Aaron Rai

Aaron Rai
Aaron Rai
Personal information
Born	3 March 1995 (age 29); Wolverhampton, England
Height	5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Weight	150 lb (68 kg; 11 st)
Sporting nationality	England
Residence	Jacksonville, Florida, U.S.
Career
Turned professional	2012
Current tour(s)	PGA Tour; European Tour
Former tour(s)	Challenge Tour; PGA EuroPro Tour
Professional wins	7
Highest ranking	20 (22 September 2024); (as of 24 November 2024)
Number of wins by tour
PGA Tour	1
European Tour	2
Asian Tour	1
Challenge Tour	3
Other	1
Best results in major championships;
Masters Tournament	DNP
PGA Championship	T39: 2024
U.S. Open	T19: 2024
The Open Championship	T19: 2021

Aaron Rai (born 3 March 1995) is an English professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour and the European Tour. He has won twice on the European Tour; the 2018 Honma Hong Kong Open and the 2020 Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open, and once on the PGA Tour at the 2024 Wyndham Championship. He is one of the few professional golfers to wear two gloves.^[2]

Professional career

Rai turned professional in 2012. In 2014 and 2015 he played on the PGA EuroPro Tour. He won the 2015 Glenfarclas Open after a playoff, finished 5th in the Order of Merit and was promoted to the Challenge Tour for 2016.^[3]

Rai was 18th in the 2016 Challenge Tour Order of Merit and just missed out on a European Tour place. His best finish was joint runner-up in the Le Vaudreuil Golf Challenge, a stroke behind the winner, Alexander Björk.

2017 was a successful season for Rai, with three wins on the Challenge Tour. In March he won the Barclays Kenya Open by 3 strokes. His Kenya-born mother embraced him on the final green, seconds after his final stroke: Rai said that it was her first visit to Kenya since she left in 1970.^[4] He had his second win in May, the Andalucía Costa del Sol Match Play 9, beating Irishman Gavin Moynihan 2&1 in the 9-hole final. His third success came in July in the Le Vaudreuil Golf Challenge where he won by 5 strokes. The third win gave him an immediate entry to the European Tour. In May, at Walton Heath, he led international section qualifying for the U.S. Open but failed to make the cut in his first major.^[5]

In his first season on the European Tour Rai had four top-10 finishes and ended the 2018 season 58th in the Order of Merit. His highest finish was tied for 5th place in the BMW International Open and he was 8th in the Nedbank Golf Challenge in November.

Rai won the 2018 Honma Hong Kong Open, the first event of the 2019 European Tour season. He led by 6 strokes after three rounds but was pushed hard by Matt Fitzpatrick, who finished with a final round 64. Rai's lead had been reduced to one shot after 16 holes but Fitzpatrick bogeyed the 17th and, despite a bogey at the last hole, Rai won by one.^[6]

In September 2020, Rai held the 54-hole lead at the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open, but was unable to convert this into a victory as John Catlin overtook him by two shots; ultimately finishing runner-up.^[7] A week later, Rai defeated Tommy Fleetwood in a playoff to win the Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open, a result that lifted him into the world top 100 for the first time.^[8]^[9]

In August 2021, Rai entered the Albertsons Boise Open as part of the Korn Ferry Tour Finals in a way of obtaining a PGA Tour card for the 2021–22 season. He held a one-shot lead on the final hole of the tournament, however a closing double-bogey saw him drop to a tie for second-place, one shot behind Greyson Sigg. The result was still good enough for Rai to secure his card for the following season.^[10]

Rai finished 93rd in the Fedex standings in 2022 which secured his playing rights for the following year.

In the third round of the 2023 Players Championship, Rai scored a hole-in-one on the signature 17th island green.^[11]

A successful 2024 season saw Rai claim his maiden victory on the PGA Tour at the Wyndham Championship, five other top-10 finishes as well as making 14 cuts in a row. He also qualified for the Tour Championship and was the only golfer in the 30 man field to do so without playing a single signature event.

Personal life

Rai lives in Jacksonville, Florida and practices at nearby TPC at Sawgrass.

Professional wins (7)

PGA Tour wins (1)

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	Margin of victory	Runner-up
1	11 Aug 2024	Wyndham Championship	−18 (65-65-68-64=262)	2 strokes	Max Greyserman

European Tour wins (2)

Legend
Rolex Series (1)
Other European Tour (1)

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	Margin of victory	Runner-up
1	25 Nov 2018 (2019 season)	Honma Hong Kong Open¹	−17 (65-61-68-69=263)	1 stroke	Matt Fitzpatrick
2	4 Oct 2020	Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open	−11 (70-69-70-64=273)	Playoff	Tommy Fleetwood

¹Co-sanctioned by the Asian Tour

European Tour playoff record (1–0)

No.	Year	Tournament	Opponent	Result
1	2020	Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open	Tommy Fleetwood	Won with par on first extra hole

Challenge Tour wins (3)

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	Margin of victory	Runner-up
1	26 Mar 2017	Barclays Kenya Open	−17 (67-66-69-65=267)	3 strokes	Adrien Saddier
2	21 May 2017	Andalucía Costa del Sol Match Play 9	2 and 1		Gavin Moynihan
3	23 Jul 2017	Le Vaudreuil Golf Challenge	−18 (66-65-69-66=266)	5 strokes	Morten Ørum Madsen

PGA EuroPro Tour wins (1)

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	Margin of victory	Runner-up
1	17 Jul 2015	Glenfarclas Open	−8 (64-68-70=202)	Playoff	Craig Hinton

Results in major championships

Results not in chronological order in 2020.

Tournament	2017	2018
Masters Tournament
U.S. Open	CUT
The Open Championship
PGA Championship

Tournament	2020	2021	2022	2024
Masters Tournament
PGA Championship		CUT		T39
U.S. Open				T19
The Open Championship	NT	T19	CUT	T75

Did not play

CUT = missed the halfway cut
NT = no tournament due to COVID-19 pandemic
"T" = tied

Results in The Players Championship

Tournament	2023	2024
The Players Championship	T19	T35

"T" = tied

Results in World Golf Championships

Tournament	2019	2020	2021
Championship	T51		T18
Match Play		NT
Invitational	T12		T26
Champions		NT	NT