Aaron Rai becomes first English golfer to win US PGA Championship since 1919

At Aronimink, the final day began with 21 players within four shots of the lead, including eight major winners, all believing they could win the Wanamaker Trophy. The field featured multiple champions such as Rory McIlroy, Cam Smith, Justin Thomas, and Jon Rahm, with many other contenders clustered down the leaderboard. Aaron Rai, 31, produced a standout five-under-par 65 to win, breaking a 107-year stretch without an English PGA Champion since 1919. The course proved ferociously difficult, and top players had complained about the setup earlier in the week. Opportunities remained for many players, including Kurt Kitayama, whose early Sunday 63 with seven birdies vaulted him into the top 10.

"At the start of the last day, there were 21 players within four shots of the lead, and eight major winners among them, every one of them sure that they had a shot at winning the Wanamaker Trophy. There was the six-time major champion Rory McIlroy, the 2022 Open champion, Cam Smith, the 2017 and 2022 PGA champion, Justin Thomas, the 2021 US Open and 2023 Masters champion, Jon Rahm, and on, and on, and on, all the way down the leaderboard, past Hideki Matsuyama, Justin Rose, Xander Schauffele, Patrick Reed and plenty of other contenders too."

"And somehow, when it was all over, the winner was England's Aaron Rai, who played the round of his life, a five-under-par 65. Rai, 31, was born and raised in Wolverhampton by a Kenyan mother and an Indian father. It had been 107 years since an Englishman last won the PGA Championship. That was Big Jim Barnes way back in 1919. Rai has broken one of the longest waits in major golf, and the last four days the last four hours were the most excruciatingly tense of the lot."

"It has been a week of high-wire golf on a ferociously difficult course, one which left McIlroy and Scheffler, the two best players of their generation, complaining about the set-up earlier in the week. But like McIlroy said on Saturday night, hard as it was, it made for a helluva entertaining day on Sunday. In the morning, there was hardly a player in the top 50 who didn't think he had a chance."

"And when Kurt Kitayama, four-over after three days and tied for 64th, went out early on Sunday morning and scored a 63 to rocket into the top 10, they knew there were plenty of opportunities out there for anyone good enough to take them. Kitayama's round included seven birdies, and equalled the lowest ever scored on a Sunday at a major."

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