Aaron Rai wins PGA Championship - first English winner in 107 years

England's Aaron Rai won the 108th PGA Championship at the Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, on Sunday. The 31-year-old, ranked 44th in the world, finished the tournament with a final round of 65 strokes (five under par) and a total score of 271 strokes (nine under par). He thus left Spaniard Jon Rahm and American Alex Smalley three shots behind him. Rai is the first Englishman since Jim Barnes in 1919 to lift the Wanamaker Trophy - and the first player of Indian descent to win a men's major.

Find the PGA Championship 2026 leaderboard here.

PGA Championship history in several chapters

Rai's triumph is historic in more ways than one. england waited 107 years for this moment. The last time the PGA Championship had ten American winners in a row - this sequence has now come to an end. Rai is also the first international winner since Jason Day in 2015.

The conditions in which the victory was achieved underline its exceptional nature. 22 players went into the final round within four shots of the leader - a new record in the history of the PGA Championship, beating the old record of 18 set in 1993. Among the chasing pack were eight former major winners, including Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Xander Schauffele and Scottie Scheffler. Also of note, after McIlroy won the Masters in April, this is the first time British golfers have won the first two majors of a season since the modern major calendar was introduced in 1934.

The moment that decided the PGA Championship

It was hole 17, a Par 3, when Aaron Rai removed the last doubt about the outcome of the tournament. With a two-shot lead, he faced a Birdie Putt from just under 21 meters - the second longest Putt sunk in the entire week of the tournament. The line was challenging, the distance almost unpredictable. The ball rolled, took the bend, dropped. The spectators around the 17th green erupted in cheers. Rai's lead grew to four strokes and the victory was sealed.

"I definitely didn't try to hole that Putt," said Rai afterwards. "The shadow of the flag gave me a very good line for the last ten feet. That helped a lot with the distance. It just went exceptionally well on the second half - it was incredible to see it drop."

A Sunday full of twists and turns

The path to this moment was anything but straightforward. Rai started the final round with Birdies on holes one and four, but conceded a Bogey on holes three, six and eight. After eight holes played, he was three strokes behind.

On the tee on the ninth hole, Rai had an exchange with his caddie Jason Timmis. Timmis advised him to be more precise with his ball flight and curve - the same kind of detail work that Rai's father had instilled in him as a child. What followed was the turning point of the day: Rai reached the green of the Par 5 hole with a five wood and sank the subsequent 40-foot Eagle Putt. It was the start of a series of seven consecutive one putts.

On the back nine, Rai took over. On hole 11, he played a precise Wedge shot to four feet and converted the Birdie - his first lead of the day. On the driveable par-4 13th hole, he played a Bunker shot to six feet and scored the next Birdie. At seven under par, he was the first player of the entire week to achieve this score. The next Birdie followed on the Par-5 16th hole with a two putt, before the Putt of the tournament fell on the 17th hole. After a final par on hole 18, it was official: Rai had played the final round in 31 strokes over the last nine holes - six under par over the final ten holes.

The strong field failed against itself

The fact that Rai's performance was so impressive was not least due to the fact that the high-caliber field was broken up by Aronimink's challenging greens and the dense Rough.

54-hole leader Alex Smalley lost his lead with a double bogey on the sixth hole and was unable to catch up again. He finished with a 70 and shared second place. Matti Schmid, who had temporarily taken the lead, conceded a decisive Bogey on the tenth hole and finished the tournament in a tie for fourth place.

Jon Rahm got off to a promising start with Birdies on the first two holes and briefly shared the lead, but Bogeys on holes three and seven halted his run. He finished with a 68 and shared second place - his best Major result since joining LIV Golf at the end of 2023.

Rory McIlroy, who had won the Masters in April and was one of the favorites, failed mainly on the Par-5 holes. He failed to make a stroke on all eight Par 5 opportunities during the week. He also made a Bogey on the driveable par-4 13th hole and his final round of 69 strokes was only good enough for seventh place. "I'm proud to have given myself a chance," said McIlroy afterwards. "But there are three holes that will haunt me - the two Par 5s I didn't make a Birdie on and the Bogey on the driveable Par 4. Those three holes cost me my chance of winning."

Justin Thomas played a strong final round of 65 strokes and led the Clubhouse leaderboard for hours - starting too far back to be able to keep up in the end. Defending champion Scottie Scheffler struggled with his putter all week: 13 missed putts under ten feet accumulated to a disappointing 14th place.

A long road to the first major

You can't explain who Aaron Rai is in one tournament result. His path to the Wanamaker Trophy began far away from the manicured Fairways of Aronimink Golf Club.

Rai came from the English industrial city of Wolverhampton. He took his first professional step on the PGA EuroPro Tour in 2014 - with 886 pounds in prize money in his first year. in 2016, he qualified for the HotelPlanner Tour, the DP World Tour feeder, in fifth place on the Order of Merit. He won three tournaments on the DP World Tour, including the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship in November 2025. In 2024, he achieved his first PGA Tour victory at the Wyndham Championship. In twelve major starts before Aronimink, he had yet to record a top-10 result. He won the title on his 13th attempt.

"It's been a really long road to even be allowed to play in a major like the PGA Championship," said Rai. "The fact that I'm here now - that hasn't really sunk in yet."

Gloves, iron covers and a story about respect

Anyone watching Rai play will first notice a peculiarity: He wears gloves on both hands - in a sport in which even a single glove is a matter of habit for some professionals and a luxury for others. The habit goes back to the age of eight. A glovemaker had sent the family a pair back then, and Rai played with both from then on. When his father forgot the gloves one day, Rai played with just one - and found it unbearable. "I couldn't play, I couldn't feel the grip, so I've stuck with the two gloves ever since," he said. He wears the MacWet brand, Climatec Wet Weather model, designed for damp conditions.

No less striking: the protective covers on every single Iron in Rai's bag. This peculiarity also has its origins in the family. Rai's father Amrik, who immigrated to England from India, bought his son a set of Titleist irons as a child - a considerable investment for the family. After each practice session, he cleaned the grooves of the clubs with a pin and baby oil before storing the irons in covers. "To remind myself where I come from and to appreciate what I have," explained Rai. He still carries this attitude in his bags today.

Rai's parents both came to England as immigrants - his mother Dalvir from Kenya, his father Amrik from India. Their family's start in golf was a coincidence: Rai injured himself as a toddler playing with a field hockey stick, whereupon his mother was told to buy safer alternatives - and returned home with plastic golf clubs. Amrik, who was actually a keen tennis player, soon realized that his son's forehand swing had little in common with tennis, but all the more with golf. He took over the coaching - without ever having played golf himself - and, together with the later Me and My Golf founders Andrew Proudman and Piers Ward, created an unusual training environment: until the age of twelve, Rai played almost exclusively on adapted course distances, away from regular junior tournaments.

The highlights of the 2026 PGA Championship in the video

Reactions: Respect from the entire field

Rai's victory was met with unanimous acclaim from his colleagues. Rory McIlroy put it in a nutshell: "There isn't a single person on this course who isn't happy for him." Xander Schauffele added simply: "Absolute world-class gentleman, no question about it."

Jon Rahm, himself beaten, had words of praise for Rai's mannerisms, "Anyone who uses iron covers because he guarded his irons so much as a kid and wanted to respect them - and keeps it that way to this day? That says a lot about a person. What he did today is simply extraordinary."

Rai himself summarized his attitude towards the sport that made all this possible: "Golf is a great game. It teaches you so many things - humility, discipline and real hard work. Because nothing is given to you in this sport."

Outlook: Rai with a ticket for the next few years

With his victory at the PGA Championship, Rai has secured himself a five-year entry on the PGA Tour as well as invitations to the Masters, US Open and British Open for the same period. In future, he will be eligible to compete in the PGA Championship for life. The next major, the US Open in Shinnecock Hills, is already waiting.

After McIlroy won the Masters in April and Rai has now won the PGA Championship, the question inevitably arises as to whether the British Isles will dominate the 2026 golf season. The answer is still to come - for Rai and the Wanamaker Trophy, it has already been decided.