For the first time in a long time, Aaron Rai is swinging like his old self on the fairway. And he couldn’t have picked a better time to return to form in the 2026 PGA Championship. Sitting tied at second on the leaderboard, the Englishman shared details of what has been going on in his life recently.
“I think the biggest thing in the first three, four months of the season was just feeling healthy body-wise,” Rai told the reporters. He added, “I had a couple of injuries, which ended up withdrawing from a handful of tournaments as a result. It definitely limited the amount of practice and the amount of training.”
Rai has played in nine PGA Tour events this season. But his form has been all-over the place so far. He has had very few impressive runs on the course. A series of injuries has reduced the amount of practice he could have gotten to prepare for the tournaments. It has also led to him withdrawing from a couple of events.
The English pro exited the 2026 Farmers Insurance Open field hours before tee off. He also withdrew from the Houston Open back in March, citing an injury. But recently, he has been feeling much better.
“Masters started to feel a lot better. The Zurich Classic was probably the first event in a good three months that I felt fully healthy. Then had a great run of practice from just before the Zurich till just after, which has certainly shown last week and is showing some good signs this week.”
While the results didn’t reflect the same, Rai admitted that he was in much better health during his trip to Augusta National and the events that followed. He also registered his best finish of the season, a T5, in the ONEflight Myrtle Beach Classic, a week prior to the PGA Championship. What a great time to pick up form.
He also revealed the timeline of his recent injuries that slowed him down: “The first one was in January, which was low right back. And the end of February was my neck, kind of the left side of my neck.”
The lower back injury in January 2026 might have had an effect on Rai’s form in the Sony Open. He finished T50 in the season-opening event in Hawaii. However, the neck injury certainly had a larger impact on his season. It continued to trouble him throughout March, making him miss the cuts in The PLAYERS Championship and the Valspar Championship. It was also the reason he withdrew from the Texas Children’s Houston Open.
But now that the injuries are not troubling him, he is back to showcasing his best form. And he couldn’t have picked a better place to do so.
Aaron Rai has returned to his best just in the nick of time
Aronimink Golf Club has been a mean mistress to everyone on the field. Many golfers can attest to that. Jon Rahm talked about the challenges on the course recently. Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy also shared their concerns about the setup. However, that hasn’t fazed Aaron Rai.
Rai has been excellent with the drivers, irons, and wedges. His game on the green has also been exceptional. He had a 66.67% driving accuracy. He found the greens in regulation 75.93% of the time and scored 1.71 points from it on average.
If the Englishman continues to display the amazing form, then he might end up competing for the Wanamaker Trophy on Sunday evening. Even if he doesn’t win it, he is perfectly lined up to grab his best finish in a major event ever.
