Aaron Rai Singles Out His Favourite ‘Growing-Up’ Sports Heroes – Tiger Woods & Cristiano Ronaldo.

1 hour ago by 0

Aaron Rai is golf’s newest major champion in brilliantly capturing the 108th PGA Championship.

The 31-year-old English golfer sealed victory by a remarkable three shots on the host Aronimink course to join legendary Gary Player, who captured the 1962 hosting of the championship when last played on the Pennsylvania course all of 64 years ago.

As is customary, Rai spoke to the attending media following his revealing his emotions, the tremendous support from his wife and herself a professsional golfer, along with his parents who nurtured his tremendous work effort plus speaking of his India and Kenyan roots.

And Rai also revealed his favourite ‘growing-up’ sports heroes – Tiger Woods and  Cristiano Ronaldo.

All is revealed hereunder in the full transcript of Rai’s PGA Championship victory press conference.

Q. Aaron, congratulations. Were you aware that it’s been 109 years since somebody’s won this thing, and how proud are you — an English player has won this thing, and how proud are you to be that person to finally end that?

AARON RAI: I wasn’t actually aware of it until yesterday. I think in this room yesterday it was mentioned, which was the first of my knowledge.

But yeah, extremely, extremely proud. There’s a lot of incredible and historic English players over those hundred years who have gone on to achieve incredible things and had phenomenal careers, but to win this event and then to be the person that’s the first one to have won it in a long time from England is an amazing thing and something to be extremely proud of.

Q. Can you just describe your emotions as you’re playing those final few holes, on 17 and that amazing putt there. How did you manage to keep so calm and just produce the kind of golf that you did?

AARON RAI: I think firstly the golf course really demands it. It was a true major championship setup in terms of how difficult it was, how penalizing it was, but it also rewarded you for good play.

So I think the nature of the course and the nature of the shots that are required over the last few holes just require a lot of attention and a lot of focus.

Yeah, that putt on 17 was incredible. I was just trying to focus on speed and get it close. It started to look really good line-wise with probably about 15 feet to go. Slowed up really nicely as well. So it just kind of conspired all together for that ball to go in the hole. But an incredible putt and a real bonus to see that one go in.

Q. Aaron, two shots prior to that putt that I thought really stood out on that back nine were the bunker shot on 13 and then your approach on 16. Could you walk us through what you were thinking about on both of those and kind of how you executed those and how pleased you were to pull off those shots in that moment?

AARON RAI: Those were two really good shots. The bunker shot on 13 was on a slight upslope, which in a way helped to stay really aggressive on it. But the upslope also made it difficult because it was such a long bunker shot. It was probably 40 yards or so.

But just stayed really committed with that and really tried to trust the strike, and it came out extremely well. I was actually trying to hit that probably 12 feet short, and it came out probably a little fast, but it worked out extremely well.

And the shots on 16, hit a great tee shot to hold the fairway there. That was a really hard fairway to hit, and it was a great number for a 5-iron. The wind was off the left. The ball was slightly below. So it kind of just suited a shot that was falling off the wind.

Yeah, hit it very well, started great, great strike, and kind of worked its way down there to 15, 18 feet. So probably two of the best shots on that book nine.

Q. I see your wife is right here. What has her support, what does it mean to you? And how do you plan on celebrating this win?

AARON RAI: She’s been incredible. I’m not exaggerating when I say that I wouldn’t be here without her. Both as a companion, as a friend, as someone I’m sharing my life with, but also as a real support system for my game. She’s a professional golfer herself. So her mindset, her advice, her thoughts, whether it’s technique or the way I’m holding myself is absolutely invaluable. She encompasses so many different sides in her opinions.

We even had a conversation yesterday for probably 30 minutes in the car just before we got back to the hotel, just speaking a little bit about today. Again, some of the things that she mentioned in the conversations were really with me today.

Yeah, I really wouldn’t be here without her.

Q. I know your parents made a lot of sacrifices for you to get here, especially your father kind of figuring out golf on the fly. As you sit here, if you can just reflect on what all that means and kind of how they got you here?

AARON RAI: It’s probably hard for me to really express everything that I feel towards them. I think I’ll get way too emotional to speak. Yeah, starting with my dad, he was with me every day that I went to practice from the age of 4, 5 years old. He actually quit his job and started to focus on my golf from a really young age.

I used to read a lot about golf. He used to obviously be really active in everything he did with me around the game. My mom has been absolutely incredible as well. She works extremely long hours to just provide for the house really, especially with my dad also not working as much. So she did a lot of things, and her support has been phenomenal.

Obviously, I would love to share this with them. It would be amazing if they were here. I can’t put into words how much they’ve done in terms of the support, in terms of the care, in terms of love. Again, I wouldn’t be here without them at all.

Q. Could you talk about the experience playing in Philadelphia and the encounters with some of these fans.

AARON RAI: It was amazing. From the very start of the week, from the Monday, which was the practice round for us, it felt like a tournament round. The fans were incredible from the very start of the week, and that just continued as the tournament went on.

It definitely got quite loud out there today, and something that I mentioned earlier as well, I’m very much a foreign player playing here in America, but their support for me was incredible. So, yeah, the fans were absolutely brilliant this week.

Q. Everybody that we talked to out here says, man, Aaron’s such a nice guy. He’s such a really great dude, so happy for him. I guess where does that mentality come from of being super kind to everyone you come across? Because it’s pretty rare in a professional athlete.

AARON RAI: I think a lot of that has come from upbringing, my mom, my dad, my siblings. Golf was always a very big part of my life from a very young age, but my mom and my siblings were very fast to continue to reinforce the importance of just being a good person and trying to do the right things away from golf.

And that was consistent from a very young age, from the age of 5, 6 years old. I think as I’ve continued to develop as a junior, as an amateur, as a professional, golf in itself is an extremely humbling game. There’s so much hard work and discipline that goes into acquiring the skills to become better, but you also realize that nothing is ever given in this game at any point, whether it’s a tournament, whether it’s a practice round, whether it’s even away from a tournament week. All of these things have to be done diligently and require focus.

It’s very humbling as well. So I think you put all of that together, the game requires the focus and attention, but the humility just goes hand in hand with the game and my upbringing as well.

Q. You’ve won tournaments before, but when you looked at that jam-packed leaderboard, what gave you the belief that you were going to be able to do this today?

AARON RAI: That’s a great question. Honestly, I didn’t look too much at the leaderboard last night. Obviously I knew there were a lot of people that were relatively close, but I think regardless of how bunched that it was, it still required a really good, strong round of golf. Again, the course really demanded it this week, and it was very punishing. As soon as you lost a split-second of focus at any part, whether it was a tee shot, whether it was an approach shot, whether it was a putt.

So I think the focus was very much on the course, on the game, on continuing to run through some good processes and to just kind of see where that put me during the round. So that was the real focus.

I didn’t really look at too many leaderboards. I had a sense of how things were going from the crowds, from the cameras, et cetera. But just did a really good job of playing the golf course as much as possible today.

Q. And where does your work ethic come from?

AARON RAI: I think a lot of that is — was from my upbringing. My dad was with me, as I said, every day practice-wise, and he really instilled the importance of work and dedication and trying to consistently build just good, strong habits around the game.

My mom worked extremely hard away from golf. Her jobs, she worked a couple of jobs at one time, at a point in time, and she did a lot of work around the house. My sister took a massive role as well at a young age. She had a job from the age of 14, 15. So there was a lot of consistent messaging of hard work, and that was generally the environment that was there at the house. And that was at the golf course as well.

So I think it’s been something I’ve just grown up with, and I guess as I’ve got older, something that I’ve really valued and tried to continue to move forward with.

Q. You’re obviously very connected to your heritage and your Indian and Kenyan roots. I was just wondering what a vision is of modern English sporting success really to have somebody with your background achieving something like this?

AARON RAI: That’s a really hard one for me to answer, and I think that’s not something that I can really define or control about however that gets put forward. But I’m very proud to be from England. That’s where I grew up. That’s where a lot of my family still live.

I’m very proud of India and Kenya as well. My mom grew up there. My mom’s side of the family lived there for a number of years before they moved to England. My sister now lives there. My mom still spends a lot of time in Kenya.

Again, going back a couple of generations, both of my sets of grandparents from my mom and dad’s side were from India.

Again, I’m very proud of representing all three really. I don’t know what all that represents or how it’s going to come across. All I can say is I’m very proud to be a mix of all of them.

Q. Golf instruction is at the heart of this event, and you have such a longstanding relationship with Me and My Golf. Wondering if you can talk about that, how deep it goes back in your life, and what it means to have their support and win on this stage and celebrates golf instruction?

AARON RAI: They’ve been phenomenal. Andrew Proudman and Piers Ward are the two guys involved with Me and My Golf. I’ve known Andrew since he was 4 years old. He used to work at the pro shop on the driving range me and my dad used to go to. I was 4, he was 18, so he was there before he turned professional.

I met Piers when he was 8, 9 years old. So we grew up in the same city. They started to coach me very soon after that. I was probably 10 years old. When I call them my coaches, I almost feel disrespectful calling them just my coaches. They’ve been so much more to me than that from a young age, also as a teenager, and also on this journey as a professional golfer. They’ve been my mentors, my big brothers. They’ve almost been like family to me.

And the amount of times that we’ve been on a golf course or on a driving range in cold winters or — I remember we played the BMW PGA Championship probably six years ago now, and Piers was on the putting green with me until 11:30 at night on a Tuesday, and then he had to drive from Wentworth, which is in London, back to Wolverhampton two hours back there, and he was just with me the whole day.

They just go above and beyond for me in every single way. They’ve played a huge part in this trophy and a huge part in my development as a golfer.

Q. Aaron, I know people always like to ask you about the iron covers and the gloves and a few things that you do differently. Golf can often be a game that pushes people to conform a certain way. I’m curious if you felt that pressure, especially as a junior golfer, and how you were able to double down on being yourself?

AARON RAI: That’s a great question. I think my dad played a really big role in that. For the most part, it was just the two of us who used to go onto the golf course and practice together, probably up until I was 13 or 14. So I think he was very much an advocate to really just stay in your lane, focus on the things that you can do.

And I didn’t really mix with a lot of other junior golfers, which didn’t give me a perspective of what was normal. So I think he kind of sheltered me to be able to develop in a way that made sense for me, in a way that I guess was a little bit unique with two gloves, with iron covers, et cetera.

I think by the time he probably allowed me to play more kind of club golf, play professional golf, I felt like I was strong enough in why I did certain things to be able to continue to move that forward. I knew the reasons why I do them. I believe in the reasons why I do them. So I had no reason to really shift from that as I got older. So, yeah, that’s probably the main reason behind it.

Q. How do you plan to celebrate this win?

AARON RAI: I’m not sure. I haven’t thought that far ahead just yet.

GAURIKA BISHNOI: He’ll probably have Chipotle.

AARON RAI: I do love Chipotle on the road. So we’ll probably go to Chipotle.

Q. I know it’s only been like an hour. Do you have an idea of what’s next? Are you much of a goal setter in your career? Do you think about things such as Ryder Cups or other titles to tick off?

AARON RAI: I try not to consciously focus on it too much. These things are always around, whether it’s Ryder Cup, whether it’s the next event, whether it’s the next major. So those are things that you can never completely ignore, but I try not to focus on them as real motivations to push me forward.

I hope to continue to move in a pretty similar way in terms of practice, training, application towards the game, and we’ll see where that takes me.

Q. Could I just also ask, just going back to one of your previous answers there, you said you didn’t really mix with other junior golfers. Why would that be?

AARON RAI: That’s a really good question. Up until the age of around 12 years old, I used to play off basically a customized course length, which gradually got longer and longer every year from the age of kind of 7 to 12. 12 years old was the first time that I actually played off ladies tees. Before that, I was playing off the fairways and trying to make the course short enough for me to score par or better even as an 8, 9, 10-year-old.

I thought it was a great idea. My dad thought it was a great idea. But naturally that kind of kept me away from club golf, metal golf. I would still play in junior events, but only in my age group, just to really protect, I guess, myself and what we were trying to work on and what we were trying to kind of build towards.

Then when I was about 13 or 14, I was long enough to be able to play off the men’s tees, and that’s when I started to play a little bit of club golf. Again, by that age, I’d gotten so used to practicing a certain way — again, me and my dad would pretty much be out on the course most days, and that started to feel really comfortable. So even though I was maybe good enough and long enough to compete at club golf, I didn’t play a huge amount of it.

Then within two or three years of that, I turned professional. So that was pretty much the journey through to that point.

Q. Was that a method that you borrowed from someone else, or was that one of your father’s own ideas?

AARON RAI: So I used to play in a tournament called the Wee Wonders, which had a local stage, a regional stage, and a national stage. If you managed to progress through all of those, you qualified to play in the U.S. Kids World Championship. I was fortunate enough to qualify for that at the age of 8 years old.

When we got to America, this was a system that a lot of juniors had adopted at that age of forward tees and gradually making the course longer as you grow, and my dad really thought that idea was great in terms of just installing the abilities and the skills to be able to score and the distance would just follow with age and with growth.

So it was after that point that we really stuck to that for the next four years.

Q. Xander mentioned that there’s nobody that works harder on TOUR than you. How affirming is this win to the work you put in, to that process that you have and have been so committed to, to achieve this?

AARON RAI: Extremely affirming, and that’s very kind of Xander to say. There are a lot of guys who work extremely hard. The level on the PGA TOUR is so strong, let alone in a major championship. So I think that’s a prerequisite of what is just required to try and compete out here.

But yeah, it’s very — yeah, very reaffirming to know the things that we’re doing are working and leading to continued development within the game. So, yeah, hopefully I can just continue to move along a pretty similar path moving forward.

Q. You used to watch those VHS tapes of Tiger Woods from the time you were like 5 — I think you told me once it was two to three times a week from your childhood. What do you remember from those tapes, and do you still have them somewhere?

AARON RAI: I don’t think we still have a tapes, but we used to watch them a helluva lot, probably two, three times a week, if not more.

That would have been when Tiger was probably in his — we used to watch videos of his U.S. Amateur wins and then his early professional career. I think obviously he’s such an icon and such a huge figure in the game even though, but at that point, even more so that this was someone who was super human, who was very much someone that I really idolized.

I just remember being in awe just watching all of the things that he could do. So, yeah, to have my name even with him on this trophy is incredible really.

Q. We know your wife’s a very good golfer from seeing her swing at the Masters. Has she ever beaten you straight up, or do you give her strokes? How does at that work?

AARON RAI: We practice quite a lot together. Honestly she beats me more times than I beat her. When we have putting contests, chipping contests, we do some wedge games on TrackMan. I do well to keep up with her. She really is that good.

We play a little bit on the course, but I’ve played Sawgrass, that’s where we live, a little bit more than her, and I think that little bit of experience helps. But it’s still very close with us even on the course.

Q. Can you just run us through who’s on Team Rai, who your support system is. I know you talked about a bunch of them already, but kind of who makes up your whole squad?

AARON RAI: Professionally, starting with my sponsor, Shabir Randeree. He’s almost been like a second father to me. He supported me with my golf and travel and expenses. He supported my education as well. He paid for me to go to a private school. He’s been there since I was a kid and gave me so many opportunities that I never would have had otherwise.

Andrew Proudman and Piers Ward from Me and My Golf.

Andrew Caldwell from Active Therapy, he’s my trainer and physio.

I’ve worked a lot with John Graham over the last two years as well. So, yeah, a really good, close team.

Q. Then I know Tiger is someone you’ve always looked up to. Did you have other golfing or sporting heroes?

AARON RAI: Honestly Tiger was the main one really. Yeah, I used to love soccer as well growing up. I support Manchester United. Cristiano Ronaldo was so good for a long time. So I would probably say Tiger Woods and Ronaldo growing up.



Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *