ALBANY, Bahamas — As he aimed a wedge shot at a floating target set up in the largest water hazard at Albany Club, Aaron Rai was asked whether he ever had hit a golf ball so close to Tiger Woods.
“Only in my dreams,” he said.
Reality was pretty cool, too, as Rai earned the Hero Shot at Albany championship on Tuesday to kick off the 2024 Hero World Challenge. Rai defeated Jason Day in the final round, walking off with the championship thanks to landing two of three shots on the platform floating between the ninth-hole and 18th-hole greens.
Rai defeated a field that also featured Nick Dunlap, Akshay Bhatia, Robert MacIntyre, Justin Thomas and Day. The pressure mounted as the points added up and tournament host Tiger Woods watched on and commented (not hitting any shots) as the players took aim at the target 87 yards away from the tee box situated behind the 18th green.
Day, for one, expressed frustration he had to listen to Tiger chirping at him that he had hit his shot fat.
“Some of them were,” he conceded.
The first round of the Hero Shot featured each player taking six shots at the target, with balls landing in an outer ring worth 250 points, those coming to rest in the inner circle worth 500 and any ball splashing down in the two-foot-diameter cup worth 1,000 and an automatic advancement to the next round. The sixth ball in each round – the “Hero Ball” – was worth double points.
Bhatia kicked things off as he dunked his fourth shot of the first round on the bullseye to advance. Rai and Day set the pace with 4,000 first-round points each. Dunlap fell just short of advancing to the second round, falling just 500 points behind the advancing trio.
In the second round, Bhatia and Day each scored 3,000 points and were forced into a shot-for-shot playoff to face Rai (4,000 second-round points) in the final. A game of rock-paper-scissor determined the order of play. After Bhatia hit the inner circle, Day knocked it closer to advance.
“I felt like it forced me to put all my eggs in the signature and major basket this year.”
ATLANTA, Ga. — There’s a PGA Tour A and a PGA Tour B schedule these days and it is evident in looking at where the pros who qualified for the Tour Championship by finishing in the top 30 on the FedEx Cup season-long standings teed it up this season.
There’s always been certain tournaments that attracted the best fields – that’s nothing new – but it has never been more pronounced than it is in the era of the signature events, which feature eight limited-field events with jacked up purses and inflated FedEx Cup points and often no cuts. Former longtime Wells Fargo Championship tournament director Kym Hougham once compared how players fill their schedule to college.
“You have your requirements and your electives. For years, there used to be four requirements – the majors – and the rest of the events were electives. You had four that were a given and then had 14 others to choose from.”
Now there’s eight signature events, the Players and three playoff events. That makes 16 requirements.
“The electives are vying for four or five spots,” Hougham said.
Some are electing to play even fewer than that. Viktor Hovland only played one non-major or signature event this season, the Genesis Scottish Open, which counts as a DP World Tour event for his Ryder Cup qualification. Asked if he may play more regular events next season, Hovland explained that this season he didn’t feel confident in his game and preferred to practice at home.
“I might,” Hovland said. “There are plenty of other tournaments I like to play. If I feel like my game is in a good spot I might just keep playing and add some non-Signature events. I’d love to do that, it just didn’t work out that way this year.”
Viktor Hovland hits his tee shot on the eighth hole during the final round of the 2024 BMW Championship at Castle Pines Golf Club. (Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports)
Rory McIlroy, who said he expects to finish with 27 worldwide starts by the end of the year, said he’ll play fewer events next season.
“I’m going to try to cut it back to like 18 or 20 a year going forward, I think,” he said on Sunday after his round at the Tour Championship.
There are myriad reasons why players skipped tournaments, ranging from births to deaths to just being plain tired. Some players added starts to enhance their chances of making the Olympics, qualifying for a major, making the Aon Swing 5 to get into a signature event or helping their FedEx Cup chances. Sometimes a player has a sponsorship commitment. Some honored a commitment as defending champion. Others like Tom Hoge just like to play a lot of golf.
“Early in the year I played the entire West Coast chasing the top 50 so I could get in the Masters,” said Hoge, who played 11. “If I take a few weeks off, it usually takes me a week or two to get back in the groove so I like to play ahead of big events.”
But others found that the cadence of the schedule limited the number of times they played outside of the biggest tournaments. Justin Thomas, who wasn’t in the top 50 but ended up playing his way in or getting a sponsor exemption into all of the signature events, didn’t play a single tournament outside the majors and signature events after March.
“The way the schedule worked out we had signature event, major, signature event,” said Russell Henley, who played only three regular events. (He would’ve played the Wyndham Championship, where he has a great track record, but was dealing with the passing of his father.) “Just the way it was set up, I felt like it forced me to put all my eggs in the signature and major basket this year.”
The players who competed in the most regular events typically weren’t in the signature events to start the season. Billy Horschel needed to play 13 regular tournaments, including an opposite-field event (which he won), to make his way back to East Lake. Horschel said he would still play many of the regular events next season even though he’s in the signature events.
“It’s hard to get to Atlanta,” Horschel said. “With my record at events like the Wyndham Championship, I’d be crazy not to go there. Guys are going to realize that they need points and there are other places to get them.”
Matthieu Pavon and Robert MacIntyre both earned cards for finishing in the DP World top 10. Pavon played three regular events right out of the gate but after winning the Farmers Insurance Open in late January in his third start, he played just two more the rest of the season as he gained admission to the signature events. In contrast, MacIntyre didn’t notch his first win until June at the RBC Canadian Open (and then skipped his first signature event at the Travelers Championship to fly home to Scotland).
Robert MacIntyre tees off on the first hole during the third round of the 2024 FedEx St. Jude Championship at TPC Southwind in Memphis. (Chris Day/The Memphis Commercial Appeal)
Before that, he even played two opposite-field events. In all, he played 17 regular events, the second most of any player to make the FedEx Cup finale, behind only Aaron Rai, who didn’t win until the regular-season finale at the Wyndham Championship and missed all the signature events.
“I think it will be pretty different,” said Rai, who also is in all the majors next season as well as the signature events. “You can’t really miss the signature events.”
He guessed he’d likely play 18 tournaments before the playoffs next season, which would mean dropping from 18 regular events down to six.
It’s difficult to make definitive statements based on one year of data of having signature events but it sure looks like the top players are taking fewer electives than ever, which makes it a tough time to be a regular tournament.
How many non-signature events and majors the top 30 played in 2024
Player
Non-major, non-signature event starts
Total number of 2024 starts
Scottie Scheffler (4)
AmEx, WM Phoenix, Houston, Schwab
19 plus Olympics
Xander Schauffele (4)
AmEx, Farmers, Valspar, Zurich
20 plus Olympics
Hideki Matsuyama (5)
Sony, Farmers, WM Phoenix, Valero, Scottish
19 plus Olympics
Keegan Bradley (6)
Sony, Farmers, Valspar, Schwab, 3M, Wyndham
22
Ludvig Aberg (4)
Sony, Farmers, Valero, Scottish
19 plus Olympics
Rory McIlroy (5)
Cognizant, Valero, Zurich, Canadian, Scottish
19 plus Olympics
Collin Morikawa (5)
Farmers, Valero, Zurich, Schwab, Scottish
21 plus Olympics
Wyndham Clark (4)
AmEx, WM Phoenix, Houston, Scottish
20 plus Olympics
Sam Burns (4)
AmEx, WM Phoenix, Valspar, Canadian, 3M
21
Patrick Cantlay (3)
AmEx, Farmers, Zurich
19
Sungjae Im (8)
AmEx, Farmers, WM Phoenix, Cognizant, Schwab, John Deere, Scottish, Wyndham
Max Greyserman blew a four-stroke lead in one hole and Aaron Rai took advantage.
GREENSBORO, N.C. — Aaron Rai was the last man standing in near darkness at Sunday’s 36-hole endurance test, winning his first PGA Tour title at the Wyndham Championship thanks to a back-nine blow-up by Max Greyserman.
Rai, a 29-year-old Englishman who last won in 2020 on the DP World Tour, shot a bogey-free 6-under 64 in the final round at Sedgefield Country Club to claim a two-stroke victory.
“Truly a dream come true,” said Rai who signed for a 72-hole aggregate of 18-under 262. “An amazing achievement.”
But Greyserman was in the driver seat after holing out his wedge from 91 yards for eagle at the 13th hole to build a seemingly commanding four-stroke lead with five holes to go. Not so fast as it turned out. His tee shot at the 14th hole sailed right and bounced off the cart path and over a fence out of bounds.
“If that doesn’t hit the cart path, we’re probably in a different situation,” Greyserman said. “I’m probably making five at worse.”
Instead, he compounded his error with another blunder and his lead vanished in one fell swoop with a ghastly quadruple-bogey 8. Afterwards, he still managed to make light of the situation, telling reporters he’d done the same thing once before when he was in contention at a Korn Ferry Tour event and cracking, “I’ve got to ask people not to put the cart paths on the right side.”
Greyserman, a 29-year-old Tour rookie who shot 60 in the second round, regained the lead at 18 under with a two-putt birdie at No. 15 but despite leading the field in putting for the tournament to that point, he took four putts — three of them from 3 feet — at the par-3 16th to make a double bogey and drop back to 16 under. He closed in 69 and finished alone in second.
“I played good enough to run away with it,” said Greyserman, who was also seeking his first win. “I’m just going to walk away with more confidence, look at the positive things and learn from the mistakes.”
Rai, who opened with a pair of 65s and added a third-round 68, chased Greyserman with four birdies in a row starting at the third to climb to 16 under. He tacked on a birdie at No. 12 and then strung together five straight pars. He said he was oblivious to Greyserman’s highs and lows because he avoided looking at the leaderboards.
“I thought it would be best not to really look at what was going on during the fourth round,” Rai said. “I think that was probably a good thing, that helped me just to focus on the golf. I was playing well and I knew that if I finished off well, then you never know what can happen.”
On the 18th tee, Billy Horschel, who was playing alongside Rai, asked him if he wanted to know where he stood. Rai declined and Horschel told him to stay strong. Thirty seconds later, Rai changed his mind and consulted his caddie, who told him everything he needed to know when he advised, “just focus on playing a good hole here.”
Rai sank an 8-foot birdie putt at the last to seal the win. Ranked 48th in the world, Rai has been knocking on the door with Top-20 finishes in five of his last six starts and three of them top 10s, including a T-2 at the Rocket Mortgage Classic and a T-4 at the Genesis Scottish Open. This season, Rai ranks fourth in Strokes Gained: Total, which measures the per round average of the number of strokes the player was better or worse than the field average on the same course and event, behind only world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, No. 2 Xander Schauffele and No. 3 Rory McIlroy. Rai credited adding putting coach John Graham as the difference that finally helped him get over the line and win, though he’s always had a knack for getting the ball in the hole. As a teen, he once holed 207 consecutive 10-foot putts during a span of 90 minutes to set a world record.
“I think the previous record was 136,” Rai recalled. “I probably wouldn’t be able to make 207 in a row now. That was when I was 15, so that’s quite a long time ago now.”
72nd hole pressure with the tournament on the line.
J.J. Spaun fired a 64, matching Rai for the low score of the final round, and finished T-3 with Japan’s Ryo Hisatsune.
Victor Perez, who started the week as the “Bubble Boy” at No. 70 in the FedEx Cup standings, shot 68 and finished T-33 to hang on to the last spot in the 70-man playoffs, which begin next week in Memphis at the FedEx St. Jude Championship.
It was a marathon Sunday after Tropical Storm Debby dumped more than six inches of rain on the course on Thursday postponing the start of the tournament to Friday. Play was suspended due to darkness the next two days, preventing the 36-hole cut from being made until Sunday morning and forcing the 67 players who advanced to play at least 36 holes. Amateur Luke Clanton, who finished fifth, played 39 and signed scorecards for three different rounds in one day. Only Matt Kuchar, who was in the last group and drove left at 18, elected to wait to complete his round on Monday. He’s 11 under and failed to make the FedEx Cup playoffs for the first time since the playoffs debuted in 2007.
It was one final wrinkle in a wild week at the Wyndham Championship that may be remembered more for the man who lost than the one who rode off with the trophy.
“It kind of feels like my own 2006 Phil Mickelson moment,” Greyserman said of the left-handers infamous collapse on the final hole of the 2006 U.S. Open. “So, hopefully that equals good things to come as it did for him.”
“He used to clean every single groove afterward with a pin and baby oil”
The final round of the 2024 Rocket Mortgage Classic on Sunday could be a big day for Aaron Rai, a golf professional who wears two gloves when he plays and uses covers on his irons. But there is a method to his madness, and it might just make you want to pull for the Englishman, who shares the 54-hole lead at Detroit Golf Club with Akshay Bhatia in pursuit of his first PGA Tour victory.
Rai, 29, has won twice on the DP World Tour, but not since the 2020 Scottish Open and is making his 85th career start on the PGA Tour this week. Why does Rai wear gloves on both hands when he plays a la Tommy “Two Gloves” Gainey? As a youngster, he was sent a pair of gloves by the maker of them and it became a habit to wear not one but two when he played. But the reinforcement that this was the way for him happened down the line when his father forgot to put the two gloves in his bag.
“So I had to play with one. It was terrible,” Rai said. “I couldn’t play, I couldn’t feel the grip, so I’ve always stuck with the two gloves ever since.”
Using iron covers is an even bigger oddity for a pro golfer. But Rai, who came from a working-class family, offered an endearing explanation for his peculiar practice. It, too, dates to childhood and how his father always made sure that he had the best equipment, even if he didn’t always have the means. That included a set of Titleist 690 MBs when he was seven years old that he treated as his prized possession.
“I cherished them,” Rai recalled. “It started from the age of 4 years old, when my dad used to pay for my equipment. He paid for my membership, paid for my entry fees. It wasn’t money that we really had, to be honest, but he’d always buy me the best clubs. When we used to go out and practice, he used to clean every single groove afterward with a pin and baby oil, and, to protect the golf clubs, he thought it would be good to put iron covers on them, and I’ve pretty much had iron covers on all my sets ever since, just to kind of appreciate the value of what I have.”
The story behind Aaron Rai using iron covers will make you feel bad about ever making fun of iron covers 🥲
"It's more out of principle and it's more out of just the value of not losing perspective of what I have and where I am."pic.twitter.com/y2n2O1CLSy
Rai gets his equipment for free these days, but he still cares for his gear in the same manner, his way of remembering how his father toiled to help him get to this point.
“It’s more out of principle and it’s more out of just the value of not losing perspective of what I have and where I am,” he said. “The covers are going to stay.”
It could be a big day for Rai but regardless of the result, he won’t forget his humble beginnings and how far he’s progressed in his career.
Fox birdied eight of his last 13 holes during Sunday’s final round.
Ryan Fox birdied the 18th hole to win the 2023 BMW PGA Championship for his fourth DP World Tour victory, pumping his fist in the air just as the ball was dropping into the cup.
Along the way, he upstaged the European Ryder Cup team.
All 12 members of the squad arrived at Wentworth Club for one last tournament of preparation ahead of the biennial matches against the Americans, and all 12 made the cut, including Tyrrell Hatton, who birdied the 18th to forge a tie atop the leaderboard at 17 under.
But it was Fox who overcame a triple-bogey 7 on the third hole with birdies on eight of his last 13 holes during Sunday’s weather-interrupted final round to post a closing 67 and win his first Rolex Series event by a shot over Hatton and Aaron Rai.
“I played great, pretty much from the third hole on, didn’t miss a shot,” he said after his round. “It was a pretty cool feeling on the last, knowing I had one to win it and actually make it.”
Fox birdied four of the first five holes on the second nine before the weather stalled the action.
“The back nine was crazy. I made birdie from the trees on 15, first hole back after the delay,” he said.
Jon Rahm grabbed solo fourth, two shots back. He had an eagle putt on the 18th hole that would’ve tied him for the lead, but he missed just left to finish 16 under.
Rai also had an eagle putt at the last and while his ball was tracking, it could only catch a bit of the edge of the cup and it lipped out.
Ryder Cup rookie-to-be Ludvig Aberg held the 54-hole lead by a shot after rounds of 68-66-66 but shot a final-round 76, his card featuring two bogeys, two double bogeys and just two birdies.
Defending tournament champion Shane Lowry tied for 18th after shooting a final-round 71 which included a 9 on the par-5 17th hole.
How the European Ryder Cup team did
T-2. Tyrrell Hatton, 17 under
4. Jon Rahm, 16 under
5. Viktor Hovland, 15 under
6. Tommy Fleetwood, 14 under
T-7. Rory McIlroy, 13 under
T-10. Sepp Straka, 12 under
T-10. Ludvig Aberg, 12 under
T-18 Shane Lowry, 10 under
T-18. Matt Fitzpatrick, 10 under
T-36. Justin Rose, 5 under
T-45. Robert MacIntyre, 4 under
T-64. Nicolai Hojgaard, even
European team captain Luke Donald finished 5 under, tied for 36th.
NORTH YORK, Ontario – Rory McIlroy and Justin Rose were grouped together for the opening round of the 2023 RBC Canadian Open and walking down the first fairway the pair made a deal: no talk about the PGA Tour’s partnership with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund until lunch.
“Rosie and I said, ‘All right, no chatting until lunch so that we can actually concentrate on what we’re doing out there,” said McIlroy, the event’s two-time defending champion who shot a 1-under 71 at Oakdale Golf and Country Club. “So it was nice to play a round of golf and focus on something else for those five hours we were out there.”
After fighting for professional golf supremacy for more than a year now, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan shocked the sports world with the news that the Tour would be partnering with the PIF, the very group it was countersuing amid its struggle with LIV Golf. With the PIF as its sole funder, the upstart circuit has long been criticized as a way for Saudi Arabia to sportswash its controversial human rights record, which includes accusations of wide-ranging human rights abuses, including politically motivated killings, torture, forced disappearances and inhumane treatment of prisoners.
And while the dust has far from settled on the announcement of the new deal that may shake up professional golf as we know it, it was back to business as usual for the PGA Tour on Thursday in Canada, where the people were just as welcoming as the golf course (so long as you’re in the fairway).
After the early wave of the first round of the 2023 RBC Canadian Open, four players are tied for the lead after taking advantage of calm conditions on Thursday morning at Oakdale Golf and Country Club. Playing in his national open for the seventh time, Corey Conners fired a bogey-free 5-under 67 and sits atop the leaderboard alongside Aaron Rai, Justin Lower and Chesson Hadley.
Conners is looking to become the first Canadian to win the Canadian Open since Pat Fletcher in 1954, a drought that Mike Weir nearly ended in 2004 before his playoff loss to Vijay Singh. David Hearn had a two-shot lead in the final round in 2015 as late as the 15th hole, but ultimately lost out to Jason Day. A year later, amateur Jared du Toit was a shot back on Sunday before finishing T-9, three behind winner Jhonattan Vegas.
“I think golf is a funny game. It’s very different on a day-to-day basis,” said Rai, who has missed four of his last five cuts on Tour. “But it’s funny, the more you try and force it and impose it on coming days, the less it seems to happen. So we’ll definitely take the positives and just try and approach the rounds with the right kind of mindset. Stay patient. Just see what happens, really.
“I’ve been really working hard on driving it better. I’ve driven it like crap all year,” added Lower. “Just really trying to get the ball in the fairway. Especially around this place with the rough being so thick.”
“Course is good. It’s penal,” echoed McIlroy. “If you miss fairways the rough is very, very thick … I certainly hit a few loose shots and got myself out of position, and the golf course does start to get quite tricky from there. So need to do a better job of just putting my ball in play off the tee. Then from there the golf course is still quite scorable.”
While he isn’t at the top of the leaderboard, one of the stars of the day was rookie Ludvig Aberg, who is making his pro debut this week after finishing atop the PGA Tour University rankings and earning a Tour card for the rest of the season. The Texas Tech product began his professional career 4 under on the front nine before signing for a 3-under 69.
“I was nervous. I mean, I think it would have been weird if I wasn’t nervous,” said Aberg of his emotions on the first tee. “But I tried to embrace it. I tried to view it as something fun.”
“I’m super fortunate to be in this position, to actually get my Tour card,” said the 23-year-old from Eslov, Sweden. “I’m just going to be prepared to play a lot of golf. Play as much as I can, get as many points as I can and kind of see where that takes me.”
Scottie Scheffler would move back to No. 1 in the world with a win.
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Scottie Scheffler won a year-long bet with his caddie on Saturday. On Sunday, he’s hoping to win the Players Championship, return to World No. 1 and earn the largest check on the PGA Tour.
Scheffler fired a 7-under 65 at TPC Sawgrass on Saturday to grab the 54-hole lead with a total of 14-under 202, two strokes clear of Australian Min Woo Lee.
Scheffler, who had to finish off his second-round 69 in the morning, vaulted into the lead with a birdie-eagle start in the afternoon. After pulling his second shot at the par-5 second hole, he lofted a pitch from the rough and jarred the 62-foot shot and then jawed at caddie Ted Scott having recorded his 10th hole-out…and it’s only March.
“I had a decent lie there in the rough and was able to hit a flop shot pretty much exactly where I wanted to land it,” he said. “I was definitely fortunate to see it go in, and then Teddy and I got a year-long thing going that I just beat him on and he owes me something, but he didn’t have any of it, and so he owes me. It’s an IOU from Teddy.”
Scheffler made his lone bogey at the seventh, but it barely slowed him down as he bounced back with consecutive birdies. He closed with birdies on two of his final three holes as he posted his career low at the Stadium Course and claimed his seventh career 54-hole lead/co-lead on Tour. The reigning Masters champion is seeking to win for the second time this season —he defended his title at the WM Phoenix Open in February — and supplant Jon Rahm as World No. 1. But Scheffler knows that winning will take care of the latter.
“I think the ranking is just an algorithm,” he said. “For me, I would much rather win the tournament than get back to No. 1 in the world. So that will be my focus going into tomorrow is just going out and having a solid round of golf, and the rankings will be the rankings.”
An ace on the par-3 17th hole at the famous island green. This time, it was Aaron Rai on Saturday during the third round of the Players Championship in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.
On Thursday, Hayden Buckley hit one. Rai did it in similar fashion, hitting his shot about 15 feet past the front left pin before it spun back and into the hole.
“Felt at a very good number with my gap wedge,” Rai said. “Hit it great, looked great in the air and very pleased to see it go in. That was an incredible moment.”
It’s the first time in Players history there has been two holes-in-one at the 17th hole in the same year. It’s the third one in the past two years, with Shane Lowry making one in a similar location during the third round last year.
On Saturday, the par-3 17th was playing 122 yards. Here’s a look at everyone who has hit a hole-in-one on the 17th in Players history.
2023: Hayden Buckley, 1st round; Aaron Rai, 3rd round 2022: Shane Lowry, 3rd round 2019: Ryan Moore, 1st round 2017: Sergio Garcia, 1st round 2016: Willy Wilcox, 2nd round 2002: Miguel Angel Jimenez, 1st round 2000: Paul Azinger, 3rd round 1999: Joey Sindelar, 1st round 1997: Fred Couples, final round 1991: Brian Claar, 3rd round
The ace put Rai to 6 under thru 17 holes. He also birdied the par-4 18th hole after a great approach shot to finish at 7-under 65 and 9 under for the tournament.
“It was a little bit of a blur,” Rai said. “I saw it go in, and then I looked to the left to almost see, is it real and I saw almost the crowd’s hands in the air.
“In the second after that, I looked to the right towards my caddie and he came running at me. So it happened very fast, but it feels very vivid now that I’m even talking about it and remembering some of those images. So I couldn’t quite believe that it happened, but very, very special. Very special. Something I’ll always remember.”
Buckley was the first in Players history to go ace-birdie on 17 and 18. Rai became the second, but he was the first to finish birdie-ace-birdie.
PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. – Everyone at Riviera Country Club is curious to see how Tiger Woods will play as he competes for the first time in an official PGA Tour event since July.
The course isn’t open to spectators for Wednesday’s pro-am at the Genesis Invitational but that didn’t stop a crowd from huddling around the elevated first tee at 6:30 a.m. PT to watch Tiger tee off. Among them: PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan.
Tiger still loves to be a dew sweeper, even on a cold, windy morning that meant bundling up in a black puffy jacket, a gaiter for his neck and a ski cap. Woods played 16 holes and then called it quits, walking with the amateurs in his group as they played the final two holes. As Rory McIlroy described the day, it was cold, windy and not much to learn.
Tiger Woods of the United States looks on during the pro-am prior to The Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club on February 15, 2023 in Pacific Palisades, California. (Photo by Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images)
But not if you were Aaron Rai, a 27-year-old Englishman preparing to make his second appearance in the Genesis Invitational. Best-known for wearing two gloves, Rai wasn’t in the pro-am Wednesday and figured the windy conditions wouldn’t make for a quality range session, so he slipped inside the ropes to study the player who helped inspire his love of the game at work.
“He’s been my idol since a very young age,” Rai said. “I have VHS copies of his U.S. Amateur wins and majors from the early 2000s. Me and my dad would watch them 3-4 days a week.”
Rai remembers attending a Tiger golf clinic in London in 2000 or 2001 with his father and the two of them driving to Scotland to watch Tiger play a practice round at the 2014 British Open at Muirfield. Since Rai turned pro, they’ve been in the same field twice: at the 2019 WGC Mexico Championship and last year at the British Open at St. Andrews. Rai said he played about an hour ahead of Woods in the second round and when he turned in his scorecard he circled back and watched Tiger play 17 and 18 and cross the Swilcan Bridge.
On this occasion, Rai took notes and observed how Tiger scouted a course and the shots he hit. Color him impressed.
“It’s just special to be able to see him and watch him and be inside the ropes and see him go about his business. You can see even now why he’s still the greatest of all time,” Rai said. “The shots that he plays, the way that he thinks, you can tell why he’s Tiger Woods.”
Aaron Rai watches Tiger Woods during a practice round at the 2023 Genesis Invitational. (Photo: Adam Schupak/Golfweek)
Rai also took note of how Tiger, who hasn’t played 72 holes in a tournament since the Masters, was getting around on his bum ankle.
“He’s moving great even when we were walking down No. 11, there were a couple of downhill walks and pretty severe uphill walks with rough terrain. While he was talking to others, he was breezing up those slopes,” Rai said.
It was just a pro-am round – take it with a grain of salt – but Tiger’s ball-striking brilliance was on display.
“A couple of the shots he’s played in this wind, you don’t see players hit them,” Rai said. “He hit a low burner drive on 11 and then way up in the air with a ton of spin on the par-3 14th and do it again downwind at the par-3 16th those are shots which not many players can play. To have that versatility at both end of the spectrums, he looks great.”
Arguably the highlight of the day for Rai happened on the 11th hole. He admitted he was too starstruck to approach Tiger – “I never would have had the courage to say hello,” Rai said – but word got to Rob McNamara, Tiger’s right-hand man, and he made the introduction to Tiger.
“It was very conversational,” Rai said. “He asked me what time I’m playing tomorrow. We spoke about Rory [McIlroy] and JT [Justin Thomas] and how they play a little bit together back home. He told me a little bit about himself and his garden at home with his short game area. Then he wished me all the best for the rest of the week. He made me feel very welcome.”
Rai smiled wide as he recalled their conversation, which was over before he knew it, but it was a chilly morning he’d never forget.
