Aaron Rai’s long, winding journey to his PGA Championship win at Aronimink started, as so many unlikely stories do, with his parents and sacrifices.
Rai’s parents immigrated to England from India and Kenya. His father, Amrik, was an amateur tennis player who gave up his own dream of playing professional tennis to put golf clubs in Aaron’s hands at the age of four. Rai’s mother, Dalvir, worked multiple jobs to help the family cover membership and tournament fees.
Amrik knew very little about golf but observed his son’s natural swing, set out to teach himself the mechanics of the game, and created an environment where Rai could grow at his own pace. When he was 7, Rai was gifted a set of Titleist 690 MB irons by his father. Amrik cleaned those irons with a pin and baby oil to prevent rust. When they weren’t being used, they were protected by iron covers, which Rai still uses to this day as a nod to his upbringing. Rai mostly practiced with his father growing up. He played on a customized course with his dad that grew in length as he did. He didn’t play off ladies’ tees until he was 12. He and his father were building toward something. That environment Amrik created made Aaron Rai comfortable being Aaron Rai, playing how he played and doing things his own way, believing they’d lead him to where he wanted to go.
“I think my dad played a really big role in that. For the most part, it was just the two of us who used to go onto the golf course and practice together, probably up until I was 13 or 14,” Rai said after winning the PGA. “So I think he was very much an advocate to really just stay in your lane, focus on the things that you can do. And 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, et cetera.
“I think by the time he probably allowed me to play more kind of club golf, play professional golf, I felt like I was strong enough in why I did certain things to be able to continue to move that forward. I knew the reasons why I do them. I believe in the reasons why I do them.”
Rai’s PGA Championship win resonated because he’s different. In a sheltered world of privilege, Aaron Rai ascended the professional golf ladder with humility, grace, and kindness. As players left Aronimink after Rai had blown past them, they were all thrilled that Rai was the one who had bested them — that one of the best people on the PGA Tour now had a career prize.
“You won’t find one person on the property who’s not happy for him,” Rory McIlroy said.
What has endeared Aaron Rai to his peers, those who work at the PGA Tour and now golf fans at large, was imprinted on him by his parents at a very young age. The humbling nature of golf has only reinforced what Rai has long believed: That being a good person is more important than putting the ball in the cup.
“I think a lot of that has come from upbringing, my mom, my dad, my siblings,” Rai said. “Golf in itself is an extremely humbling game. There’s so much hard work and discipline that goes into acquiring the skills to become better, but you also realize that nothing is ever given in this game at any point, whether it’s a tournament, whether it’s a practice round, whether it’s even away from a tournament week. All of these things have to be done diligently and require focus.
“It’s very humbling as well. So I think you put all of that together, the game requires the focus and attention, but the humility just goes hand in hand with the game and my upbringing as well.”
Rai’s road to becoming one of the biggest longshot major winners in recent memory started with his working-class parents in Wolverhampton. His dad walked many miles of that journey alongside, believing a moment like the one that unfolded outside Philadelphia would come.
But as it turns out, his father missed his winning moment. Amrik loves to travel around the U.K. in his camper and had fallen asleep before Rai had finished running away from the best players in the world.
“He was actually asleep,” Rai said on “5 Clubs.” “He’s got a camper van and he loves being out in that and traveling around the U.K. in his camper van. Also, with the time difference that was there, he had actually fallen asleep for the last hour, hour and a half of that round. So when I got back into the clubhouse after finishing, I tried calling him. But it didn’t go through, and I figured he was asleep.
“I just left him a voicemail to just say thank you more than anything else.”
As Aaron Rai basked in the glow of his major championship victory, he was asked to reflect on the sacrifices his parents made to get him to that point, and on the working-class upbringing that helped shape a different kind of major champion.
He started to become emotional as he thought about how his parents had boosted him up on their shoulders, as all good parents do for their children.
“It’s probably hard for me to really express everything that I feel towards them. I think I’ll get way too emotional to speak,” Rai said. “Starting with my dad, he was with me every day that I went to practice from the age of 4, 5 years old. He actually quit his job and started to focus on my golf from a really young age. I used to read a lot about golf. He used to obviously be really active in everything he did with me around the game. My mom has been absolutely incredible as well. She works extremely long hours to just provide for the house really, especially with my dad also not working as much.
“Obviously, I would love to share this with them. It would be amazing if they were here. I can’t put into words how much they’ve done in terms of the support, in terms of the care, in terms of love. Again, I wouldn’t be here without them at all.”
Later in the evening, with his champion’s duties finished, Rai tried his father again. This time, he answered.