You know how (to cite one famous example) John \u201cWild Thing\u201d Daly, the 1991 PGA champ, will rent out any part of his golf outfits in the name of commerce? Aaron Rai, golf\u2019s Mild Thing, doesn\u2019t do that. Every day is opposite day in Raiworld. And we like it!<\/p>\n
Consider the swirling logo and four stenciled words \u2014 Me and My Golf \u2014 above the brim of his baseball cap.\u00a0You see it again on the all-important right chest of Rai\u2019s shirt as well. (The right chest, for a righty golfer, gets more airtime than the left, at least upon the swing\u2019s finish.) Those are two prime bits of real estate. J.D. will tell you that. So will J.T., as in Justin Thomas<\/a>, two-time PGA Championship winner.\u00a0Any\u00a0touring pro with an agent will tell you that. Except for Aaron Rai. Those spaces are not for rent. They are a gift he gives to his two main teachers.<\/p>\n That is, the two guys behind Me and My Golf, Andy Proudman and Piers Ward, a pair of unpretentious English blokes\/teaching pros who have been with Rai pretty much all of his golfing life.<\/p>\n getty images <\/p>\n \u201cI almost feel disrespectful, calling them just \u2018my coaches,\u2019\u201d Rai, 31, said at the winner\u2019s press conference at the PGA Championship<\/a> earlier this month. \u201cThey\u2019ve been so much more to me than that, from a young age, as a teenager, on this journey as a professional golfer. They\u2019ve been my mentors, my big brothers. They\u2019ve almost been like family to me.\u201d<\/p>\n Proudman and Ward, who had been with Rai earlier in the week at Aronimink, were honored, but not surprised, when they heard that tribute.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s a very generous guy,\u201d Proudman said in a phone interview the other day.<\/p>\n Ward added, \u201cYou can see the values he grew up with in everything he does.\u201d<\/p>\n You could say Rai\u2019s Sunday-night comments about his two teachers were right on brand, except that brand is not a word you readily associate with Rai. He\u2019s not looking to get paid to use this product or that one. He\u2019s not really looking for product at all. His thing is tried-and-true and getting better all the time.<\/p>\n Rai\u2019s black gloves, for his left hand and his right, are not made by FootJoy or G-Fore or any other golfy company. They are a product of a small English manufacturer called MacWet Limited, makers of all-weather gloves for sailors, hunters and the horsey set. If you zoom in on Rai\u2019s golf glove you can see the company\u2019s unfamiliar logo. The chances of it registering with you are close to zero, unless you are a sailor or hunter or member in good standing of the horsey set.<\/p>\n Proudman and Ward remember when Rai first started wearing them, as a kid golfer beating balls through the dank, wet English winter. He was already a golfer doing his own thing, a smart young man who would have been university-bound, except his dream and plan was always to play professional golf.<\/p>\n \u201cBy 17, he was ready,\u201d Ward said. Not ready to take on the world, but ready to start playing tournament golf for prizemoney, traveling across the United Kingdom as a teenager, often with his father as his chaperone. In terms of his mindset, the teachers said, Rai was a pro as a 12-year-old, but not a copy-cat, mini-me pro. To this day, you can see junior golfers who in appearance and mannerism look like 10-year-old Rickie Fowlers.<\/p>\n Rai, per his two teachers, was a young and analytical player who figured things out for himself, with the help of his two teachers and his father. He learned from his divots and the flight of his ball (as old school as you can get) and from the biometric skin stickers on his body.<\/p>\n Proudman started working with Rai when he was about 4 years old. Ward came into the picture a few years later. They met him at the 3 Hammers Golf Complex in England, a Birmingham-area public driving range with a short course where Proudman and Ward worked. It was there the two teachers developed their holistic approach (mind and body) to teaching that is at the core Me and My Golf, the instruction business they own and operate today.<\/p>\n \u201cWith the driver, Aaron\u2019s thing was always in play over distance,\u201d Proudman said. \u201cWe had a 70-yard hole, and he was driving the green at [age] 5 and 6. He has always been comfortable hitting driver into really small targets.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"aron](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/meandmy.jpg\")
\n Piers Ward, left, and Andy Proudman with their star pupil at the 2025 Players Championship. <\/p>\n