At 4 p.m. on Sunday, Aaron Rai had just bogeyed two of three holes. He was three shots back and fading. The crowd had already moved on. Eighty-seven minutes later, at 5:27, he was standing on the 18th green, a major champion, in tears, holding the person who had been there through all of it: his beautiful wife Gaurika Bishnoi.

As he holed the 18th to save par, Rai ran straight to his wife and held on. Honestly, the moment said more than any scoreboard could. They shared a kiss, and Rai just didn’t want let go of her embrace, and rightfully so. He had just won his first major, and to have the love of his life there made it extra special.

The couple met through their shared connection at the DLF Golf and Country Club in India and married in July 2025 at Hedsor House near London. Bishnoi, India’s top-ranked female golfer in 2017 and 2019, has eight wins on the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour and now competes on the Ladies European Tour. She caddied for him at both the 2025 and 2026 Par-3 Contests at Augusta, and Rai won the 2026 edition, going six under with Bishnoi on the bag.

After his Abu Dhabi win in November, Rai said, “It’s hard for me to really sum up how much of an effect she’s had on me as a person, and also that actually feeds into my golf. It’s just a peaceful thing to be able to share different parts of our lives with one another.”

With this win, Rai has become the first player from England to win the PGA Championship in 107 years. The last was Jim Barnes in 1919. Justin Rose’s caddie Fooch was the first to congratulate him on the green.

He now gets a lifetime exemption to the PGA Championship and a 5-year exemption to the other three majors and the PGA Tour. He will also take home a replica of the shiny silver Wanamaker trophy and a Champions Money Clip. He has also earned $3,690,000 from his win.

Rai shot 34 on the front nine. Around 4 PM, he had bogeyed the 6th and 8th, but then he made a 40-foot eagle putt on the par-5 ninth that put him back into the game. His 31 on the back nine was spectacular. His crucial birdie putt of some 70 feet on the 17th was the longest putt of the week and helped him seal the victory. He hit 10/14 fairways and made 12/18 greens.

What makes it harder to believe is where Rai stood heading in. He entered ranked 117th on tour in putting, and his form had been so poor in 2026 that he no longer qualified for signature events. A fifth-place finish at the alternate-field Myrtle Beach Classic the week before gave him some footing.

Not everyone might know Rai, but his peers appreciate him for his humility and gracious personality and were happy for his first major win.

“You won’t find one person on property who’s not happy for him,” Rory McIlroy said.

“Super pumped for him and his team,” Xander Schauffele said. “An all-world gentleman, no doubt.”

Interestingly, from plastic clubs in a working-class home to the Wanamaker Trophy, Rai’s story was never straightforward.

Aaron Rai’s path to Aronimink was built on graft, not glamour

Aaron Rai’s father Amrik noticed his son’s tennis swing looked more like a golf stroke, so he handed him plastic clubs. Rai played his first tournament at age 4, in a 12-and-under group. He won the net division. By the end of that day, he already knew what he wanted to do with his life.

The family was working-class. His mother, Dalvir, had immigrated to England from Kenya as a teenager. His father, a community worker, learned the golf swing from books. When Rai’s clubs got muddy after practice, his dad used a pin to clean every groove and then rubbed baby oil on the face to stop rust. The iron covers came from that same care.

He turned pro at 17, missed his first four cuts on the EuroPro Tour, and lost his card two years running. In 2017, he won a Challenge Tour event in Kenya, and his mother, who had left the country as a 14-year-old, walked onto the 18th green with him. He has called it the most memorable moment of his career.

He eventually won the 2020 Scottish Open in a playoff against Tommy Fleetwood. He earned his PGA Tour card through the Korn Ferry Finals, and picked up his first Tour win at the 2024 Wyndham Championship. None of it came easy or fast. Sunday at Aronimink was simply where the long road ended.