Bridge to Realization 🤔
Aaron Rai had a 1.9% chance of winning the PGA Championship when he made the turn on Sunday. Everyone knows I love competitive chaos, and Aronimink achieved it. Congratulations to Rai and his entourage, the PGA of America, and the MVPs of last week, the members of Aronimink Golf Club. Excluding Augusta National, I cannot think of another instance where a club membership spent years preparing to host a professional tournament. AGC planned for the best the men’s game had to offer and came out on top. One can only hope that future clubs take notice, work with their governing association, and continue to create similar events. Those tournaments don’t all have to be single-digit winners, but the members made the greater golf world covet their club, and that has to be a blueprint going forward.
Aaron Rai was ranked 34th in the Golf Digest Power Rankings. Approximately +27500 (275-1) to win, he is one of three major championship winners who played their final 10 holes in 6 under par (or better). The first non-American to win the PGA Championship in 10 years (Jason Day, 2015), and the first European since 2014 (Rory McIlroy). Not since The Masters started (1934) have two Europeans won the season’s first two major championships. It’s like we cannot wake up from a Bethpage nightmare. With scores of 70-69-67-65, Rai became the first Wannamaker winner to improve his score in each round. Aaron came close, but no player in the field fired four rounds in the 60s. Another testament to Aronimink and Kerry Haigh’s team, the 108th PGA Championship was proof that playing GOLF is why we all love this game. Leave it to a guy with two gloves and iron covers to save the PGA.
Speaking of iron covers, the PGA TOUR moves on to the CJ CUP Byron Nelson. Boy, that just rolls off the tongue. Four of the top 50 players in the OWGR are heading to Dallas to compete for $10.3 million. A field of 147 players will be cut to the top 65 and ties after 36 holes. The winner? They will receive all of the usual TOUR perks along with a check for $1.854 million.
