Aaron Rai shocked the world. Here is what he revealed in this program

NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. – Aaron Rai didn’t know what to do.

He had just finished off a 1-foot putt for the biggest win of his professional career, outshining the heavyweights and leaving them in the dust, building a highlight reel on the back nine en route to a shocking first tournament title. But when the mission was over, Rai suddenly appeared lost. No fist pump. There is no wave. He swayed in one direction, followed in the other. And then, as the Philadelphia faithful roared, Rai did what felt natural.

He turned to his partner who was playing, took off his cap and offered his hand.

“He’s very polite,” Ludwig Aberg said a few minutes later, chuckling at the time. “He has a putt to win his first major and he keeps saying ‘good putt’ to me? He takes the time to look me in the eye and say well done? That stands out.

“If there’s a guy I’d rather lose, it’s probably him.”

NOW, YOU HAVE HEARD OF RAI IRON COVERS. If you are a golf fan, you probably know the story. He’s the only top professional who uses them – and they’re widely considered the norm in sports where the odds aren’t good. But that’s also the point. That’s how they work to explain Aaron. The metal covers tell his story. Here’s the short version he gave to ESPN:

“My mother and father worked hard to support me, and my father used to buy me the best tools, and he brought me the best irons, which he paid a lot of money for. And after the practice session he used to come home and he used to clean each navel with baby oil and a pin to remove all the dirt and grime, then he started to take care of them and iron them. [use them] now I have to remember where I came from – and respect the things I have.”

It’s a remarkable thing to tell. We can leave this piece here and you will get the idea. Rai is different. Thank you. He is humble. And he is proud of where he comes from. Also, Rai can create a neat illustration.

But many sons learn manners from their fathers and discard them when they see that they are not good. Not Rai. So how did he escape the pressures of conformity and conformity? Why isn’t he wearing a white golf glove, a brand name hat logo, a very cool attitude at school, as is the case on the Tour? He pondered the question in his press conference after the round, then returned to his father.

“I think my father played a really big role in that,” he said. It was both for most of his childhood, he said. They practiced together, learned about golf, and watched Tiger Woods VHS tapes. Amrik begged Aaron to stay in his lane, to control the things he couldn’t control.

“And I didn’t meet a lot of junior golfers, which didn’t give me an idea of ​​what was normal,” added Rai. “So I think he protected me so that I could grow in a way that made sense to me, in a way that I think was a little bit different – with two gloves, with metal covers, and so on.

By the time Rai was a teenager, playing golf very competitively and eventually at the professional level, he had enough confidence to stay on the course, only to double down.

“I felt like I was strong enough why I did certain things,” he said. I knew the reasons why I did them. I believe the reasons why I do them. So I had no reason to move away from that as I got older.

AARON RAI WON THE PGA TOUR the same way every golfer ultimately succeeds: By being himself.

No, he wasn’t the great champion we expected him to be. We entered this week with a series of brand name winners. Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler had won four of the last five, the last decade of PGA champions all winning multiple majors and there was good reason to believe that, like them, this week’s winner would come from the Tour’s elite, high-hitting alpha dogs.

Even with Sunday’s leaderboard – 30 players within five shots of the lead – there were enough big names in the mix that it looked like someone would end up on top. When Rai birdied three of the first eight holes he seemed destined for the also-rans ranks.

But then Rai started building a highlight reel.

First with an eagle bomb on No. 9 from behind the green, where McIlroy had settled a few minutes earlier.

Then with a stunning shot from the short bunker par-4 13th, he putt his 40-yard putt on a small shelf and set it up, making birdie where Xander Schauffele had just made bogey.

Then with a brilliant high cut on the par-5 16th, a shot called for the hole and a minute, to set up an easy birdie putt-putt that opened a gap on the rest of the field.

And then, improbably, with a 68-foot birdie bomb on No. 17, the packed spectator area sends the church’s loudest sound flowing throughout the area. It was an exclamation point. Suddenly he was up at four o’clock. Suddenly the competition ended. Soon everything had changed.

SO WHO IS ARON RAI? If the judge is his friends, he will come out fine.

Take Schauffele, a two-time major league champion, who was happy to share his thoughts on Rai.

“I’m very happy for him. He’s a good guy,” he said. “It’s not often you feel like people are working harder than you … but Aaron is always there. He’s always in the gym. He’s always in the area. He’s always — you know, in Scotland, I live right there. I thought it would be fun [his caddie] Austin and I will go. Aaron finishes his mini session at 9pm and goes to the gym at 9:45.

“This happened three years ago. I think that’s what it means. To be a great champion, you put in the work when no one is watching. Super inspired him and his team.”

McIlroy, who won the Masters last month, confirmed his approval.

“It looks like he’s going to win, which is great,” he said after the round. “You won’t find one person in the area that you don’t enjoy.”

“Aaron is a very active man,” added Matti Schmid, who finished T4. “He’s probably the hardest working guy on the tour. He does everything deliberately. He trains with a big purpose. I think he does a lot of things the right way, that’s why he won today.”

And even though Jon Rahm hasn’t spent much time with Rai, he knows the metal cover story and that speaks volumes.

“The fact that he is still doing it shows a lot about a person,” he said. “I have consistently heard that there are very few people who are kinder and kinder than Aaron Rai.”

THERE IS A TEMPTION THAT RAI IS NOT COOL. That is the essence of the iron cover story, of the two black golf gloves, of his emphasis on modesty above all else.

But that misses the point entirely.

Rai does things his way. Exercise, play, think, talk, clothes. He won by doing things his way. He will continue to do things his way. You’ll keep winning, too.

So he may not have had a well-planned big-time bottle service celebration. But he had something money couldn’t buy: His wife, Gaurika, sitting on the side of the stage, smiling as she made the promise:

“I can take you to Chipotle!”

He said with a smile.

“Maybe we’ll go to Chipotle.”

With a suction cup.

What could be better than that?

Dylan Dethier welcomes your comments at dylan_dethier@golf.com.

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