2024-08-12 10:05:03
GREENSBORO, N.C. — Aaron Rai was the last man standing in near darkness at Sunday’s 36-hole endurance test, winning his first PGA Tour title at the Wyndham Championship thanks to a back-nine blow-up by Max Greyserman.
Rai, a 29-year-old Englishman who last won in 2020 on the DP World Tour, shot a bogey-free 6-under 64 in the final round at Sedgefield Country Club to claim a two-stroke victory.
“Truly a dream come true,” said Rai who signed for a 72-hole aggregate of 18-under 262. “An amazing achievement.”
But Greyserman was in the driver seat after holing out his wedge from 91 yards for eagle at the 13th hole to build a seemingly commanding four-stroke lead with five holes to go. Not so fast as it turned out. His tee shot at the 14th hole sailed right and bounced off the cart path and over a fence out of bounds.
“If that doesn’t hit the cart path, we’re probably in a different situation,” Greyserman said. “I’m probably making five at worse.”
Instead, he compounded his error with another blunder and his lead vanished in one fell swoop with a ghastly quadruple-bogey 8. Afterwards, he still managed to make light of the situation, telling reporters he’d done the same thing once before when he was in contention at a Korn Ferry Tour event and cracking, “I’ve got to ask people not to put the cart paths on the right side.”
Greyserman, a 29-year-old Tour rookie, regained the lead at 18 under with a two-putt birdie at No. 15 but despite leading the field in putting for the tournament to that point, he took four putts — three of them from 3 feet — at the par-3 16th to make a double bogey and drop back to 16 under. He closed in 69 and finished alone in second.
“I played good enough to run away with it,” he said. “I’m just going to walk away with more confidence, look at the positive things and learn from the mistakes.”
Rai, who opened with a pair of 65s and added a third-round 68, chased Greyserman with four birdies in a row starting at the third to climb to 16 under. He tacked on a birdie at No. 12 and then strung together five straight pars. He said he was oblivious to Greyserman’s highs and low because he avoided looking at the leaderboards.
“I thought it would be best not to really look at what was going on during the fourth round,” Rai said. “I think that was probably a good thing, that helped me just to focus on the golf. I was playing well and I knew that if I finished off well, then you never know what can happen.”
On the 18th tee, Billy Horschel, who was playing alongside Rai, asked him if he wanted to know where he stood. That prompted Rai to consult his caddie, who said, “just focus on playing a good hole here.”
Rai sank an 8-foot birdie putt at the last to seal the win. Ranked 48 in the world, Rai has been knocking on the door with Top-20 finishes in five of his last six starts and three of them top 10s, including a T-2 at the Rocket Mortgage Classic and a T-4 at the Genesis Scottish Open. This season, Rai ranks fourth in Strokes Gained: Total, which measures the per round average of the number of strokes the player was better or worse than the field average on the same course and event, behind only world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, No. 2 Xander Schauffele and No. 3 Rory McIlroy. Rai credited adding putting coach John Graham as the difference that finally helped him get over the line and win, though he’s always had a knack for getting the ball in the hole. As a teen, he once holed 207 consecutive 10-foot putts during a span of 90 minutes to set a world record.
“I think the previous record was 136, and yeah, managed to make a few more than that,” Rai recalled. “That was when I was 15, so that’s quite a long time ago now.”
72nd hole pressure with the tournament on the line.
Aaron Rai shows no nerves with his approach. pic.twitter.com/5wzs0XIMMM
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 12, 2024
J.J. Spaun fired a 64, the low score of the final round, and finished T-3 with Japan’s Ryo Hisatsune.
Victor Perez, who started the week as the “Bubble Boy” at No. 70 in the FedEx Cup standings, shot 68 and finished T-33 to hang on to the last spot in the 70-man playoffs, which begin next week in Memphis at the FedEx St. Jude Championship.
Tropical Storm Debby dumped more than six inches of rain on the course on Thursday postponing play. The 36-hole cut wasn’t made until Sunday morning and the 67 players had to play at least 36 holes. Only Matt Kuchar, who was in the last group and drove left at 18, elected to wait to complete his round on Monday. He’s 11 under and failed to make the FedEx Cup playoffs for the first time since the playoffs debuted in 2007.
It was one final wrinkle in a wild week at the Wyndham Championship that may be remembered more for the man who lost, Greyserman, than the one who rode off with the trophy, Rai.
“It kind of feels like my own 2006 Phil Mickelson moment,” Greyserman said of the left-handers infamous collapse on the final hole of the 2006 U.S. Open. “So, hopefully that equals good things to come as it did for him.”
