SOUTHPORT, ENGLAND | Rather than see a psychiatrist on how best to cope with the dos and don’ts of golf, people would do well to copy Aaron Rai’s way of going about the sport – and everything else for that matter.
When he came into the Open Championship media center at Royal Birkdale on Tuesday, the 2026 PGA champion arrived with the usual shy smile on his face, one which softens the all-round mood. What is more, every question he was asked was given the same attention as a difficult chip.
The writer who went back to Rai’s mode of attack on the final day of the PGA at Aronimink was after a bit of of insight into how someone as gentlemanly as Rai could suddenly reveal the killer instinct within, the one which allowed him to seize the moment “and crush a lot of souls out there.”
Rai’s considered thoughts were as follows. “I think those two aspects are two pretty different things. For me, personally, it’s important that you try and conduct yourself in the best way you can, and try and do as well as you can by yourself and by others as well. I think that’s just the right thing to do as a human.
“In terms of the golf, it’s a very different challenge. There’s so much that goes into it even away from tournaments and the plans you have to make, which generally revolve around golf.
“So I think that when you get those opportunities, when you find yourself in those positions, you have to be true to your journey and be true to what the game requires. I certainly think it brings out a different side of myself, a different side, I guess, of the competitiveness.”
The answering, had it been a top university exercise, would have ticked all the right boxes and more. Certainly, no examiner would have been tempted to accuse him of getting help from AI.
“Even as a child, I knew that these things would be amazing to achieve in the future, but they’re such a long way away that I just tried to focus on what I needed to do in the short period I try and get better and see where that puts me. In that respect, my perspective hasn’t changed a huge amount, even as I’ve got older.” – Aaron Rai
There was a second question, a delightfully simple one, which again prompted a response which was as humble as it was thoughtful. It was about what he had done with his Wanamaker Trophy and whether or not he was planning a big trophy room at home.
Far from snapping at the very idea of adding some lavish trophy room, he just said, very politely, that it was not something he had in mind. “It’s actually in my dad’s house,” he explained. “For me and my wife, it was fitting, and it was the right place for it to be – at my dad’s house, the family house really.”
Inevitably there were questions concerning what the Open Championship had meant to him growing up in England and what had made the greatest impact.
For the latter, he selected watching the BBC in the evenings with his father, with particular reference to 2001, the year David Duval won.
Listen to the tact in this answer. “I remember Duval winning. It was great to see David win but I was supporting Tiger. That Tiger didn’t win is what sticks out.”
So is this the major that Rai has been dreaming of winning all his life?
“Even as a child, I knew that these things would be amazing to achieve in the future, but they’re such a long way away that I just tried to focus on what I needed to do in the short period I try and get better and see where that puts me. In that respect, my perspective hasn’t changed a huge amount, even as I’ve got older.”
Now here’s something which corresponds with what Catriona Matthew, the past AIG Women’s Open champion and two-time captain of winning Solheim Cup sides, had to say. She had watched Rai playing in last week’s Genesis Scottish Open and felt that his game was right for Birkdale.
So far, there has been nothing but sunshine at Royal Birkdale. Now, Rai is waiting for the elements to get to work and present him with conditions to employ the different ball flights and shapes that marry with his game.
On Tuesday, Rai was in raptures about the links. “I think it’s a brilliant golf course. It’s definitely changed quite a bit in the last two weeks. Then it was quite green and relatively soft as well. So it was quite a surprise playing a few holes and seeing it as brown as what it’s become in the space of a few days.
“I think it plays phenomenally and that it’s a great layout. It will be a true test of golf and I’m looking forward to getting started.”
Rai, who won the Scottish Open in 2020, missed the cut last week but where, with others, it might have been a case of wanting to get some extra time at Birkdale, that did not apply.
Always, he had tried not to look at the Scottish Open that way. He revels in playing links golf, and even more so when he gets two weeks of it in a row.
So far, there has been nothing but sunshine at Royal Birkdale. Now, Rai is waiting for the elements to get to work and present him with conditions to employ the different ball flights and shapes that marry with his game.
A real test of skill and creativity is what he’s after. And whether or not it will be one to ruffle up that killer instinct within remains to be seen.