What an utterly bizarre major championship that was. First things first, I want to take minor credit for calling out the doomsayers who said that Aronimink was going to get slaughtered.
I knew that the conditions were going to be firm and the greens would be fiendish. However, I still thought the winner would get into double digits under par. Donald Ross’ Pennsylvanian masterpiece was more golf course than many gave it credit for, testing the skill- and patience- of the best players in the world. Honestly, I think that some of those sadistic USGA guys infiltrated the PGA of America last week. Some of the pin placements- especially on those first few days- were downright diabolical, requiring players to target more accessible portions of the green.
Rai goes into Terminator mode
Did it occasionally devolve into a boring lag-putting fest? Perhaps. I really wish the players had been more incentivized to attack the pins on some holes. The insane green complexes were also a leveller, resulting in more three-putts than birdies on some holes. But I don’t think anyone can argue with our champion. Aaron Rai produced a performance for the ages, evoking Charl Schwartzel’s ice-cool Masters triumph with a back-nine clinic that Scheffler would have been proud of. The assassin was in pure flow state yesterday, carding a final round 65 to claim his maiden major championship. I have already seen some naysayers bemoaning his lack of charisma (or aura, as the kids would say it these days). I personally think it takes plenty of aura to wear two gloves and use a seven-year-old driver. The gloves automatically make you look like a cat burglar, which is perhaps fitting giving the way Rai stole that tournament from more fancied opponents such as Rahm and McIlroy.
Rich reward for years of steady progress
To be fair to Rai, this hasn’t come out of nowhere. Rai has evolved steadily from a dependable DP World Tour pro into a certified PGA Tour winner. His victory at the 2024 Wyndham Championship was a vindication of his methodical, accuracy-based approach. The Englishman was the only man to reach the 2024 Tour Championship without playing a Signature Event (a true measure of consistency). He won on the DP World Tour last year and was perhaps slightly unfortunate not to get into the Ryder Cup reckoning. He struggled to carry on that momentum into the early stages of this campaign, battling with back and neck issues. He missed a few cuts but shook the cobwebs off on the eve of this event, finishing solo 5th at the Myrtle Beach Classic. Still, few would have looked at Rai as a legitimate title threat (even on a 2nd shot course like Aronimink).
The Big Dogs falter on pernickety setup
You could just sense the frustration coursing through Rory’s veins yesterday. He was trying to push on a course that doesn’t like to be pushed, finding himself scrimping and scraping for par when he was really hunting for birdies. There was a moment midway through the round when it didn’t appear like anybody was going to run away with things. At that point, I still thought Rory had an inkling of hope. But I knew his race was run as soon as Rai started to catch a heater. Rory wasn’t playing well enough to catch anyone; his only hope was surviving a nerve-fest. Rory was left visibly frustrated, ejecting an overzealous fan after the tide had turned.
Rahm looked so good for so long
For a while there, I thought Rahm was primed to win the 3rd leg of a Career Grand Slam. The whole scene just felt eerily similar to when he won the US Open at Torrey Pines. And he would have won the event were it not for a marauding Rai, finishing three shots behind the Englishman at 6-under-par. Still, I think the Spaniard will take plenty of heart from his showing. He has struggled at the majors since joining LIV and I’m sure he loved being in that furnace once again. Speaking of LIV, the breakaway tour gave a surprisingly decent account of themselves despite the precariousness of their current situation. Cam Smith came back from the major wilderness to contend while Puig and Niemann gave solid top 20 showings. Bryson had a bit of a mare though, missing a 2nd successive major cut for the first time since 2017.
A victory for the little man
These championships harkened back to the 2000’s, where this tournament saw a deluge of surprise winners like Beem, Micheel and Yang. Aaron Smalley wasn’t on anyone’s bingo card coming into this tournament while Matthias Schmid was fresh off a missed cut at the Myrtle Beach Classic. Critics of the course would argue that there was not enough reward out there for the elite players. There is probably an element of truth to that and I’m sure there will be plenty of fallout. But there was something refreshing about having less illustrious names rubbing shoulders with the giants of the game. It was like having a few unprofessional actors cast alongside Hollywood heavyweights in a big production. It just gave the tournament some added flavour.
