Get the Signature Scroll – and the rest of PGA TOUR's newsletters, including The Connect, Wire to Wire and The Early Card – directly in your inbox. Subscribe today!

That was a fitting Sunday for a wild week. Let’s talk about it ...

Rai's life-changing day

NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. – Aaron Rai paced over the putt that no longer needed to drop. The 13-foot birdie at the 18th would’ve been nice to have for posterity, but the tournament was already won with a trio of miraculous shots at the 13th, 16th and 17th, each setting up momentous birdies that seemingly outdid the last. This was just a bonus.

As I watched Rai from greenside finish his preparations with the same intensity he did for the previous 63 strokes he made on Sunday, a thought popped into my head.

After these putts, Rai will forever be known as a major champion.

For the longest time, he was known much differently to me … as a gym buddy.

Well, buddy might be a strong term, but both Rai and I go to the same gym in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. Rai is there often, almost always late at night and accompanied by his father. And on the few occasions where I’m in the mood for a late-night workout, I always seem to run into him. He would be there before me and remain long after I was gone, throwing medicine balls against the wall or doing box jumps. Because of that, I always thought of him as a hard worker.

I viewed him as someone who would do anything he could to max out his potential. And, to be kind, I thought he had, by winning a TOUR event and becoming a mainstay in pro golf.

But a major champion? I would not have gone that far.

That’s the beauty of days like Sunday, when four times a year, there’s a moment that changes how someone is remembered. We’ve grown accustomed to that being limited to the superstars. They’ve been great moments, too. Rory McIlroy's Grand Slam. Scottie Scheffler's domination. Majors are mostly won by those types of guys. The unexpected is happening less. Good but not insanely great players like Rai aren’t winning majors at the clip they used to.

Yet sometimes they do, and they make a heck of a story. This PGA Championship seemed destined to follow the path we are used to. Rai had to fend off Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler, Justin Thomas, Jon Rahm and Xander Schauffele. He did it with insane shots that we will remember for a long time. The bunker shot at the 13th that set up a birdie and a two-shot lead was exquisite. Rai’s majestic second shot on the par-5 16th assured another birdie and more breathing room. The winding, 68-foot birdie that dropped on the 17th will come to define this victory in perpetuity.

And we will all forever think of Rai differently. That’s pretty cool.

Playing through

• 📓 As we've done all week, we broke down the final round blow-by-blow in our Round 4 notebook. Feel free to relive the fun here ...
• 📺 It was a busy week just outside Philly, both at the top of the leaderboard and below it. Here are five things I'll be taking from a wild week at Aronimink ...
• 🧤🧤 You've probably heard by now, but here's the origin behind Aaron Rai's double gloves and iron covers ...
• 💰 Aaron Rai took home $3.69 million, the largest PGA Championship purse ever. See what the rest of the field earned here ...

McIlroy falls short

It was a very uncharacteristic final round for Rory McIlroy, who had plenty of chances to win this PGA Championship but ultimately came up well short. He shot 1-under on Sunday and finished five shots back of Rai. Why didn’t McIlroy get it done? He failed to execute in many of the areas he typically dominates.

McIlroy played the par 5s in even par this week, including a pair of back-breaking pars on Sunday. That’s unheard of. The par on nine was particularly brutal on Sunday. With the leaders wavering and the opportunity to pull within one shot, McIlroy made a mess after being greenside in two. His putt from off the green ran way by, and he couldn’t convert the comebacker.

He also struggled all week to hit fairways. Aronimink’s severe slopes required players to attack with precision, but that’s mighty difficult while playing from the rough. McIlroy hit just four fairways on Sunday. He ranked 75th of 82 players in fairways hit. Rai was fourth.

McIlroy will be kicking himself because of this result for a while. The chance to win major No. 7 was there for the taking, as was the first two legs of the major season slam. When he didn’t grab hold of it, Rai did.

Parting shots

• 😖 Scottie Scheffler snapped a streak of seven consecutive top 10s in majors, an incredible stretch that should have continued. That it didn’t is a direct result of poor putting. Scheffler lost more than five strokes on the greens over the final three days. It felt very much like watching the 2023 version of Scheffler, who consistently lost because of his putting woes. He’s since developed into one of the top putters on TOUR. So for now, this is just an aberration. But the aberration kept him from contending, and potentially, winning this major.
• 🎉 A very notable result for Justin Thomas. It’s his first time truly contending at a major since he won the PGA Championship in 2022, and it’s also his best result post-surgery. We quickly forget that Thomas had significant back surgery within the last seven months. His results since returning had been poor. Good to see this from him.
• 👍 The last man at the short game area on Sunday was Alex Smalley. I was watching nearby, with no more than a dozen people. It struck me as quite serene. He said earlier this week that he struggled playing with crowds. At the time, it was clear this was his last peaceful moment for hours. It didn’t go his way, but he continued to battle down the stretch. I left bullish on Smalley’s future.
• ❌ Another year, another failed attempt at the Grand Slam for Jordan Spieth. He wasn’t particularly close this year, though it is his best result since 2019. Progress?
• 😵‍💫 Ludvig Åberg should be kicking himself for this result. He finished T4, but he was better than that, missing several crucial putts in pivotal moments this week.