PGA Tour victory won't change Wolverhampton's Aaron Rai insists proud dad

The 29-year-old, from Wolverhampton, won the Wyndham Championship, in North Carolina, on Sunday night after 36 holes on the final day.

Then, in completing his media commitments with a host of interviews and press conferences, Rai was quick to thank his family and support network for helping him on his journey to golfing success.

Rai later called home to speak to his father Amrik, at home in Wolverhampton.

“We didn’t get to speak for long because Aaron had to catch a 5.30am flight to Memphis on Monday morning for the Tour Championship event in Memphis,” said Amrik, who started his son on his golfing career on the parks of Wolverhampton as a young child.

“We spoke for maybe about 10 minutes but he was clearly very quietly satisfied with what he had done.

“It was the culmination of a lot of hard work, and he had played 36 holes on the final day, and after all his media commitments, it was clearly a lot to take in.

“He’s like me in that he is not the sort of person to do a lot of jumping up and down but was very happy with how things had gone.

“It was a quiet moment of happiness really, nothing really loud – not least because had he had make an early flight to Memphis the next morning.”

Rai’s win at the weekend saw him leap up the world rankings to number 22 – his highest ever position.

It makes him the seventh highest ranked European player, above Ryder Cup stars like Matthew Fitzpatrick, Shane Lowry and Tyrell Hatton.

That will put him contention for a place in the Ryder Cup team in the USA next year, but dad Amrik believes that will be the last thing on his son’s mind at the moment.

“Aaron is very focused and the Ryder Cup is a very long way ahead at the moment, I don’t think it will even feature in his mind at the moment,” said Rai Snr. “He will be thinking about the FedEx event in Memphis, where he is among the top 70 in the world, then hopefully the BMW after that when it is whittled down to the top 50 and then hopefully the Tour Championship in Atlanta, when it is down to the last 30 players.

“Aaron is probably coming back to play in the Irish Open next month, then maybe the BMW at Wentworth and possibly the Spanish Open to keep his European Tour status, but the Ryder Cup is so deep into next year that it won’t be on his mind at all.

“You could see on Sunday [when Aaron didn’t know he was leading the Wyndham Championship until the final green] that he doesn’t worry about about what’s going on around him.”

Amrik said he hopes to have his son home for Christmas and New Year before he returns to his new base in Jacksonville, Florida, about 10 minutes from the world renowned TPC Sawgrass course where he now practises when he is not on tour.

“Nothing will really change him,” added Amrik. “He has gained experience now and knows what he likes, we know what he likes to hear and he knows how to go about things.

“Some people achieve success and think they have to change the things they do to get better and it ends up with them going the other way but Aaraon is pretty established in what he does and how he maintains things.”