{"id":590190,"date":"2026-05-18T07:45:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T07:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/590190\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T07:45:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T07:45:14","slug":"aaron-rais-wife-reveals-unseen-moment-she-knew-hed-win-pga-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/590190\/","title":{"rendered":"Aaron Rai’s wife reveals unseen moment she knew he’d win PGA Championship"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019ll do it justice,\u201d Guarika, one of India\u2019s top women\u2019s players<\/a>, tells TG of Rai\u2019s stunning final round 65 to claim his maiden major.\u00a0\u201cHe\u2019s one of the hardest working guys out there\u00a0and the way he conducts himself doesn\u2019t change.\u00a0Whether he wins or he misses the cut,\u00a0he\u2019s still going to go out and do exactly the same thing.\u00a0For him, the game is bigger than any trophy. We always believe that he has the game\u00a0and more than that, that he has the work ethic of a champion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Around two hours after his final putt dropped, Rai finally entered the interview room with the Wanamaker and tried to articulate his achievement as well as Guarika just had.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of incredible and historic English players over those hundred years who have gone on to achieve incredible things and had phenomenal careers,\u201d he told TG. \u201cBut to win this event and then to be the person that\u2019s the first one to have won it in a long time from England is an amazing thing and something to be extremely proud of.\u201d <\/p>\n

Rai\u2019s unique backstory has been well told. He has covers on his irons, an ode to his father<\/a> Amrit who taught him the value of what he was bought in his modest youth. He wears two gloves because he grew used to the grip digging into the dirt during the harsh winters in the English Midlands. He uses castle tees and a six-year old driver. Rai has never been afraid to do things his own way. He\u2019s also proof that relentlessly hard work pays. As a 15-year-old, Rai nailed 207 10-foot putts in a row over a 90 minute period, breaking a Guinness World Record. That repetition has become ingrained and he had his infallible technique to lean on as he battled from a stuttering start to storm to the finish line.<\/p>\n

In an era of entourages and clingers-on, Rai does not have an agent. The lone wolf from Wolverhampton has always plowed his own furrow, quietly climbing from the depths of the EuroPro Tour to these major stages, one diligent practice session at a time. He has never felt a need to give a public opinion on an ugly civil war that has divided so many of his peers, either.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven the labels that you see on him, it\u2019s not a gimmick,\u201d Guarika explains.\u00a0\u201cThese are people who\u2019ve been with Aaron since he was pretty much 10. His sponsors, they\u2019ve been supporting him since Aaron was a very small kid.\u00a0Me and My Golf<\/a>, they\u2019ve known Aaron since he was nine.\u00a0Everything on Aaron is years and years of hard work by all those guys as well. He has changed no one from the team.\u00a0It\u2019s been a massive, massive team effort by everybody for us to be stood here where we are.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Aaron<\/p>\n

Until now, there hadn\u2019t been many fireworks in Rai\u2019s career. He is certainly no huge underdog, arriving here a winner on both the PGA and DP World Tours and inside the world\u2019s top 50. But now Rai has entered a different stratosphere. He started slowly, but an eagle on the ninth sparked him into life and that magical run on the back nine, as Rai made birdies on 11, 13 and 15 before delivering the coup de gr\u00e2ce from 68 feet on the 17th, is what his legacy will now be built upon.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat putt on 17 was incredible,\u201d Rai beamed. \u201cI was just trying to focus on speed and get it close. It started to look really good line-wise with probably about 15 feet to go. It conspired all together for that ball to go in the hole. But an incredible putt and a real bonus to see that one go in.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mother of all understatements, and Gaurika was in awe of what she was watching.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way he was carrying himself and the way he was so calm and composed after the first 8 holes when things were exactly not really tipping towards his way, that was enough win for me,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause when I see a professional golfer who\u2019s able to do something like that in such a high-intensity situation, I know he can do it again. Even if we wouldn\u2019t have lifted the trophy today, I knew that he\u2019s ready to lift it very soon. That for me was a very, very important step towards him cracking what it takes to win a major.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s four days of really good golf\u00a0on a really, really tough course to even lift a trophy like that. It doesn\u2019t sink in.\u00a0As a golfer myself, seeing the four majors and everything that it means for people,\u00a0I appreciate it, and I\u2019m so grateful to everybody, to the God as well,\u00a0to think that we\u2019re worthy of this. Because I think without his blessings, it\u2019s all a bit incomplete.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rai\u2019s press conference took an emotional turn when he was asked about Guarika\u2019s influence in his life. The couple practise together at TPC Sawgrass near their home in Jacksonville, but their relationship means so much more than that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not exaggerating when I say that I wouldn\u2019t be here without her,\u201d he said. \u201cBoth as a companion, as a friend, as someone I\u2019m sharing my life with, but also as a real support system for my game. She\u2019s a professional golfer herself so her mindset, her advice, her thoughts, whether it\u2019s technique or the way I\u2019m holding myself is absolutely invaluable. She encompasses so many different sides in her opinions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe even had a conversation yesterday for 30 minutes in the car just before we got back to the hotel, just speaking a little bit about today. Some of the things that she mentioned in the conversations were really with me today. I really wouldn\u2019t be here without her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Twenty-two players began within four shots of the lead on this chaotic Sunday and the logjam didn\u2019t clear before the back nine. Rai began two back from Alex Smalley and as the greens crisped up into the late afternoon, birdies were gold dust. It was not so much a cavalry charge but a struggle to hold on. At times it was a disorientating watch as the lead continued to flip before Rai broke free from the pack.<\/p>\n

Justin Thomas was for a long while interested in the clubhouse after his rousing 65. Cameron Smith has finally recovered his splendour but treated the fairways like lava\u00a0when the chance arose and fell just short. Jon Rahm began like a freight train and did not do much wrong, only succumbing to Rai\u2019s brilliance. Rory McIlroy found four fairways. It was then a big ask for the unheralded final group of Smalley and German Matti Schmid, who had no answers as Rai romped three clear at the finishing line.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnybody that wears or uses head covers on his irons because he coveted his irons when he was a kid so much that he wanted to respect the equipment so much, and to still do it? It shows a lot about a person,\u201d a beaten but classy Rahm said afterwards, perfectly encapsulating the feeling here around Rai.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat he did today was nothing short of special.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019ll do it justice,\u201d Guarika, one of India\u2019s top women\u2019s players, tells TG of Rai\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":590191,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-590190","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\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/590191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}