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Sunday at the PGA Championship was set up to be a “free for all” between several of the game’s biggest stars. Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy and Xander Schauffele were firmly in the hunt entering the final round, while Scottie Scheffler lurked on the periphery.

But the chaotic Sunday that was promised at Aronimink never materialized. Scheffler never got out of neutral, McIlroy’s driver betrayed him and Rahm couldn’t figure out the speed of the Golden Age greens. While golf’s stars puttered along on Sunday, Aaron Rai took control of the tournament as he made the turn and ran away from the field to claim his first major title. Rai shocked the world with his PGA Championship victory. Nothing about his recent form suggested that Rai would be the one to leave Philadelphia with the Wanamaker Trophy. He had just one top-20 finish on the year entering the event and had spent the previous week at the opposite-field Myrtle Beach Classic while the PGA Tour’s top players were at the Truist Championship.

But it was there, in Myrtle Beach, that Rai found the key to what would be a career-altering win a week later.

Rai entered Sunday in Myrtle Beach as the 54-hole leader. It was his first time playing in the final group since the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship in November. On that Sunday, Rai stared down McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood to take home the trophy. He lived a different life in Myrtle Beach, stumbling on Sunday and eventually finishing three shots behind Brandt Snedeker.

But that final-group refresher gave Rai what he needed to seamlessly navigate the Sunday cauldron at Aronimink.

“That experience at Myrtle Beach was absolutely invaluable for the PGA, and I’m not sure I would have handled the situation as well as I did at the PGA if I hadn’t experienced it the week before at Myrtle Beach,” Rai said on Tuesday at the Memorial. “Two reasons, really. One, I hadn’t really been in the last group for probably a good five months, six months previous to that. So to get that feel of what it’s like again was huge.

“There were a couple of small things that kind of happened during that round on Sunday. Bits from the crowd, bits from a couple of mistakes that I made in the mid-section of the round. I think I made four bogeys in a row around the turn. I think just kind of where my mind went, certain things that I could have dealt with better, I was very aware of even on the Saturday of the PGA. And I think when you’ve had that experience so recently before, it’s a lot fresher in the mind and it’s a lot easier to make those adjustments. So, that was crucial, really.”

For the first eight holes of his final round at the PGA, Rai was scuffling. He was one over on the round and looked like he might exit the proceedings. But he reset after a bogey at No. 8 and broke free of the pack atop a jammed leaderboard within the hour. He poured in a 33-foot eagle putt at the ninth and added a birdie at No. 11. Then came the short par-4 13th. Like most players on Sunday, Rai’s tee shot found the greenside bunker. All day, players had tried to play a chunk and run out of the front-right bunker to a back-left pin. All of their shots came up short and they left the gettable 13th with a par.

But Rai did what the course asked; he flew the bunker shot to the back shelf and stopped it 6 feet from the pin. He rolled in the birdie putt and never looked back.

News

Why Aaron Rai's PGA Championship win resonates so deeply

By: Michael Bamberger

It was a seismic moment for Rai. Majors are the lens through which we discuss seasons, careers and legacies. Those four days outside of Philadelphia will change a lot for Rai, but the gravity of that achievement didn’t set in until he saw his father a few days later.

“I think it took a good few days, I think, for me to really get my head around it,” Rai said. “I don’t think I still have fully. But the following morning it was just more of an excitement really. I only slept for four hours on the Sunday night. I slept really late and then I just couldn’t sleep in the morning either after I woke up. So I think just a lot of excitement. It was only really when my dad came to my house a few days later that we started to speak about it a little bit more that I started to kind of embrace it and let it sink in a little bit more.”

Rai’s father, Amrik, was a talented amateur tennis player who gave up his dream to put clubs in his son’s hands. He had Rai play on a customized course suited to his age, instilled in his son the importance of hard work and dedication from a young age, and helped pave Aaron’s path to his crowning achievement at Aronimink. Amrik missed his son’s win because he had fallen asleep in his camper van back in the U.K.

But once Amrik arrived in Jacksonville, his son started to feel and grasp the weight of the victory.

“My dad, he’s a very proud man,” Rai said. “He doesn’t show a huge amount of emotions. But the first evening that I saw him, his hug was a little bit different. His smile was a little bit different. We sat, and we spoke for probably a good couple of hours or so. And again, probably just how big of an achievement that was. I could probably hear it more from what I associate with how he is normally and how he was during those first couple of days. So I think, yeah, that definitely held a lot of weight for me internally.”

Aaron Rai is still getting used to his new reality — to more people recognizing him, to the extra media requests, to being called a major champion. But that’s all part of the package, one he found the key to unlocking on a Sunday to forget at an opposite-field event in Myrtle Beach.

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Yo! Calling out to all you new Raiheads out there.

As if we need another reason to jump on the bandwagon of the new and unexpected PGA Championship winner, straight out of Aronimink in suburban Philadelphia, the oh-so-grounded Aaron Rai. Here it comes anyhow — lay your gloved hands here.

You know how (to cite one famous example) John “Wild Thing” Daly, the 1991 PGA champ, will rent out any part of his golf outfits in the name of commerce? Aaron Rai, golf’s Mild Thing, doesn’t do that. Every day is opposite day in Raiworld. And we like it!

Consider the swirling logo and four stenciled words — Me and My Golf — above the brim of his baseball cap. You see it again on the all-important right chest of Rai’s shirt as well. (The right chest, for a righty golfer, gets more airtime than the left, at least upon the swing’s finish.) Those are two prime bits of real estate. J.D. will tell you that. So will J.T., as in Justin Thomas, two-time PGA Championship winner. Any touring pro with an agent will tell you that. Except for Aaron Rai. Those spaces are not for rent. They are a gift he gives to his two main teachers.

That is, the two guys behind Me and My Golf, Andy Proudman and Piers Ward, a pair of unpretentious English blokes/teaching pros who have been with Rai pretty much all of his golfing life.

“I almost feel disrespectful, calling them just ‘my coaches,’” Rai, 31, said at the winner’s press conference at the PGA Championship earlier this month. “They’ve been so much more to me than that, from a young age, as a teenager, on this journey as a professional golfer. They’ve been my mentors, my big brothers. They’ve almost been like family to me.”

Proudman and Ward, who had been with Rai earlier in the week at Aronimink, were honored, but not surprised, when they heard that tribute.

“He’s a very generous guy,” Proudman said in a phone interview the other day.

Ward added, “You can see the values he grew up with in everything he does.”

You could say Rai’s Sunday-night comments about his two teachers were right on brand, except that brand is not a word you readily associate with Rai. He’s not looking to get paid to use this product or that one. He’s not really looking for product at all. His thing is tried-and-true and getting better all the time.

Rai’s black gloves, for his left hand and his right, are not made by FootJoy or G-Fore or any other golfy company. They are a product of a small English manufacturer called MacWet Limited, makers of all-weather gloves for sailors, hunters and the horsey set. If you zoom in on Rai’s golf glove you can see the company’s unfamiliar logo. The chances of it registering with you are close to zero, unless you are a sailor or hunter or member in good standing of the horsey set.

Proudman and Ward remember when Rai first started wearing them, as a kid golfer beating balls through the dank, wet English winter. He was already a golfer doing his own thing, a smart young man who would have been university-bound, except his dream and plan was always to play professional golf.

“By 17, he was ready,” Ward said. Not ready to take on the world, but ready to start playing tournament golf for prizemoney, traveling across the United Kingdom as a teenager, often with his father as his chaperone. In terms of his mindset, the teachers said, Rai was a pro as a 12-year-old, but not a copy-cat, mini-me pro. To this day, you can see junior golfers who in appearance and mannerism look like 10-year-old Rickie Fowlers.

Rai, per his two teachers, was a young and analytical player who figured things out for himself, with the help of his two teachers and his father. He learned from his divots and the flight of his ball (as old school as you can get) and from the biometric skin stickers on his body.

Proudman started working with Rai when he was about 4 years old. Ward came into the picture a few years later. They met him at the 3 Hammers Golf Complex in England, a Birmingham-area public driving range with a short course where Proudman and Ward worked. It was there the two teachers developed their holistic approach (mind and body) to teaching that is at the core Me and My Golf, the instruction business they own and operate today.

“With the driver, Aaron’s thing was always in play over distance,” Proudman said. “We had a 70-yard hole, and he was driving the green at [age] 5 and 6. He has always been comfortable hitting driver into really small targets.”

In the wake of Rai’s win at Aronimink, many ordinary golf fans, hearing him talk about the game he clearly loves, were enthralled by his modest and humble demeanor. Rai is an Englishman of Indian descent on both his mother and father’s sides. Rai’s mother spent years in Kenya as well. The two teachers say that when you visit Rai’s childhood home you are overcome, in the most pleasant way, by the smells and spices of Indian and African cooking. 

Like their now-famous pupil, Proudman and Ward have an inherent modesty as well. They described traveling across the United States and Australia some years ago, staying in hostels to keep costs down, making an intimate study of some of the teaching pros they particularly admired, few of the names familiar ones. In videos, you can see the two teachers working with Rai as he uses an alignment stick not only for alignment but also for balance and foot position. This is achieved by . . . standing on the alignment stick. The two teachers often ask probing questions and listen with care, letting the expert do his thing. Good teachers are always learning from their pupils. It’s a two-way street.

“I remember at the BMW PGA Championship [at Wentworth, in England] probably six years ago now, Piers was on the putting green with me until 11:30 at night on a Tuesday,” Rai said Sunday night at Aronimink. “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.” But Saturday night at Aronimink, Rai was the last man standing in the short-game practice area, hitting one pitch shot after another, without a soul around, not even his caddie.

The two teachers did not share the details of the financial aspects of their arrangement with Rai, but they did broadly describe his approach to everything he does in golf, whether it’s working with the Me and My Golf guys, not being on social media, using an old driver, seldom looking at his mobile phone or anything else.

“If it doesn’t serve his desire to improve at golf, he’s not interested in it,” one of the gents said.

“He’s different,” said the other.

We’ve noticed. We’re celebrating.

Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@Golf.com

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The post 1 week later, 10 PGA scenes tell the story appeared first on Golf.

The post 1 week later, 10 PGA scenes tell the story appeared first on Golf.

It’s Friday now which means, when adjusting for attention-span inflation, the 2026 PGA Championship ended roughly three-and-a-half years ago.

But I haven’t quite moved on yet.

(In fairness, and in transparency, I planned to finish and publish this piece on Monday, but long story short, I didn’t. Here we are.)

I wrote about Aaron Rai on Sunday night. But here are 10 sights, sounds, stats and sensations from Aronimink that keep rattling around my skull.

1. Padraig’s dream

When I spoke to Padraig Harrington on Saturday evening, he was dreaming of a Sunday charge, of an impossible chase-down victory from T31, a half-dozen shots back on a jam-packed leaderboard.

He didn’t get his fairy-tale finish — but he got something pretty cool nonetheless. After a ho-hum first 15 holes on Sunday he holed out for eagle at No. 16.

Then after a par at No. 17, he knocked in a cool bladed wedge at No. 18 for birdie to secure an under-par, top-20 finish.

So just how impressive was Harrington’s tournament?

-His T18 was his best major result in five years (since his T4 at the 2021 PGA)

-He’s just the third player at 54 or older to finish top 20 at a PGA Championship, joining Sam Snead and Gene Sarazen. (Of note, Snead finished T4-T9-T3 in 1970-1971-1972 at ages 60-61-62. Preposterous.)

-Over the last 54 holes (removing his opening 74) Harrington shot 69-67-69, five under par, bettered only by Ludvig Aberg (seven under) and Aaron Rai (nine under).

On to the U.S. Open at Shinnecock, where Harrington will keep dreaming.

2. Cam Smith’s stroke

It was a joy to see Cam Smith back in contention at a major — in part just to watch him hit big-time putts. After six consecutive missed cuts at the majors, Smith hired a new swing coach (Claude Harmon III) and immediately put on a stripe show with his irons, which pairs well with a putter that’s been hot his entire golfing life.

Smith’s driving remains a complete adventure, which sort of adds to the thrill of watching. But he clearly found some magic at Aronimink, and I’m curious to see where he takes this form next.

Post-tournament, Smith expressed his excitement — and admitted just how bittersweet it was to find success with a new coach.

“I’m proud of how I showed up this week, with a new thought and a new swing,” he said. “It was a hard call to make to my coach. I had been seeing Grant [Field] since I was 9 years old. So I’d been with him for 23 years, and probably one of the most difficult phone calls I’ve ever had to make.

“And, yeah, it’s still kind of lingering, but I feel like I’ve made the right call, and I can see it in my golf and just my strike of the ball and seeing some different shots. It’s been nice.”

3. Rahm’s candor

Winning takes care of everything, as Tiger Woods used to say.

A corollary: Finishing T2 by playing very well only to get beaten by a guy who makes four birdies and an eagle in the final 10 holes takes care of almost everything. Enter Jon Rahm, who was cheery after his final-round 68 left him T2, his first major top-five finish since 2023.

I appreciated his golf, and I appreciated his candor on Sunday evening as he reflected on the early-week narrative that scores would be quite low:

“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, for first and second place] is still lower than what I expected.

“I mean, obviously I performed well last week [T8 at LIV Virginia]. I did really well in Mexico [winning LIV Mexico]. After the Masters [T38] I’ve been playing good. I just — when the pressure is the highest in majors, some of those things you’re working on, those weak links can damage the foundation, right? Just happy that all those things I felt like I could have done better at Augusta ended up working out this week.”

4. Two Masters invites

Alex Smalley wasn’t able to maintain the two-shot advantage he held entering Sunday’s final round. But he got a whole bundle of consolation prizes — including an invitation to next year’s Masters.

Long after the tournament’s winner had been decided, Smalley finished eagle-bogey-birdie to notch a T2 finish, while his playing partner Matti Schmid finished T4. Neither has ever played a Masters, and because any top-four major finish gets you an invite to Augusta National, that’s about to change.

And it’s clear that was on Smalley’s mind on the final green.

“I’m thrilled to be going to Augusta next year. I knew that top four and ties gets you into Augusta, so I knew that was a possibility,” Smalley said. “I wasn’t really thinking about it, honestly, until I hit the green on 18 and saw where I was. Was really just trying to two-putt, just trying to lag it up. That 20-footer up the hill on 18, I was just trying to get a tap-in. Fortunate enough that it went in.

(It was also worth, like, a million bucks.)

“As far as this tournament, in terms of my career, who knows? Maybe it’s a springboard. It gives me a lot of confidence coming away from this week to know that I can compete on the PGA Tour and even some of the major championships.”

5. PGA return invites

The top 15 finishers and ties get invited back to next year’s PGA Championship, which can mean a massive opportunity. (The 2025 PGA, for instance, included several wild-card contenders, which meant a few players like Davis Riley, Joe Highsmith and Jhonny Vegas got back to the 2026 PGA when they otherwise wouldn’t have played.)

Mostly this year’s top 15 was populated by high-ranked players who we’ll expect back next year anyway, but it’s a nice assurance for Smalley (World No. 42) and Schmid (No. 65) as well as Kurt Kitayama (No. 29) and Max Greyserman (No. 63) knowing they have one 2027 major tee time to count on, even if other stuff goes sideways.

6. World-ranking leaps

This is fun fact more than anything else, but some of the biggest world-ranking jumps post-PGA are a reminder of certain unexpected members of the week’s supporting cast.

-Club pro Ben Kern made the cut, finished 80th and went from unranked to No. 1781
-Harrington’s T18 rocketed him from No. 894 to 502
–Martin Kaymer finished T35 to jump from No. 1160 to 720
-Reigning Ryder Cup hero Luke Donald made the cut, finished T70 and jumped from No. 1300 to No. 1081
-And Cam Smith‘s T7 took him from No. 239 to 145

7. Scottie, Rory, Xander

Rory McIlroy finished T7, his 15th finish of eighth or better at a major since 2020.

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler finished T14.

Just how consistent has their joint presence been at majors? It’s now been more than five years — since the 2021 Masters — since we finished a major without McIlroy or Scheffler in the top 10.

And then there’s Xander Schauffele, whose T7 was his 16th top 20 in his last 17 major starts. Preposterous consistency at the game’s biggest events.

It’s no coincidence these three have won seven of the last 10 majors.

8. Aaron Rai’s shot at No. 13

I posted up behind the drivable par-4 13th for a while on Sunday afternoon, watching the action while I listened to the rest unfold on the radio. (They give out these headsets at some big events. They’re especially fun to have when things get chaotic.)

McIlroy and Schauffele came through and each made a mess of the hole, battling just to make matching bogey 5s. But then Aaron Rai came through and, from the same front bunker where Schauffele had just sailed one past a hole location teetering in the back corner, pulled off the perfect shot. When he finished off his birdie 3, he seized control of the tournament for good.

9. Aaron Rai’s shot at No. 16

If there’s one ball flight I’ll remember from the 2026 PGA it’s the sight of Rai’s approach shot at the par-5 16th, a soaring, left-to-right banana ball I watched from behind the green It didn’t just find the green but landed in the perfect spot to chase towards a precarious back-right pin, setting up a short eagle putt that turned into a ho-hum birdie. If he’d made par there, the door would have remained ajar. Instead it really seemed over.

10. Aaron Rai’s putt at No. 17

I stayed in a comfy patch of grass by the 17th tee as Rai marched down towards the green on the penultimate hole, a par-3 over water. A sketchy tee shot (his brain’s anti-left mechanism taking over) left him with nearly 70 feet for birdie. All week the amphitheater around the 17th green and 18th tee had been the best place on property and I enjoyed the wide-angle view from a couple hundred yards behind the action. I wondered what a three-putt might mean. At impact Rai seemed to my eye to have crushed his putt, too; for a split second I wondered if it could race past the hole and into the water.

It turns out his judgment was slightly better than mine. As the ball found the bottom of the cup, I saw the crowd’s reaction just a split second before the sound reached me, which somehow made the roar hit even harder when it arrived.

(Squint and you can see a crouched fella in a white shirt and navy pants back by the tee…)

What an exclamation point.

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The post ‘I fell short of that’: Garrick Higgo caddie blames himself for PGA rules penalty appeared first on Golf.

The caddie for Garrick Higgo blames himself after the pro was penalized two strokes for arriving late last week to his PGA Championship first-round tee time. 

Austin Gaugert posted his thoughts to Instagram on Wednesday. On Monday, Golfweek’s Adam Schupak reported that Gaugert and Higgo parted ways after the PGA, and at this week’s CJ Cup Byron Nelson event, Higgo is using Nick Cavendish-Pell as his caddie. 

Below is Gaugert’s statement:

“I want to say something about the incident with Garrick Higgo being late to the tee on Thursday at the PGA Championship. As a caddie, you try to do everything you can to prepare your player for competition and I fell short of that. Garrick was understanding throughout the situation and handled it with professionalism and class. This has happened to players before and will again. Garrick handled a difficult situation with grace, and I wish him nothing but success moving forward.

“After working with Garrick and finding the highest success in caddying, Garrick has become a better friend to me than just a boss. I will always be grateful for that.”

News

Inside Garrick Higgo’s bizarre (and costly) PGA Championship start

By: Michael Bamberger

Higgo’s late-arrival penalty came during last Thursday’s first round of the PGA. He’d been scheduled to tee off at 7:18 a.m. ET and arrived at 7:19, leading to the addition of two strokes to his first-hole score, per rule 5.3a of the Rules of Golf. Had Higgo arrived more than five minutes late, he would have been disqualified. 

At the time of the tee time, Higgo was on the nearby practice green, and as Higgo made his way to the tee, Gaugert was seen imploring him to arrive. When Higgo did, he was told of the penalty by a rules official, then went on to shoot a one-under 69. The next day, Higgo shot a 76 and missed the cut by a shot.  

After his first round, Higgo answered 15 questions on what had happened. 

“If you know me, then you know I am very casual and laid back,” Higgo said in his press conference. “But — I don’t know. I don’t want to be there 10 minutes early. I know that five minutes is fine. I thought I had time. 

“I was obviously too casual, yeah.”

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The post He made PGA Championship cut, then did something REALLY rare appeared first on Golf.

Last week was a good one for Aaron Rai, who beat out the competition at Aronimink Golf Club and won the PGA Championship for his first major title.

But it was also a good week for Ben Kern, one of the 20 PGA professionals who qualified for the tournament. Kern was the only club pro to make the cut (shooting 74-67-77-72); he finished 80th and won $23,930. He even played the final round with former No. 1 and European Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald.

“It’s very special,” Kern said Sunday. “Obviously, once I got into the business, it was a goal to get out here and play in this kind of event. It’s a once-in-a-year opportunity that I’ve had the chance to play in three. It’s very special to be in this field and then to walk away with low club pro, it’s everything.”

When he’s not playing in PGA Championships, Kern is the general manager at Hickory Hills Golf Club in Grove City, Ohio. He said Sunday he had lots of work to get back to.

“It’s going to be busy,” Kern said. “I have not looked at my emails. So I will get back to my emails in a few days. Unfortunately, I’m probably going to be at my desk for a lot of it, getting caught up, getting the back end back to where it needs to be, getting all the information out to the members and what we have coming up, because our season is going.”

But before he got back to his desk — or maybe at his desk — Kern did something important: He posted his scores from a major golf tournament to his handicap.

Some pros, like Jon Rahm and Max Homa, for example, have handicaps that are kept semi-active, but they don’t post frequently. And we are going to guess Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy did not post their scores on Sunday night either. (And if any of the other club pros did post scores, they didn’t get four rounds in like Kern, or get to hold up a crystal trophy on Sunday night.)

The USGA — which would love for you to get your own Handicap Index — noticed Kern entered his scores and tweeted about it on Tuesday.

Kern’s three-under 67 he shot Friday was the only one of his PGA Championship scores that counted toward his Handicap Index, and for good reason — only two players shot a lower score in the second round, and Kern’s 67 was good for a -6.7(!) differential. The Aronimink course rating from the back tees is 75.5 and the slope is 144, although those numbers don’t factor in a major-championship setup, so Kern’s differentials could have been even lower.

Kern said last week he keeps a handicap to have matches with members at his home club. He was asked on Friday, after that 67, what happens now.

“It’s going to absolutely destroy my handicap,” he said. “But that’s OK. That’s what it’s for. I think the handicap is sitting right around +6. So I got to give up a few shots to the members back home.”

His handicap is now +6.4, which is pretty good. You can sign up for your own Handicap Index here.

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The post Shop the drivers that hit the most fairways at the PGA Championship appeared first on Golf.

The post Shop the drivers that hit the most fairways at the PGA Championship appeared first on Golf.

As anyone who watched the PGA Championship at Aronimink knows, the course played tough.

Aaron Rai came out on top thanks to a final-round of five-under-par 65, which gave him a three-shot victory over Jon Rahm and Alex Smalley. But no one in the 156-player field managed to post four rounds under par.

The greens were diabolical, making it even more of a priority for players to find the fairway off the tee, and hopefully set themselves up for success with an approach shot from the fairway.

Over four rounds, there were 56 fairway opportunities at Aronimink, and three players who topped the driving accuracy list, finding the short grass 69.64 percent of the time: Scottie Scheffler, Jordan Spieth and Chandler Blanchet. (Winner Aaron Rai was fourth, with a driving accuracy percentage of 67.86 percent.)

So if your game could use a boost of off-the-tee efficiency, check out the three most accurate drivers of the week wielded by some of the world’s best below.

Shop the PGA Championship’s top fairway-finding drivers

Scottie Scheffler: TaylorMade

Scottie Scheffler still plays TaylorMade’s Qi10, which is unfortunately no longer available. The next-best thing: TaylorMade’s latest, the Qi4D.

TaylorMade Qi4D Custom Driver

SHAPED FOR SPEED The re-engineered head profile increases ball speed thanks to improved aerodynamics developed through advanced simulations. FACE FOR DISTANCE 60x Carbon Twist Face™ is a technological cornerstone that provides weight savings, incredible ball speed and more consistency vs. a titanium face. ADJUSTABLE PERFORMANCE 4° loft sleeve can be used to adjust loft, lie and face angle for optimized flight. TOUR PROVEN TECHNOLOGIES New and improved cut-through Speed Pocket™ protects ball speed and reduces spin on low-face strikes. Advanced CAD modeling creates a design with a clean and powerful sound, a foundation of TaylorMade driver performance. Multi-Material Construction allows engineers to strategically place mass in areas of the head where it maximizes performance, speed, and stability.

$649.99 from Fairway Jockey

View Product

Jordan Spieth: Titleist

Spieth recently upgraded to Titleist’s new GTS2 driver and 3-wood, and also switched to a new ball, the Titleist Pro V1x Left Dash.

Titleist GTS2 Custom Driver

$699.00 from Fairway Jockey

View Product

Chandler Blanchet: Titleist

Blanchet is still gaming the popular Titleist GT2 — a high-launch, low-spin option which was first released in early 2025.

Titleist GT2 Custom Driver

GT2 — Speed & Forgiveness Across The Face For players who don’t always find the center of the face and need the stability of a high-MOI driver without sacrificing speed. Speed & Forgiveness Across The Face Delivering impressive distance from any impact point, GT2 extracts maximum performance through forgiving design. Get the stability and added confidence of a high-MOI driver without sacrificing speed. Seamless Thermoform Crown A reimagined ultra-lightweight design, born from a new Proprietary Matrix Polymer. The tunable acoustic properties of this unique composite allow Titleist engineers to realize new material gains while maintaining our signature sound and feel. All wrapped in a clean look that inspires total confidence. Split Mass Construction GT2 delivers a powerful balance of forgiveness and speed thanks to a breakthrough in internal weighting. Mass is shifted to the back of the clubhead to increase MOI for better stability, while also pushing weight low and forward to optimize speed and spin. The result is a driver that frees you to swing with confidence.

$649.00 $449.99 from Fairway Jockey

View Product

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The post Why Aaron Rai’s PGA Championship win resonates so deeply appeared first on Golf.

In golf (once more with feeling: as in life!) there are always corrections. For instance, you could consider saving up for the newest and baddest TaylorMade driver, the Qi4D Designer Series Shadowfall, available at Dick’s for $700. Or, with less financial stress, you could buy a 2017 TaylorMade M2, the make and model that Brandt Snedeker used when winning at Myrtle Beach this month. Saw one listed on 2nd Swing for $209.99. 

Talk about corrections: Part of the appeal of Aaron Rai’s feel-good win at the PGA Championship, at nine under par, is his underlying modesty, in this age of bake-at-home celebrity. He has no social-media presence, a driver nearly as old as Snedeker’s and a home in suburban Jacksonville, Fla., that Henry David Thoreau would likely recognize. Thoreau, in one sentence: “Simplify, simplify.”

You might want to check out Thoreau’s cabin on Walden Pond, where he lived for two years, two months and two days. You can walk there in six hours from Fenway Park, faster via public transit.

What is Bryson DeChambeau worth on the open market, if he leaves LIV for green pastures? Don’t know, don’t care. Aaron Rai earned $3.7 million for winning the PGA Championship. If he’s worried about anything it’s money and fame and success changing him. Doesn’t seem likely. He takes his cues from Thoreau. You could tell that on Sunday afternoon. Golf reveals character as few things do. That’s been true forever.

Golf does tried-and-true well. The game changes over time, of course, as all things do, but here’s a quick Big Three of keepers: the 14-club limit, a ball weighing 1.62 ounces, play-it-as-it lies as a fundamental. They work, and they come out of golf’s sacred text, the rulebook. No rulebook, no golf. No tournament golf, anyhow.

I’ve cited this sentence, from an earlier version and preamble of the ever-changing rulebook, more than a few times. I do so because it says it all:

“All players should conduct themselves in a disciplined manner, demonstrating courtesy and sportsmanship at all times, irrespective of how competitive they may be. This is the spirit of the game of golf.”

Aaron Rai is the spirit of the game of golf.

I am fond of Robert MacIntyre, the Scottish left-hander and Ryder Cupper. And believe me, I understand the spirit by which he gave the middle finger to the pond on 15 at Augusta National during the Masters last month. We’ve all been there. The game can do weird things to any of us, anywhere. (I have been there many, many times, playing in front of nobody, for nothing.) But, truly, that whole first-round middle-finger thing, funny though it was in the moment, is beyond unacceptable when you think about it all. For starters, MacIntyre is playing Augusta National as a guest. That pond is part of the challenge the club is presenting, part of the greatness of the course and the tournament. That millions are watching goes without saying.

Conduct yourself in a disciplined manner, demonstrate courtesy and sportsmanship. It’s not complicated.

Sergio Garcia’s hissy fit on the second tee in the Sunday round at Augusta last month was even worse —he defiled a tiny piece of the course, site of Garcia’s greatest golf accomplishment. (He won there in 2017.) Garcia’s behavior rose to such a level that an Augusta National member, Geoff Yang, the tournament’s new rules chairman, felt compelled to go out to the course and discuss the matter with Garcia. I don’t know what Yang said but I can give you an educated guess and will reduce it to everyday language we all know: Not even close, dude.

News

Aaron Rai, iron covers, jawns and Balboa: 50 thoughts on PGA Championship 

By: Nick Piastowski

And then there’s Rory McIlroy, after the first round of last week’s PGA Championship. He came into the press tent to meet with a small group of reporters. A PGA of America public relations official, Greg Dillard, opened the proceedings with this:

“Rory McIlroy is with us at the 108th PGA Championship. How would you describe your opening round?”

“Shit,” McIlroy said. No mirth, all heat.

I get it, we all get it. I’ve been there (in totally different circumstances) as we all have been. You’re hot, you take it out on the wrong person. In this case, McIlroy shot 74 and wasn’t happy about it. He was four strokes away from a good mood. McIlroy’s response was an honest one, and his candor, for getting on 20 years now, is one of the things that makes McIlroy special.

But a couple things here. His one-word answer degrades what Dillard’s job, appropriately, requires him to do — help get word about the proceedings from the PGA Championship out into the broader world. But here’s a more most significant point: McIlroy is lucky that anyone cares about his first-round score in the 108th PGA Championship at all. It’s easy to lose track of that, when you’ve been doing this whole play-the-world-elite-golfer thing, for big bucks and a lot of attention, for a long time. But that is the starting point that makes McIlroy’s whole public life possible: People care. His one-word response was not courteous, and it was not disciplined. Broadly, it lacked sportsmanship.

“All right, thank you — we’ll open it up for questions,” Dillard said, about as perfect response as a press-tent moderator could have in that situation. With one word, McIlroy seemed to have a reset, and from there on out he did his job. Really, he’s been a joy to cover, by and large and over the years. Every last one of us has our moments.

Aaron Rai’s are coming. He’ll be a public figure from here on out in a way he was not before the PGA Championship last week. Human nature is human nature. But this guy has so much at his core. We could all see it in a single afternoon. But this game will push any of to our limits, even Aaron Rai. That old preamble is always there as a useful reminder.

Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@Golf.com

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The post Garrick Higgo, days after curious PGA Championship penalty, splits with caddie appeared first on Golf.

The post Garrick Higgo, days after curious PGA Championship penalty, splits with caddie appeared first on Golf.

The weirdest story of PGA Championship week just got weirder.

Garrick Higgo, the 27-year-old South African who was penalized two strokes for arriving late for his opening round tee time at Aronomink, has split with the caddie who tried to hurry him along to the tee, according to a Golfweek report.

The outlet reported that Higgo has replaced his looper, Austin Gaugert, with Nick Cavendish-Pell, with whom Higgo previously has worked, including in 2021 when Higgo won his first of two PGA Tour titles at the Palmetto Championship.

Video from the PGA Championship, which ESPN dissected like it was the Zapruder film, showed Higgo, in the moments before his 7:18 am. start, exhibiting little urgency on the practice green. As Higgo finally made his way to the tee box, Gaugert could be seen imploring his boss to get a move on.  

Higgo arrived on the tee at some point between 7:18 and 7:19, but when it comes to tee-time arrivals, every second counts, and an attending official dinged Higgo with a two-shot penalty for violating Rule 5.3a.

If Higgo was rattled, it didn’t show. On a challenging day at Aronimink, he shot a one-under 69 that should have been a 67 that would have tied him for the first-round lead. Following his round, he tried to explain his lateness to the media, but his comments left more than a few observers scratching their heads.

“I was there on time, but the rule is, if you’re one second late, you’re late,” Higgo said. “So if you think about it, I was there on time, if you know what I mean.”

Higgo’s form didn’t hold. On Friday, he shot a 76 to miss the cut by one.

Higgo and Cavendish-Pell will officially reprise their partnership at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, which kicks off later this week in Dallas.

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The post Aaron Rai, iron covers, jawns and Balboa: 50 thoughts on PGA Championship  appeared first on Golf.

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Our intro here pertains to Aaron Rai’s iron covers and his two gloves and his other unique characteristics, so I can understand if you want to click away, as the subject, while charming, has been talked about a bit excessively at this point. But there’s been something else going on with his quirks. I think it tells the bigger story.

It’s the thought of why he never changed. 

After all, we’re a society of mostly conformists. There’s comfort in that — and the absence of discomfort. Golf and life can be hard enough, but sticking out adds another element.

Unless, of course, you don’t give a you-know-what.  

Like Rai. And he just won a PGA Championship. 

“I think my dad played a really big role in that,” Rai said Sunday night. “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 two gloves, with iron covers, et cetera.

“I think by the time he probably allowed me to play more kind of club golf, play 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 really shift from that as I got older. So, yeah, that’s probably the main reason behind it.”

I felt like I was strong enough. There’s strength in that.

That’s what others should emulate. 

As we look back at the PGA Championship week that was at Aronimink Golf Club, let’s make that observation No. 1 then. We’ll try for 49 more, and, to help the mood, we’ll mix in some Philly music.

2. My grandpa had iron covers. Red ones even. 

3. Let’s talk more about Rai. I liked this answer when he was asked about his wife, Gaurika, who’s also a pro golfer:

“She’s been incredible. I’m not exaggerating when I say that I wouldn’t be here without her. Both as a companion, as a friend, as someone I’m sharing my life with, but also as a real support system for my game. She’s a professional golfer herself. So her mindset, her advice, her thoughts, whether it’s technique or the way I’m holding myself is absolutely invaluable. She encompasses so many different sides in her opinions.

“We even had a conversation yesterday for probably 30 minutes in the car just before we got back to the hotel, just speaking a little bit about today. Again, some of the things that she mentioned in the conversations were really with me today.

“Yeah, I really wouldn’t be here without her.”

News

Aaron Rai shocked the world. Here's what he revealed in the process

By: Dylan Dethier

4. What was that conversation in the car about? The Athletic’s Gabby Herzig wrote about that, and you can read her story here. 

5. Who wins in a match between husband and wife?

“We practice quite a lot together. Honestly she beats me more times than I beat her,” Rai said. “When we have putting contests, chipping contests, we do some wedge games on TrackMan, I do well to keep up with her. She really is that good.

“We play a little bit on the course, but I’ve played Sawgrass — that’s where we live — a little bit more than her, and I think that little bit of experience helps. But it’s still very close with us even on the course.”

6. How did the Rais meet? Golfweek’s Adam Schupak wrote about that, and you can read his story here. 

7. Where was Rai planning to celebrate after his win? As he said he wasn’t sure, Gaurika shouted at his press conference, “He’ll probably have Chipotle.”

“I do love Chipotle on the road,” Rai said. “So we’ll probably go to Chipotle.”

8. I also thought Rai’s story on how he played courses growing up was interesting. 

“Up until the age of around 12 years old, I used to play off basically a customized course length, which gradually got longer and longer every year from the age of kind of 7 to 12,” he said. “… 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.”

As he aged, Rai farther and farther moved back. 

“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.”

9. Of course, if you’re going to read just one Rai story today, please make it be this one here. It’s about the time Rai and I hunted for ghosts. Seriously. 

10. You can learn a lot about a person through the thoughts of others, and I liked this one here, from pro Paul Waring. 

11. And below is a young Rai. Enjoy. 

12. The week-long talk of no one pulling away on the leaderboard? Behind a four-under 31 on the back nine on Sunday, Rai ended it, along with the tournament itself. His 68-footer for birdie on 17 will also go down as one of the PGA’s all-time moments. 

13. So why were there so many players at or around the lead throughout the tournament? Certainly, there’s always the possibility of that happening — who’s to say that the best in the world can’t all go out and shoot the same score? 

But Aronimink seemed to dictate play — there weren’t many ways to approach holes, other than the safe route, so most everyone did that. Find the fairway, find the safe pocket on the green, hit a couple of putts and move on. 

The question is, how much of that is the course’s fault, and how much of that is the players’?  

14. Let’s talk more about Aronimink — and two of the big questions of the week: Was it a good course for the PGA? And was it set up properly?

Hmm, how much time do you have?

But maybe the answer is easier than you think, if you ask yourself this:

Did you like watching? 

I think that’s mostly what matters in this. Golf is entertainment.  

15. I did laugh when I heard Brandel Chamblee say on Golf Channel’s “Live From” show that a course manager knows they’ve set up a course right when the players start to [expletive]. 

16. Here are a couple player thoughts on Aronimink and the setup that I thought were interesting:

Said Rory McIlroy on Saturday: “Look, when you have a set of greens like this, you can start to frustrate people pretty easily, I think. You heard it in me last night. You heard it in Scottie [Scheffler]. I saw some of his comments. Shane [Lowry]. I think there was a lot of guys that were frustrated yesterday coming off the course.

“Again, it’s frustrating to us, but at the same time, it creates a helluva entering championship. If I wasn’t playing this tournament, I’d love what’s going on this week, but watching and playing are two different things.”

17. Said Patrick Reed on Saturday: “It’s just different. I mean, I think that’s the easiest way. It’s a different challenge, and that’s the cool thing about it is it’s on its own.

“But the great thing about all the golf courses we play, no matter where it is, whatever major championship we’re playing, if you’re hitting the ball well and you’re putting well, you’re going to be able to handle anything. We’re the best players in the world, so when they throw a really hard challenge at us, that’s when the top players are going to show up.”

18. Music break! The Roots’ “The Seed (2.0)” was heavily played during ESPN’s and CBS’ coverage, so let’s use it here. It’s a favorite. 

19. What would I, the 15-or-so handicap, shoot, with the wind, the rough and the pin locations, along with just the course itself? 

How much time do I have?

20. But man, a lot of folks were wrong about how the course would play. The predictions of low numbers had Jon Rahm feeling strange. 

“I would like to know who came up with that, by the way,” he said on Saturday. “Honestly, when I heard people talking about 20-under par, it made me question my ability to read a golf course, because I was looking at the greens and where they could put pin locations, and possible wind, I just — my mind was never — I actually got worried. I’m like if somebody shoots 20-under, the amount of records they’re going to break this week would be unheard of.

“You know why I think that can happen is also the fairways up here by the numbers are probably wide. They don’t play as wide as they really are. Holes like 7, 10, 15, with how much slope you have to the fairway, you have to hit a very accurate golf shot to be in it. Like that, you can add 2, too, 4 — maybe not on 6, but like I said, 10, 12, 15, 16, right?

“You need to hit — with the slope of the fairway and the wind going with the slope of the fairway, it plays a lot more difficult than I think a lot of people would have foreseen at first with how much they’re rolling out.”

21. Let’s talk about some players. 

In the first major since LIV Golf learned that it was losing its funding from the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund, Rahm, one of LIV’s biggest stars, tied for second. I thought one of the more interesting quotes of the week came during his pre-tournament press conference, where he was asked what he learned from a strong showing at last year’s PGA. 

“It was really fun to be out there in the landscape nowadays in which as players in LIV we hear a lot of things from articles, from social media, from comments,” Rahm said. “While I understand why things are being said, it’s something you have to deal with.

“To go on that Sunday playing against Scottie, that has the lead, and to feel the support and love from the crowd is what made it really enjoyable. To realize that sometimes the truth is very different from what this makes or made up to be. When I made that birdie putt on 11 and I hit those good shots on 12 and 13 and almost made the putt on 13, the support from the crowd and the cheering from the crowd was what made it so much fun.

“It was a realization of having such support from the crowd and playing good golf that made me realize in a way how I’m truly perceived from the public, as opposed to what I read sometimes.”

News

How did Aaron Rai win PGA? You must hear about when we … ghost-hunted?

By: Nick Piastowski

22. Bryson DeChambeau, another LIV star, shot seven-over over two rounds and missed the cut, after missing the cut at the Masters. 

What are your expectations for him at the U.S. Open, where he’s won twice?

23. Cam Smith had missed four straight cuts in the majors, then tied for seventh at the PGA. He recently started working with swing coach Claude Harmon III, after moving on from Grant Field, whom Smith had been guided by since he was 9. 

“Probably one of the most difficult phone calls I’ve ever had to make,” Smith said Sunday.

“And, yeah, it’s still kind of lingering, but I feel like I’ve made the right call, and I can see it in my golf and just my strike of the ball and seeing some different shots. It’s been nice.”

24. Patrick Reed played the Masters in April, didn’t play for four weeks, then tied for 10th at the PGA. Interestingly, he’ll have the same schedule heading into the U.S. Open — no tournaments for four weeks — as he’s been mostly playing a DP World Tour schedule while serving a PGA Tour suspension due to his time with LIV Golf. 

“Yeah, this year’s a little different,” he said. “Honestly, I enjoyed my time at home. I enjoyed actually getting to grind, to prepare, and work on things and get ready for this week. … Who knows, it might be a new thing.”

25. My favorite exchange of the week? This one:

Moderator to McIlroy, after he shot a four-over 74 in the first round: “How would you describe your opening round?”

McIlroy to moderator: “Sh*t.”

26. My favorite story this week? This one, from Justin Thomas, who was asked on Sunday if there was an “art” to sitting on a clubhouse lead. 

“I don’t know if there’s an art,” he said. “I can tell you how there isn’t because it happened to me one time in Hartford, Conn., one year. It was actually the same day that [Jim] Furyk shot 58, I think it was. I shot like 61 or 62, and I finished pretty similar, like the leaders were on the middle of the front nine.

“I had a buddy that was out there watching me, and we went in the clubhouse and probably had like four or five beers at lunch. Next thing you know, it’s two-and-a-half hours later, and I’m still the leader in the clubhouse. The wind picked up 15, 20 mph, and the leaders were on like 15. Jimmy [Johnson] was caddieing for me at the time. He’s at a Subway like an hour and a half away. He’s like what do we do?

News

Aaron Rai isn't the PGA Championship winner you expected. And that's OK!

By: Michael Bamberger

“I’ve never not wanted to be in a playoff before, but I kind of didn’t want to be in a playoff then. That wouldn’t have been a good situation.”

27. It’s strange not seeing Scottie Scheffler in the top three or so, right? That’s Tiger-like.  

28. Alex Smalley will win a major. Maybe this year still. 

29. I think Xander Schauffele will win another major. Maybe this year still.

30. I think Ludvig Aberg will win multiple majors. Maybe this year still. 

31. I think Garrick Higgo will never miss another major tee time again. Notably, Golfweek’s Schupak reported here that Higgo has also parted ways with his caddie. 

32. Music break! Let’s go with “You Make My Dreams (Come True)” by Hall & Oates. 

33. I want to see Michael Block at next year’s PGA. Golf needs personalities, and he is one.

34. Next year’s PGA is in Texas, Jordan Spieth’s home state. The grand slam happens there, right?  

35. The Spieth shot below is one of the best of the week. Maybe the best. 

36. The video below is gruesome. 

37. The video below, as always, is great. Padraig Harrington’s social media accounts shared it on Saturday night — after Harrington finished his third round. A true content machine. 

38. Here are a few of my favorite reads this week from the GOLF.com staff. From Michael Bamberger, his story here that wrapped up the tournament was great. 

39. From Dylan Dethier, his story here on Rai was great. 

40. From Sean Zak, his story here on the PGA at Aronimink was great. 

41. From Josh Schrock, his story here on Cam Smith was great. 

42. Those four jawns above were pretty good jawns, right?

43. Music break! I mean, if I didn’t go with the “Rocky” theme song, what am I even doing here?

44. With that comes an admission: I’ve never seen the original “Rocky.” I’ve watched “Rocky III” and “Rocky IV” about 3 million or 4 million times each. But never the original. (Or “Rocky II,” for that matter.) I have no excuse. I’m watching it tonight.

45. Or maybe I should watch “The Dark Knight” like McIlroy. He said he was going to watch the movie on Saturday night.     

46. Another admission: I’ve never had a cheesesteak. My dad was a meat butcher for 50 years, and I like sub sandwiches, but somehow it’s escaped me. That won’t change tonight — because I want the best. Where should I go both in Philly and outside of Philly? My email is nick.piastowski@neatly-delicate-grub.edgecompute.app. 

47. Who wins the next two men’s majors? Let’s go with Aberg at the U.S. Open, and Matt Fitzpatrick at the Open Championship.  

48. Who wins the next four women’s majors? Let’s go with Nelly Korda at the U.S. Women’s Open, Lydia Ko at the Women’s PGA (which would give her four of the five women’s majors), Charley Hull at the Evian and Minjee Lee at the Women’s Open (which would also give her four of the five women’s majors).  

49. A quick and deserved nod to Leonie Harm, who, on Sunday, won the Amundi German Masters — 13 years after she suffered multiple injuries after she was hit by a drunk driver while running. In 2023, she wrote a story for Golf Digest about her experience, and you can read that here.  

50. Tonight’s dinner? Chipotle. 

Had to copy Rai, of course.  

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The post Intrigued by Aaron Rai’s iron covers? They’re low-cost club protectors appeared first on Golf.

The post Intrigued by Aaron Rai’s iron covers? They’re low-cost club protectors appeared first on Golf.

Aaron Rai is our newest major champion, thanks to a stellar performance at the PGA Championship at Aronimink on Sunday.

The 31-year-old from England pulled away from the pack with a sizzling round of five-under 65 to claim the Wanamaker Trophy by three shots over Jon Rahm and Alex Smalley.

Rai, who had seven wins on his resume before his PGA triumph, is a player who does things his own way. He plays with not one but two gloves made by MacWet, an English company that makes sporting performance gloves for outdoor activities like polo, showjumping, horse racing, shooting and more.

Another way Rai stands out from his peers: iron covers. And thanks to Rai, what was viewed as a golf taboo now has some major-championship cred.

Putters

After PGA win, Aaron Rai's Spider is the hottest putter on Tour

By: Jack Hirsh

Rai has an endearing reason for his iron-cover usage: Growing up, he was cognizant of the sacrifices his parents made to support his golf development. When he received his first premium set of clubs as a child, he wanted to protect them to the best of his ability, so he used iron covers — a habit that continues to this day.

“Although on the PGA Tour, we get given equipment, and we get given everything that we need, it’s more out of principle,” Rai said of his iron covers in the wake of his victory on Sunday. “The value of not losing perspective of what I have and where I am.”

Even if iron covers don’t make sense for use in your daily golf life, there’s no denying that using them for travel is reason enough to invest in a set. And with a price point starting at $22, it’s a low-cost investment.

Check out a selection of iron-cover options below, and click on the link to purchase your set now.

Shop irons covers like Aaron Rai’s

Plush Iron Covers, Black – Golf Gifts & Gallery

Plush iron Covers are designed for right or left handed golfers. They provide great protection during play and travel. Bold embroidered numbers allow for an easy selection. – Set Make Up: 3-9, P, S, and W.

$31.99 from PGA TOUR Superstore

View Product

Iron Covers – w/Zipper, Black – Golf Gifts & Gallery

Iron Covers with a Zipper great protection with a secure hold on your club head. The set includes ten padded covers that fit standard to oversized iron heads, with each cover marked clearly for easy identification. – Includes 3-PW, LW and SW – Fits oversized irons

$40.99 from PGA TOUR Superstore

View Product

Deluxe Iron Covers – Right Handed, Black, RH – Golf Gifts & Gallery

Deluxe Iron Covers are designed to protect your investment from dings and scratches. These iron covers snap on and off easily and fit today’s oversized irons. They come with tangle-resistant lanyards for additional convenience.

$26.99 from PGA TOUR Superstore

View Product

Golf Gifts & Gallery Neoprene Covers 10 Pack

This protective, padded design also features a place to display the iron number.

$21.99 from PGA Tour Superstore

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