The long day’s journey into night started with the end of the second round, then continued with the complete third round.
Only then, at 3:06 p.m. Sunday, could the players begin the final round of the 85th Wyndham Championship. And so the race was on — against Sedgefield Country Club’s golf course, against each other, and against time itself and the setting sun.
Aaron Rai, a 29-year-old Englishman who grew up dreaming of a Formula 1 career, won that race, hoisting the Sam Snead Cup under the lights after darkness had fallen on a tournament that began with a tropical storm washout and ended with 39 frantic holes in one day.
Rai closed the tournament with a bogey-free round of 64, finishing at 18-under par for a two-shot victory over PGA TOUR rookie Max Greyserman.
It was Rai’s first win on the PGA Tour, and it came in his 89th start since 2022.
“It feels amazing. It truly is a dream come true,” Rai said. “So many people have played a huge role in me being at this point. My mum and dad, and the rest of my family. Shabir Randeree, who’s helped me since I was eight years old from my education to funding my golf and travels. … There’s a huge team behind me sitting here, and I wouldn’t be here without all of them.”
In his flawless final round, Rai made birdies on Nos. 3, 4, 5, 6, 12 and 18. The closing birdie putt in the gloaming pushed the margin to two shots and sewed up the victory.
“Since the end of April, it’s been a really good stretch of golf for me,” Rai said. “I’m very proud and happy with the consistency more than anything else. It’s amazing to be here and to win this week, but I’m almost just as proud of how consistent the last four months have been.”
Inconsistency doomed the rest of the golfers on the leaderboard.
None more so than runner-up Greyserman, the 29-year-old rookie from Duke University, who was chasing his first win, too.
Greyserman holed out from the fairway on No. 13, hitting a lob wedge 91 yards for an eagle to take a four-shot lead with five holes left to play.
Then disaster struck. He carded a quadruple-bogey eight on the next hole after his tee shot hit the cart path and bounced out of bounds. Rattled, his provisional tee shot landed in the rough and his next shot found a bunker.
“If that does not hit the cart path, we’re probably in a different situation,” Greyserman said. “That doesn’t mean one bounce is the reason that I didn’t win, but … if that doesn’t hit the cart path, I’m potentially able to hit the green or at least chip back to the fairway.”
Greyserman rebounded with a two-putt birdie on the par-5 15th, but a four-putt double-bogey on No. 16 ended a fine tournament. Even with all the trouble, he still shot a 1-under 69 in his final round.
“I played really, really well this week. I played good enough to run away with it. Obviously, stuff happens in golf, and sometimes it’s not meant to be,” Greyserman said. “I’m just going to walk away knowing I played really, really good golf. I executed really well, and I had a four-shot lead with five holes to go. If you’re doing that in a PGA TOUR event, you’re doing something exceptionally well. So that’s what I’m going to walk away with. That, and also making that birdie right after making that eight. … I’m going to walk away with more confidence, look at the positive things and learn from the mistakes.”
But Rai will walk away with a shiny silver Sam Snead Cup.
Rai grew up wanting to be the next Michael Schumacher. Instead, he accidentally discovered an acumen for golf. As a teenager, he once made 207 consecutive 10-foot putts in an hour-and-a-half.
“That was a long time ago. I probably wouldn’t be able to make 207 in a row now,” Rai said. “As part of the advertising campaign for a training aid, they associated a world record with it, which was how many putts could you hole from 10-foot in a row.”
Rai was laser focused Sunday at Sedgefield, and he did not look at the leaderboard. Rai, who wears two gloves when he drives the ball, typically plays against the golf course, rather than the field.
“I asked my caddie (Jason Timmis) on the 18th tee what the situation was,” Rai said. “He knows me pretty well, and I trust whatever he says to me. He said, ‘Just focus on playing a good hole here.’ I assumed from what he said what the situation was.”
Rai made his birdie, and the sun set on the best week of his golfing life.
THIRD ROUND
Moving Day became Moving Morning for the 67 players who made the cut. To speed up play, the PGA TOUR sent them off both the 1st and 10th tees in threesomes.
By the time the round ended, two rookies and an amateur sat atop the leaderboard, while a veteran’s pursuit of history began slipping away.
Second-round leader Matt Kuchar’s chase for an 18th consecutive berth in the FedEx Cup Playoffs stumbled on Sedgefield’s back nine. Kuchar — the only man to reach the playoffs every year since their debut in 2007 — shot an even-par 70 and slipped three shots off the lead and finished tied for 12th.
Greyserman shot a 66 to get to 15-under par and start the final round with a two-shot lead.
Ryo Hisatsune, a 21-year-old rookie from Japan, was two shots back after shooting a 6-under 64.
Luke Clanton, an amateur star from Florida State University, shot a 62 to lead a group of five players — including Kuchar — tied for third place at 12-under. Clanton, who qualified for the U.S. Open this season, leads the PGA TOUR with three rounds of 63 or lower since his debut at Pinehurst No. 2.
Kuchar started the week No. 111 in the FedEx Cup points standings. The top 70 after the Wyndham Championship advanced to the playoffs, which begin at the St. Jude Championship in Memphis.
At the end of the day, Kuchar was the only player in the field not to finish the tournament on Sunday. Playing in the final group, he opted to mark his ball after hitting his tee shot on the 72nd hole because he’d driven the ball into the trees on the left and did not have sufficient light to see his options. He resumed at 8 a.m. Monday morning, made par and finished tied for 12th – missing the FedExCup Playoffs for the first time.
By Jeff Mills
Special to the Wyndham Championship
