Aaron Rai has done the unthinkable. The 31-year-old English golfer has claimed the Wanamaker Trophy at the 2026 PGA Championship, delivering one of the most stunning major championship victories in recent memory at Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania.
Aaron Rai Wins His First Major at the PGA Championship 2026
In what was set up to be one of the most chaotic majors in golf history, Aaron Rai ended up running with the 108th PGA Championship. Battling through a leaderboard that had two dozen different players within four shots of the lead at one point on Sunday, Rai went low when all of the contenders around him could not.
Rai is closing in on becoming just the second Englishman to win the PGA Championship, helped by a monster birdie putt at the 17th that extended his lead to three strokes over the closing holes. The gallery at Aronimink rose to their feet as the result became clear.
The Shot That Sealed It: 68-Foot Birdie at 17
The capper came at 17. Holding onto a 2-shot lead, all Rai needed to do was par in to claim the first major championship of his career. Instead, he drained a 68-foot putt for birdie — an exclamation point on one of the most stunning out-of-nowhere victories the PGA Championship has ever witnessed.
It was pure Aaron Rai: precise, composed, and utterly unexpected on the grandest stage in golf.
How the PGA Championship Leaderboard Unfolded on Sunday
The tournament leadership shifted dramatically early in the day when third-round leader Alex Smalley, who held a two-stroke advantage entering the final round, collapsed with a double bogey on the sixth hole. German golfer Matti Schmid briefly seized the solo lead at six-under-par before missing a key par putt on the tenth hole.
Rai then carded a birdie on the 11th hole to reach six-under-par and capture the solo lead for good. He had earlier made an eagle on the par-five ninth to ignite his back-nine charge. From that point, he never looked back.
Historic PGA Championship Leaderboard and the Chaos That Defined the Week
According to Elias Sports research, the 22 players within four shots of the lead entering Sunday marked a new PGA Championship record, beating the previous high of 18 set in 1993. Those 22 included eight major winners — also a new PGA Championship record, and just the sixth time in all of major championship history that figure has been reached.
Justin Thomas and Cameron Smith both finished at 5-under-par in the clubhouse, while Jon Rahm and Matti Schmid remained the last challengers to push Rai down the stretch. None of them could match the Englishman when it mattered most.
Aaron Rai: The Man Behind the Two Gloves
Rai, 31, is one of the more consistent performers in men's professional golf. He turned professional in 2012 and claimed his first PGA Tour win at the 2024 Wyndham Championship. He is known for wearing two gloves and using iron head covers — the gloves a habit developed in cold English weather as a child, the covers a gesture of respect for equipment his father taught him to honor.
The galleries at Aronimink were strong all throughout the week, with Philadelphia fans showing up and showing out for a major championship week that delivered on every promise. On this Sunday, they witnessed history — an underdog Englishman rising above the most stacked leaderboard the PGA Championship has ever produced to claim his first major title.
