Englishman Aaron Rai carded a 2-under-par 70 today, bringing him to 6-under for the tournament at the BMW PGA Championship.
Having opened with a 4-under-par 68 on day one, Rai climbed the leaderboard to 8-under through 16 in the second round before dropping shots at the 17th and 18th.
Despite the disappointing finish, Rai feels the opening two rounds have been a positive start to the tournament.
“There was a lot of good play overall. Again, tricky conditions, it was pretty windy for the most part, and tricky with the delay as well, so all in all, a good round. It definitely feels worse at the moment with finishing bogey-bogey there on 17-18, but yeah, good day and a good two days overall.”
For Rai — who is now based in the States — returning to play on home soil is a special occasion, and with a tied 2nd finish last year, has multiple fond memories at Wentworth.
“It’s amazing, this would have been a tournament I would have grown up coming to watch in person and watching on TV, so it’s amazing to be able to compete here. There are not too many events which are in England anymore, so anytime I’m playing on home soil, it’s a great feeling.”
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Having worked his way through the EuroPro Tour (now Clutch Tour), Challenge Tour and DP World Tour, the double-gloved golfer has enjoyed success on the PGA Tour. As always the transition to the PGA Tour from the DP World Tour isn’t an easy one, and there aren’t too many golfers who hit the ground running. But, from 2021 onwards, the progress of Aaron Rai has only been upwards.
After grinding his way through 88 events, the man from Wolverhampton secured his first-ever PGA Tour victory at the Wyndham Championship.
“It’s extremely special, I think to win on any tour is, you have to play some really, really good golf, but to win on the PGA Tour is truly a dream come true.
I think, for me, probably what’s significant this year is the consistency, it’s amazing to have won, but there have been a lot of top 10s, a lot of top 20s, and that’s really positive moving forward. Having that win at the Wyndham is great, but I think that level of consistency has been just as rewarding for me as the victory.”
Rai credited a big part of his win in Greensboro to the work he did with putting coach John Graham, and since his maiden victory, has grown in confidence on the greens.
“A lot of it was more read-based, and simplifying the stroke, going back to some old feels — I think those two things together just made the putting feel simpler. It felt a little bit clearer with reading the putts as well, and making better decisions, which just helped make the hole a little bit bigger.”
Rai currently sits seven shots of the lead at Wentworth but with new-found success and a home crowd rallying behind him, the script is far from written.
