GAJTKA: PGA Championship for Rai Puts the Lie in Modern Golf Aesthetics

If we chalk up Phil Mickelson’s gobsmacking 2021 victory as a final thunderbolt in a legendary career, Aaron Rai’s unexpected triumph at A-Aronimink (see what I did there?) was the biggest longshot win in the PGA Championship since Keegan Bradley prevailed in 2011.

That makes two of the past four men’s majors won by players who were well off the typical betting boards, starting with J.J. Spaun last June at our beloved Oakmont.

Since the arrival of Rory McIlroy as a factor in the early 2010s, we really haven’t had that many surprise major victories, to the point that it’s quite easy to pick out the outliers over the past 15 years or so. Rai. Spaun. Brian Harman. Jimmy Walker. Danny Willett. Jason Dufner. Maybe Wyndham Clark, although his 2023 U.S. Open followed a hot spring on the PGA Tour.

In that way, I understand and empathize with the disappointment of some golf fans who were hoping for another major notch in the belt for McIlroy, or a successful title defense for Scottie Scheffler, or another late PGA rally for Justin Thomas, or a return to big-event form for Brooks Koepka, or a crowd-juicing week for Bryson DeChambeau, or — fantastical as it might seem — a Grand Slam-completing breakthrough for Jordan Spieth.

As it is, Rai’s win will likely be a blip in the grander pro golf landscape, overshadowed by more telegenic champions in the near future and, of course, the off-the-course drama that continues to lurk behind the curtain.

But! There are a couple of interesting tidbits about the 31-year-old Englishman with Indian and Kenyan descent that stand out to me.

For one, the fact that a guy who maxes out around a 170-mph ball speed with the driver can win a major championship in this age of prodigious distance is pretty cool for those of us who enjoy variety. Sluggers like McIlroy and Jon Rahm were touching 190 mph off the tee this week, but they hit a few more foul balls in critical spots than Rai … and it actually mattered. With pins tucked in some wild spots on Aronimink’s expansive undulating greens, approaching from the fairway seemed to provide more leverage than the typical mid-2020s tourney.

Secondly, and maybe just as relevantly to this discussion, Rai’s whole aesthetic pushes back on the sleek fashion of the modern game. He’s not muscular and/or physically massive. He wears two black gloves instead of one white one. He sports head covers on his irons, which dates back to his childhood.

I look at that and I say, “Fun!” I also get lightly poking fun at a guy who just doesn’t fit central-casting swag standards. I generally disapprove of online slop, but an AI-generated post of Rai lifting the Wanamaker Trophy with his gloves still on made me laugh.

However, there was another post that drove me a little nuts. I realize it’s just one person shouting on social media, but I’ve seen a lot more like it and I’ve encountered a lot more of this attitude in my three decades playing golf.

As you can see from my reply, I couldn’t resist chiming in on the subject. The ugly side of this great game is the cockroach-like idea that everyone playing it simply has to share your view on appearances.

The beauty of this great game — or any sport, really — is that nothing really matters except the execution. The ball didn’t care that Rai and O.J. Simpson share hand-covering habits, or that Rai’s irons all wore hats, or that Rai was using a driver that’s nearly a decade old.

I’d say I actually do lean more toward traditional with some of my own golf looks, but I don’t care what other people wear, or what their bags look like, or how they swing it. As you saw above, I also don’t comprehend why anyone would waste time and energy worrying about this stuff.

Would I have relished seeing one of the usual studs come through in Philly? Sure, because it makes more sense to the logical side of my brain, and my familiarity with the main characters is satisfying to the emotional side of my brain. But if I can’t appreciate a guy literally not missing a shot on the back nine of a truly up-for-grabs major, I’d have to question if I was even actually a golf fan.

Can you get the ball in the hole? That’s the main thing. It’s the only thing. Nice to get a reminder of that every once in a while.