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.
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.
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. 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.
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.
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. 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
Professional wins (6)
European Tour wins (2)
| Legend |
| Rolex Series (1) |
| Other European Tour (1) |
| No. | Date | Tournament | Winning score | Margin 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. | Year | Tournament | Opponent | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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. | Date | Tournament | Winning score | Margin of victory |
Runner-up |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 17 Jul 2015 | Glenfarclas Open | −8 (64-68-70=202) | Playoff | Craig Hinton |
Results in major championships
Results not in chronological order in 2020.
| Tournament | 2017 | 2018 |
|---|---|---|
| Masters Tournament | ||
| U.S. Open | CUT | |
| The Open Championship | ||
| PGA Championship |
| Tournament | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Masters Tournament | |||
| PGA Championship | CUT | ||
| U.S. Open | |||
| The Open Championship | NT |
CUT = missed the halfway cut
NT = No tournament due to COVID-19 pandemic
Results in World Golf Championships
| Tournament | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Championship | T51 | T18 | |
| Match Play | NT1 | ||
| Invitational | T12 | ||
| Champions | NT1 |
1Cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic
NT = No tournament
“T” = Tied
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