Aaron Rai

Aaron Rai (born 3 March 1995) is an English professional golfer currently playing on the European Tour. He has won twice on the tour; the 2018 Honma Hong Kong Open and the 2020 Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open. He is one of the few professional golfers to wear two gloves.[2]

Aaron Rai
Personal information
Born (1995-03-03) 3 March 1995
Wolverhampton, England
Height5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Weight151 lb (68 kg; 10.8 st)
Nationality England
ResidenceWolverhampton, England
Career
Turned professional2012
Current tour(s)European Tour
Former tour(s)Challenge Tour
Professional wins6
Highest ranking74 (24 January 2021)[1]
(as of 31 January 2021)
Number of wins by tour
European Tour2
Asian Tour1
Challenge Tour3
Other1
Best results in major championships
Masters TournamentDNP
PGA ChampionshipDNP
U.S. OpenCUT: 2017
The Open ChampionshipDNP

Professional career

Rai turned professional in 2012. In 2014 and 2015 he played on the PGA EuroPro Tour. He won the 2015 Glenfarclas Open after a playoff, finished 5th in the Order of Merit and was promoted to the Challenge Tour for 2016.[3]

Rai was 18th in the 2016 Challenge Tour Order of Merit and just missed out on a European Tour place. His best finish was joint runner-up in the Le Vaudreuil Golf Challenge, a stroke behind the winner, Alexander Björk.

2017 was a successful season with Rai, with three wins on the Challenge Tour. In March he won the Barclays Kenya Open by 3 strokes. His Kenya-born mother embraced him on the final green, seconds after his final stroke: Rai said that it was her first visit to Kenya since she left in 1970.[4] He had his second win in May, the Andalucía Costa del Sol Match Play 9, beating Irishman Gavin Moynihan 2&1 in the 9-hole final. His third success came in July in the Le Vaudreuil Golf Challenge where he won by 5 strokes. The third win gave him an immediate entry to the European Tour. In May, at Walton Heath, he led international section qualifying for the U.S. Open but failed to make the cut in his first major.[5]

Rai had a moderately successful first season on the European Tour with four top-10 finishes, end the 2018 season 58th in the Order of Merit. His highest finish was tied for 5th place in the BMW International Open, although his biggest prize came when he was 8th in the Nedbank Golf Challenge in November.

Rai won the 2018 Honma Hong Kong Open, the first event of the 2019 European Tour season. He led by 6 strokes after three rounds but was pushed hard by Matthew Fitzpatrick, who finished with a final round 64. Rai's lead had been reduced to one shot after 16 holes but Fitzpatrick bogeyed the 17th and, despite a bogey at the last hole, Rai won by one.[6]

In September 2020, Rai held the 54-hole lead at the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open, but was unable to convert this into a victory as John Catlin overtook him by two shots; ultimately finishing runner-up.[7] A week later, Rai defeated Tommy Fleetwood in a playoff to win the Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open, a result that lifted him into the world top 100 for the first time.[8][9]

Professional wins (6)

European Tour wins (2)
Legend
Rolex Series (1)
Other European Tour (1)
No.DateTournamentWinning scoreMargin of
victory		Runner-up
1 25 Nov 2018
(2019 season)		 Honma Hong Kong Open1 −17 (65-61-68-69=263) 1 stroke Matthew Fitzpatrick
2 4 Oct 2020 Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open −11 (70-69-70-64=273) Playoff Tommy Fleetwood

1Co-sanctioned by the Asian Tour

European Tour playoff record (1–0)

No.YearTournamentOpponentResult
1 2020 Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open Tommy Fleetwood Won with par on first extra hole

Challenge Tour wins (3)
No. Date Tournament Winning score Margin of
victory		 Runner-up
1 26 Mar 2017 Barclays Kenya Open −17 (67-66-69-65=267) 3 strokes Adrien Saddier
2 21 May 2017 Andalucía Costa del Sol Match Play 9 2 & 1 Gavin Moynihan
3 23 Jul 2017 Le Vaudreuil Golf Challenge −18 (66-65-69-66=266) 5 strokes Morten Ørum Madsen

PGA EuroPro Tour wins (1)
No.DateTournamentWinning scoreMargin of
victory		Runner-up
1 17 Jul 2015 Glenfarclas Open −8 (64-68-70=202) Playoff Craig Hinton

Results in major championships
Tournament 2017
Masters Tournament
U.S. Open CUT
The Open Championship
PGA Championship
  Did not play

CUT = missed the halfway cut

Results in World Golf Championships
Tournament2019
Championship T51
Match Play
Invitational T12
Champions
  Did not play

"T" = Tied

See also

References
  1. "Week 4 2021 Ending 24 Jan 2021" (pdf). OWGR. Retrieved 25 January 2021.
  2. Magowan, Alistair (28 November 2018). "Aaron Rai: the glove-wearing British Asian taking the golf world by storm". BBC Sport.
  3. "2017 Barclays Kenyan Open – Entry List". PGA European Tour. Retrieved 27 March 2017.
  4. "Tears and cheers as Rai win in Kenya". PGA European Tour. 26 March 2017.
  5. "US Open: England's world number 166 Aaron Rai qualifies for first major". BBC. 29 May 2017.
  6. "Hong Kong Open: Aaron Rai wins first European Tour title". BBC. 25 November 2018.
  7. "Grandstand finish hands Catlin Galgorm glory". European Tour. 27 September 2020. Retrieved 27 September 2020.
  8. "Aaron Rai wins play-off with Tommy Fleetwood to seal Scottish Open success". Yahoo! Sports. 4 October 2020. Retrieved 4 October 2020.
  9. Williams, Julie (4 October 2020). "Tommy Fleetwood forces playoff with dramatic putt, but Aaron Rai takes Scottish Open". Golfweek. Retrieved 5 October 2020.
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