In May, Aaron Rai achieved something no Englishman had achieved in more than a century – winning the US PGA Championship.<\/p>\n
While the 31-year-old made history in America and has lived in Jacksonville, Florida, for three years, Rai said the place that shaped his game was his home city of Wolverhampton.<\/p>\n
Speaking to BBC Radio WM, Rai said his earliest golfing memory was playing in his first junior tournament at the 3 Hammers Golf Complex in Wolverhampton, where he remembers telling his dad “wow, this is what you call hard” when faced with a large tree on one of the holes.<\/p>\n
Rai’s coach still refers to 3 Hammers as Rai’s happy place, with the golfer saying he has many memories of playing at the course.<\/p>\n
However, it is the array of courses in and around the city that Rai credits with his skill.<\/p>\n
“Golf was a really big part of my life since the age of five or six, so a lot of my childhood memories revolve around the game,” he told the BBC.<\/p>\n
“Wolverhampton was and is such a great place to golf – so many different styles of courses – so the variety of golf within pretty close proximity definitely helped shape my game.”<\/p>\n
Rai also credits his high school, Wolverhampton Grammar School, as being very flexible when it came to him practicing.<\/p>\n
“Golf was always something I wanted to make a career out of one day,” he said.<\/p>\n