Behind Rahm and Smalley, there was a three-way tie on five under between American two-time champion Justin Thomas, Swedish Ryder Cup star Ludvig Aberg and little-known German Matthias Schmid.<\/p>\n
Former world number one Thomas had posted the early target after a five-under 65, then sat back in the clubhouse to watch and wait patiently – while hoping for a “little bit of help” to win.<\/p>\n
The wind did not whip up as Thomas hoped. Yet, with the severely-sloped greens playing firm in the Pennsylvanian sun, and the thick rough continuing to be penal, scoring opportunities remained at a premium.<\/p>\n
For almost everyone other than Rai. <\/p>\n
All week long it felt like a strategic thinker would be the one to prevail and Rai, known on tour for his diligence, carefully plotted his way to victory.<\/p>\n
Keeping his ball on the fairway from the tee – he was fourth best for the week – proved to be an effective tactic which others did not find as simple.<\/p>\n
Once Rai moved clear of the pack on seven under – thanks to birdies on the 11th and 13th – it looked like a score which would not be caught.<\/p>\n
In what was now by far the biggest moment of his career, an emotionless Rai stayed in the zone. The experience of beating a strong field at the DP World Tour’s Abu Dhabi Championship in November was perhaps something he was able to draw on.<\/p>\n
Another tap-in birdie on the par-five 16th put more daylight between him and the pack, before a putt from the other end of the measuring stick put victory within touching distance.<\/p>\n
Rai somehow negotiated an impossible-looking putt to move three shots clear of his rivals. Only then did he show a flicker of emotion. <\/p>\n
But the gentle fist pump as the fans around him went wild was telling and perfectly encapsulated how Rai has become a major champion – by keeping calm in the eye of the storm.<\/p>\n
“I definitely wasn’t trying to hole that putt,” Rai smiled as he clutched the Wanamaker Trophy. <\/p>\n
“The shadow of the pin gave a really nice line for the last 10 feet so that helped with the visual.<\/p>\n
“It just tracked really well – it was amazing to see it go in.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Behind Rahm and Smalley, there was a three-way tie on five under between American two-time champion Justin Thomas,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454228,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-454227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}