NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. -- The amphitheater around the 17th green at Aronimink Golf Club had been built for a reason. A giant grandstand stood to the right, an even bigger one towered to the left. The hole had been given a stage in hopes that it would be pivotal, that come this moment, as the setting sun washed the golf course in an orange hue on Sunday at the PGA Championship and the leaders made their final pivot back toward the clubhouse, drama would ensue right here.
Yet for most of the final round, the 17th hole and its tucked pin location on the far left had failed to produce fireworks. As Aaron Rai stepped into a 68-foot putt with a two-shot lead, the energy felt minimal, the noise sparse.
This was not Rory McIlroy making a charge to win his second major of the year. Not Scottie Scheffler defending his title by coming back from five shots down. It was not Jon Rahm fending off a host of players to get one leg closer to the Grand Slam. And it was not Ludvig Åberg finally fulfilling the hype by winning his first. The big names who lingered had receded or simply found themselves stuck in neutral.
It was there, from the thick of one of the most crowded leaderboards in recent major history and a setup that would not allow anyone to separate, that a 31-year-old Rai emerged Sunday without much fanfare but rather with a steady, methodical approach.
No one in contention had made a birdie on the 17th hole Sunday. Surely the 141st-best putter in the world over the past year wouldn't be the one to do it, especially when he wasn't even looking to make it. Rai took back his putter and swung through. The ball began tracking, and when it dropped, improbably, in the hole, Aronimink exploded as loudly as it had all week.
Aaron Rai delivers a 68-foot birdie putt to take a big lead after the 17th hole.
"That putt on 17 was incredible," Rai said. "I was just trying to focus on speed and get it close. It started to look really good line-wise with probably about 15 feet to go. Slowed up really nicely as well. So, it just kind of conspired all together for that ball to go in the hole."
The Philadelphia faithful wanted more than a winner; they wanted a winning moment, and Rai delivered. His exclamation point shut the door, and suddenly, the tone changed. As Rai walked to the 18th tee, the crowd began to embrace its champion.
"That's a PGA champion right there!" one fan shouted.
"I'm very much a foreign player playing here in America, but their support for me was incredible," Rai said.
There is little that is conventional about Rai. He is one of the seven shortest players on the PGA Tour off the tee and uses a driver that was released seven years ago. He wears not one but two black gloves for every full swing he takes. He uses a plastic orange tee and, yes, the irons in his bag are still hugged by iron covers.
Yet where there are idiosyncrasies, there is plenty of depth, too. Rai's path to golf came as a result of being struck by his brother's hockey stick when he was just 4 years old. His mom, who immigrated to England from Kenya, bought him plastic golf clubs as an alternative. His dad, who immigrated to England from India, quit his job when Rai was young to help him focus on his game. Rai came to cherish his golf clubs so much that he wanted to protect them. Thus, the iron covers.
"I think my dad played a really big role in that. He was very much an advocate to really just stay in your lane, focus on the things that you can do," Rai said. "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, etc."
As his victory became fated Sunday, the players who had fallen short and rued their failed efforts did not allow defeat to prevent them from extolling Rai's virtues.
"You won't find one person on property who's not happy for him," said McIlroy, who started the day three shots back of the lead and finished five shots back of Rai.
"I have heard consistently there's very few people that are nicer and kinder human beings than Aaron Rai," said Rahm, who finished in a tie for second place three shots behind Rai. "What he did today is nothing short of special."
"If there's one guy I'd love to lose to, it's probably Aaron," said Åberg, who played alongside Rai Sunday and finished four shots back.
"I'm super happy for him, he's such a good dude," Xander Schauffele, who finished five shots back and waited to congratulate Rai, said. "Aaron is always there. He's always in the gym. He's always on the range ... I think that's what it's about to be a major champion. You put the work in when nobody's looking."
On Sunday, everyone was looking elsewhere. Not at the 44th-ranked player in the world with only one PGA Tour win, only one top-10 finish this year and not at the player whose best finish at a major was a tie for 19th. Yet while his playing partner Åberg impressed with sky-high moon balls into greens, McIlroy awed with his driving and Rahm gave himself every possible chance to win with his approach game, Rai steadied his approach in the shadows and used his own unflashy superpower: accuracy.
Rai hit his low ball flight and kept the ball straight as an arrow, hitting every fairway on the back nine. He followed up his first bogey on the third hole with a birdie and responded to bogeys on the sixth and eighth holes with a 40-foot putt for eagle on No. 9, a hole that saw only six other eagles all day and none from players in pursuit of a victory.
"He's just a very methodical guy when it comes to doing everything and in his preparation of being ready for a golf shot," Åberg said. "It seems like it doesn't matter if it's, you know, Round 1, on a Thursday morning, or if it's 16 over a year, and then Sunday [at a] major championship."
Once he had made his way up 18 and tapped in his par putt, the typically calm Rai barely celebrated. It was not until he saw and embraced his wife, Gaurika, that he allowed himself to surrender to his emotions.
"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," Rai said. "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."
Rai grabbed Gaurika's hand and walked toward the scoring tent to a chorus of cheers from the Philadelphia fans. On his way, he walked past the Wanamaker Trophy sitting on a pedestal in the middle of the practice putting green. Soon, he would get to raise it, but for now, he simply gave it a knowing glance just as a fan belted out the words that Rai had improbably but undoubtedly earned.
"It's all yours, Aaron!"