English golfer Aaron Rai at the 2026 PGA Championship.
Photo: MICHAEL REAVES / AFP
Aaron Rai secured the biggest win of his career with a three-shot PGA Championship victory over Jon Rahm and Alex Smalley on Sunday to become the first Englishman to win the tournament in the stroke play era.
Rai separated himself from a packed leaderboard with four back-nine birdies, including a 68-footer at the par-three 17th that delivered the knockout blow, en route to a five-under-par 65 that left him at nine under on the week.
With the win, Rai becomes the first Englishman to win the PGA Championship since it transitioned to stroke play in 1958 and the first since Jim Barnes in 1919.
When Rai’s final putt dropped there were still two pairings on the course, and while his name was already being engraved on the Wanamaker Trophy he did not break into the type of final-hole celebration typical of a major champion.
“Very surreal,” Rai, the first player in PGA Championship history to lower his score in each round, said after being presented with the trophy on the 18th green. “It’s been a bit of a frustrating season so to be standing here is definitely outside of my wildest imagination.”
Daniell Hillier finished even par in a tie for 26th, while fellow New Zealand Ryan Fox was a further shot back.
The triumph by Rai, which comes a month after Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy retained his Masters title, marks the first time in the era of the four current major championships that the season’s first two majors have been won by Europeans.
The Wolverhampton-born Rai, who went out in the third-to-last pairing and two shots behind overnight leader Smalley, was one over through eight holes after mixing three bogeys with two birdies before kickstarting his round at the par-five ninth where he drained a monster 40-foot eagle putt.
Two holes later, Rai made birdie after stuffing his approach shot to four feet to grab a share of the lead with Matti Schmid. He had the outright lead shortly after when Schmid, playing in the final pairing, bogeyed the 10th.
Rai, with a slew of players breathing down his neck, then became the first player to reach seven under on the week with a birdie at the par-four 13th where he made a sensational up-and-down from a greenside bunker to move two clear.
After Schmid got back to within one of Rai, the Englishman birdied the par-five 16th to put one hand on the Wanamaker Trophy and then sealed the biggest win of his career with his mammoth putt at 17.
LIV Golf’s Rahm (68) could not manage more than a birdie over the back nine while Smalley (70), who started the day with a two-shot lead, eagled the 16th and earned his career-best finish at a major.
Twice champion Justin Thomas, who teed off nearly four hours before the final pairing, started the day six shots off the lead but carded a five-under-par 65 that left him in a three-way share of fourth place with Ludvig Aberg (69) and Schmid (69).
McIlroy (69), who was within two strokes of the leaders early on his back nine before falling back, was a further shot adrift in seventh place with Xander Schauffele (69) and LIV Golf’s Cameron Smith (68).
Kurt Kitayama went out with the early starters and fired a sizzling 63 that tied the major championship record for lowest final-round score.
Defending champion and world number one Scottie Scheffler, who started the day five shots off the pace, closed with a 69 to finish in a share of 14th.
The day began with a tournament-record 22 players within four shots of the lead entering the final round.
– Reuters, with additional reporting from RNZ