Aaron Rai proudly steps on one of golf’s oldest faux pas.
It is a problem that can be heard before it is seen. Not in the noise it makes, but in the noise it makes silence: The glorious clink of metal sticks against each other as footsteps move forward across the fairway.
Rai’s violation? A matter serious enough to send a shiver down the spine of every corpse on the eastern seaboard on Sunday of the PGA Championship.
Iron cover.
But here’s the craziest part of all: He might be the only golfer on earth with a good reason to use them.
As he basked in the glow of his first major championship win on Sunday night, Rai addressed the tradition of his golf bag that has defined him as a golfer — and the story behind it that you really need to hear.
According to Rai, the decision began at home in England, where Aaron spent his childhood as the son of a community worker and a mental health nurse in the city of Wolverhampton. Rais lived with modest meansand when it came time to buy Aaron his first set of clubs, the budding young golfer received one of the greatest gifts of his childhood: a brand new set of better irons.
“When I was about seven or eight years old, (my father) bought me a kit Title 690 MBand they were about 800-1000 pounds at the time, just for a set of clubs for a kid,” he said. “I loved them. When we would go out and practice, he would clean every groove afterwards with a pin and baby oil.”
Rai’s adoration for his clubs was so sincere and his maintenance so intense that his father suggested he make sure they never suffered the indignity of a chip.
“To protect the golf clubs, he thought it would be good to put iron covers on them,” Rai said. “I’ve pretty much had ironclads on all my sets since then just to appreciate the value of what I have, and it all started with that first set.”
Years of care and gratitude paid off in flying colors Sunday afternoon when Rai mowed down a board full of certified putts to claim his first PGA Championship title at Aronimink. While talking about the moments that led to his career reaching this point, Rai couldn’t help but look at the iron caps that started it all.
“I think my dad played a really big part in that,” he said. “I didn’t mix with a lot of other young players, which didn’t give me a perspective of what was normal. So I think he accommodated me in a way that I could develop in a way that made sense to me, in a way that I think was a little bit unique with two gloves, with iron caps, etc.”
Rai arguably did it his way on PGA Sunday, and now he belongs in the rarefied air of some of the best players in the sport. As for any speculation that the ironclads might lose their luster now that Aaron Rai is a major champion?
Well, you can certainly put a cap on it.
“Even though on the PGA Tour, we get equipment and we’re given everything we need, it’s more out of principle,” Rai said. “The value of not losing perspective of what I have and where I am.”
