and had phenomenal careers, so 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.
Can you just describe your emotions as you’re playing those final few holes, and your amazing birdie putt 17. How did you manage to keep so calm and produce the kind of golf that you did?
I think, firstly, the golf course really demands it. It was a true major championship setup in terms of how difficult it was, and how penalising it was, but it also rewarded good play. The nature of the course, and the nature of the shots that are required over the last few holes, just require a lot of focus.
The putt on 17 was incredible. I was just trying to focus on speed and get it close. It started to look good line-wise with probably about 15 feet to go, and it slowed up nicely as well – but it was a real bonus to see that one go in.
Aaron, two shots prior to that putt really stood out for me on that back nine. Firstly, the long bunker shot on 13, and secondly your approach on 16. Could you walk us through what you were thinking about on both of those and how pleased you were to pull off those shots in that moment?
Those were two really good shots. The bunker shot on 13 was on a slight upslope, which in a way helped me to stay really aggressive on it. But the upslope also made it difficult because it was such a long bunker shot. It was probably 40 yards or so. I just stayed really committed and tried to trust the strike, and it came out extremely well. I was actually trying to hit that probably 12 feet short, and it came out probably a little fast, but it worked out fine in the end.
And the shots on 16. I hit a great tee shot to hold the fairway there. That was a really hard fairway to hit. And the second shot was a great number for a 5-iron. The wind was off the left. The ball was slightly below my feet. So it kind of just suited a shot that was falling off the wind. I hit it very well, great strike, and kind of worked its way down there to 15 feet or so. They were probably two of my best shots on the back nine.
I know your parents made a lot of sacrifices for you to get here, especially your father, who got you into the game. Can just reflect on what all that means and kind of how they got you here?
It’s probably hard for me to really express everything that I feel towards them. I think I’ll get way too emotional to speak. Yeah, starting with my dad, he was with me every day that I went to practice from the age of 4 or 5 years old. He quit his job and started to focus on my golf from a really young age.
I used to read a lot about golf. He used to obviously be active in everything he did with me around the game. My mum has been absolutely incredible as well. She worked extremely long hours to just provide for the house, especially with my dad also not working as much. So, she did a lot of things, and her support has been phenomenal.
Obviously, I would love to share this with them. It would be amazing if they were here. I can’t put into words how much they’ve done in terms of the support, in terms of the care, in terms of love. Again, I wouldn’t be here without them.
You’ve won big tournaments before, but when you looked at that jam-packed leaderboard today, what gave you the belief that you were going to be able to win your first major championship?
That’s a great question. Honestly, I didn’t look too much at the leaderboard. Obviously I knew there were a lot of people that were relatively close, but I think regardless of how bunched that it was, it still required a really good, strong round of golf. Again, the course really demanded it this week, and it was very punishing. As soon as you lost a split-second of focus at any time, whether it was a tee shot, an approach or a putt, you were in danger of dropping shots.
So I think the focus was very much on the golf course, on continuing to run through some good processes, and to just see where that put me during the round. I didn’t really look at too many leaderboards. I had a sense of how things were going from the crowds, but I just did a really good job of playing the golf course and not worrying about anything else.
You’re obviously very connected to your heritage and your Indian and Kenyan roots. I was just wondering what a vision is of modern English sporting success really to have somebody with your background achieving something like this?
I’m very proud to be from England. That’s where I grew up and that’s where a lot of my family still live. But of course, I’m very proud of my Indian and Kenyan roots as well. My mum grew up in Kenya and her side of the family lived there for a number of years before they moved to England. My sister lives in Kenya now and my mum still spends a lot of time there.
Going back a couple of generations, both of my sets of grandparents from my mum and dad’s side were from India. All I can say is I’m very proud to be a mix of all of them.
Golf instruction is at the heart of the PGA Championship, and you have such a longstanding relationship with Me and My Golf. Wondering if you can talk about that, how deep it goes back in your life, and what it means to have their support and win on this stage and celebrates golf instruction?
They’ve been phenomenal. Andrew Proudman and Piers Ward are the two guys involved with Me and My Golf. I’ve known Andrew since I was four years old. He used to work at the pro shop on the driving range me and my dad used to go to. I was four, he was 18, so he was there before he turned professional.
I met Piers when he was 8 or 9 years old. So we grew up in the same city. They started to coach me very soon after that. I was probably 10 years old. When I call them my coaches, I almost feel disrespectful calling them just my coaches. They’ve been so much more to me than that from a young age, also as a teenager, and also on this journey as a professional golfer. They’ve been my mentors, my big brothers. They’ve almost been like family to me.
And the number of times that we’ve been on a golf course or on a driving range in cold winters. I remember we played the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth probably six years ago now, and Piers was on the putting green with me until 11.30pm on a Tuesday night, and then he had to drive two hours back to Wolverhampton, and he was just with me the whole day.
They just go above and beyond for me in every single way. They’ve played a huge part in this trophy and a huge part in my development as a golfer.
Aaron, I know people always like to ask you about the iron covers and the gloves and a few things that you do differently. Golf can often be a game that pushes people to conform a certain way. I’m curious if you felt that pressure, especially as a junior golfer, and how you were able to double down on being yourself?
That’s a great question. I think my dad played a really big role in that. For the most part, it was just the two of us who used to go onto the golf course and practice together, probably up until I was 13 or 14. So I think he was very much an advocate to really just stay in your lane, focus on the things that you can do.
And I didn’t really mix with a lot of other junior golfers, which didn’t give me a perspective of what was normal. So I think he kind of sheltered me to be able to develop in a way that made sense for me, in a way that I guess was a little bit unique with the two gloves and the iron covers.
By the time I began to play more club golf and professional golf, I felt like I was strong enough in why I did certain things to be able to continue to move that forward. I knew the reasons why I do them. I believe in the reasons why I do them. So I had no reason to shift from that as I got older. So, yeah, that’s probably the main reason behind it.
You said you didn’t really mix with other junior golfers. Why was that?
That’s a really good question. Up until the age of around 12 years old I used to play off basically a customised course length, which gradually got longer and longer every year from the age of kind of 7 to 12. I was 12 when I played off ladies tees for the first time. Before that, I was playing off the fairways and trying to make the course short enough for me to score par or better, even as an 8, 9, 10-year-old.
I thought it was a great idea. My dad thought it was a great idea. But that naturally that kind of kept me away from club golf and medal golf. I would still play in junior events, but only in my age group, just to really protect myself and what we were trying to work on and what we were trying to kind of build towards.
Then, when I was about 13 or 14, I was long enough to be able to play off the men’s tees, and that’s when I started to play a little bit of club golf. Again, by that age, I’d gotten so used to practicing a certain way and that started to feel really comfortable. So even though I was maybe good enough and long enough to compete at club level, I didn’t play a huge amount of it. Then within two or three years of that I turned professional, so that was pretty much my journey through to that point.
Was that a method that you borrowed from someone else, or was that one of your father’s own ideas?
I used to play in a tournament called the Wee Wonders, which had a local stage, a regional stage, and a national stage. If you managed to progress through all of those, you qualified to play in the US Kids World Championship. I was fortunate enough to qualify for that at the age of 8 years old.
When we got to America, this was a system that a lot of juniors had adopted at that age of forward tees and gradually making the course longer as you grow, and my dad really thought that idea was great in terms of just installing the abilities and the skills to be able to score and the distance would just follow with age and with growth. So it was after that point that we really stuck to that for the next four years.
Can you just run us through who’s on Team Rai, who your support system is?
Professionally, starting with my sponsor, Shabir Randeree. He’s almost been like a second father to me. He supported me with my golf and travel and expenses. He supported my education as well. He paid for me to go to a private school. He’s been there since I was a kid and gave me so many opportunities that I never would have had otherwise.
Andrew Proudman and Piers Ward from Me and My Golf. Andrew Caldwell from Active Therapy, he’s my trainer and physio. I’ve worked a lot with John Graham over the last two years as well. So, yeah, I’ve got a really close-knit team.
Do you have an idea of what’s next? Are you much of a goal setter in your career? Do you think about things such as Ryder Cups or other titles to tick off?
I try not to consciously focus on it too much. These things are always around, whether it’s the Ryder Cup, whether it’s the next event, whether it’s the next major. So those are things that you can never completely ignore, but I try not to focus on them as real motivations to push me forward.
I hope to continue to move forward in a pretty similar way in terms of practice, training, application towards the game, and we’ll see where that takes me.