Aaron Rai is two shots behind leader Alex Smalley heading into Sunday at the 2026 PGA Championship at Aronimink Golf Club. The 31-year-old from Wolverhampton, England turned professional in 2012 and has quietly assembled one of the stronger major championship records among players outside the top tier of the world rankings.<\/p>\n
Aaron Rai: Fast FactsFull Name: Aaron RaiBorn: March 3, 1995 (Age 31)Hometown: Wolverhampton, EnglandResidence: Wolverhampton, EnglandTurned Professional: 2012Background<\/p>\n
Rai is a product of the DP World Tour, where he won multiple times before establishing himself as a regular on the PGA TOUR. He did not play college golf and turned professional at 17.<\/p>\n
PGA Championship History<\/p>\n
Rai has made two cuts in three PGA Championship starts, with a consistent upward trajectory in his results.<\/p>\n
YearCourseFinishScore2021Kiawah IslandMC81-75 (+12)2024Valhalla GCT-3968-68-70-71 (-7)2025Quail Hollow ClubT-1967-72-74-69 (-2)<\/p>\n
Career PGA Championship Earnings: $263,490
Cuts Made: 2 of 3
Best Finish: T-19 (2025, Quail Hollow)
Lowest Round: 67 (Round 1, 2025, Quail Hollow)<\/p>\n
His 2025 Quail Hollow performance is worth noting \u2014 he opened with a 67, ranking 4th in the field after Round 1, and ranked 3rd in approach play for the week. He finished T-19, his best PGA Championship result to date.<\/p>\n
Major Championship R\u00e9sum\u00e9<\/p>\n
Rai has made 12 major starts with nine cuts made \u2014 a strong rate of conversion. His best major finish of T-19 has been achieved three times across three different majors.<\/p>\n
YearMajorResult2024PGA Championship (Valhalla)T-392024U.S. Open (Pinehurst)T-192024The Open (Royal Troon)T-752025Masters TournamentT-272025PGA Championship (Quail Hollow)T-192025U.S. Open (Oakmont)T-332025The Open (Royal Portrush)T-342026Masters Tournament48th<\/p>\n
His approach play has been a consistent strength across major starts \u2014 ranking 3rd at the 2025 PGA Championship, 5th at the 2025 Open Championship, and inside the top 25 at multiple other majors.<\/p>\n
2026 Season<\/p>\n
Rai’s most significant result entering Aronimink came the week prior \u2014 a 5th place finish at the Myrtle Beach Classic, where he posted rounds of 65-67-66-71 (-15) and ranked 4th around the greens for the week.<\/p>\n
TournamentResultSony Open in HawaiiT-50AT&T Pebble BeachT-73The Genesis Invitational (Riviera)T-28Cognizant ClassicT-23Masters Tournament48thZurich ClassicT-24Myrtle Beach Classic5th<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aaron Rai is two shots behind leader Alex Smalley heading into Sunday at the 2026 PGA Championship at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445567,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-445566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}