Masters countdown: Rai in pole position
It's not Formula 1, but Englishman achieves his adjusted dream with PGA Tour win; 39-year-old oil & gas guy beats ranked field to be U.S. Amateur medalist
Aaron Rai won his first golf tournament back in 2000 when he was 5 years old — decked out in a red jacket that was a pretty familiar color for to a certain global megastar who was dominating his sport at the time.
So when a BBC reporter asked the English-born kid of Asian descent what he wanted to be when he grew up, surely the next words out of the precocious kid’s mouth would be something about Tiger Woods and not Michael Schumacher.
“A racing driver!” Rai said, followed by peals of laughter.
“I was really into Formula 1 as a kid,” said a now 29-year-old Rai on Sunday after winning his latest golf tournament, the PGA Tour’s Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, N.C.. “I'm not sure how much of a realistic dream that that was. But pretty soon after, probably from the age of 7 or 8, I wanted to be a professional golfer.”
Born in Wolverhampton, England, to non-golfing Indian parents, Rai got into golf “by accident.” Playing in the house with his older brother’s hockey stick as a toddler, he gave himself a bruise on the forehead prompting his mother to buy him some plastic golf sticks in an attempt to make things safer. When his tennis-playing father gave him a racquet at age 2, his forehand looked more like a golf swing. It seemed natural enough that his father went with him to learn how to play golf. Eventually a putting green was installed in the family back yard and the young Rai got pretty good.
BBC video
How good? Well, when he was 15, he received a Lee Westwood Puttmaster aid which had an affiliated ad campaign challenging users to set a world record for holing consecutive 10-foot putts. “I think the previous record was 136, and yeah, managed to make a few more than that,” said Rai, who drained 207 consecutive 10-footers to break the mark. “That was when I was 15, so that’s quite a long time ago now.”
Young Aaron Rai got pretty good at putting in his own back yard.
On Sunday in the darkness at Sedgefield Country Club, Rai had only 6 feet, 7 inches left on the 18th green for birdie after a textbook drive straight down the middle and pristine approach from 200 yards. Needless to say, the man who once made 207 straight 10-footers took his two gloves off for the last time on a marathon 36-hole day of golf and didn’t miss.
“Over the last couple months, I recently started to work with John Graham and he’s helped me massively (with putting),” said Rai of what keys have lifted his game to the point where he delivered a bogey-free 64 Sunday. “My dad’s helped me a lot as well with just visualizing the putts a little bit better, seeing them in a slightly better way. … I think my short game has also improved, my bunker play has improved. It just feels like a real steady progression this year and another layer of kind of consistency from the last year and the previous year.”
That closing birdie gave Rai a two-shot victory in the PGA Tour’s regular-season finale Wyndham Championship. A week that started out with a rare Thursday off watching “Deadpool & Wolverine” thanks to Tropical Storm Debby ended up with Rai collecting a lot of perks as his longtime promise — he’s won five times on European circuits (two DP World Tour, three Challenge Tour) comes to fruition.
Not only did the victory lift Rai to No. 22 in the Official World Golf Ranking and No. 25 in the FedEx Cup points that all but assures his exemption into all of next season’s $20 million signature events, it will carry the Englishman to his first Masters in April.
“I haven’t really had much chance to think about that,” Rai said of achieving a dream even if it’s not the original dream he had of racing cars when he was 5. “I think just that statement alone of being a PGA Tour winner is truly a dream come true. To win on any professional golf tour is an incredible accomplishment. The PGA Tour is the pinnacle of golf and it’s amazing to be competing here week in, week out, but to have won a tournament is extremely special and something I’ll always remember.”
In the dark at Sedgefield, Aaron Rai lifts the Sam Snead Cup, his first PGA Tour trophy (Isaiah Vazquez/Getty Images)
Rai is the 54th player and eighth first-timer to qualify for the 2025 Masters.
2025 MASTERS FIELD
Through 2024 Wyndham Championship Aug. 11
Here’s how the 54 players currently qualified to play in the 2025 Masters got into the field
# first-timers (8); * amateurs (2); Americans (25); Internationals (29)
CATEGORY 1 (20 players)
Masters Tournament Champions (Lifetime)
Angel Cabrera (1) – Argentina
Fred Couples (1)
Sergio Garcia (1) – Spain
Dustin Johnson (1)
Zach Johnson (1)
Bernhard Langer (1) – Germany
Hideki Matsuyama (1) – Japan
Phil Mickelson (1, 4)
Jose Maria Olazabal (1) – Spain
Jon Rahm (1, 2) – Spain
Patrick Reed (1, 13)
Scottie Scheffler (1, 5, 6, 13, 17)
Charl Schwartzel (1) – South Africa
Adam Scott (1) – Australia
Vijay Singh (1) – Fiji
Jordan Spieth (1)
Bubba Watson (1)
Mike Weir (1) – Canada
Danny Willett (1) – England
Tiger Woods (1)
CATEGORY 2 (3 players)
U.S. Open champions (Honorary, non-competing after 5 years)
Wyndham Clark (2) – through 2028
Bryson DeChambeau (2, 13) – through 2029
Matthew Fitzpatrick (2) – England – through 2027
CATEGORY 3 (4 players)
British Open Champions (Honorary, non-competing after 5 years)
Brian Harman (3) – through 2028
Collin Morikawa (3, 4, 13) – through 2026
Xander Schauffele (3, 4, 13) – through 2029
Cameron Smith (3, 5) – Australia – through 2027
CATEGORY 4 (2 players)
PGA Champions (Honorary, non-competing after 5 years)
Brooks Koepka (4) – through 2028
Justin Thomas (4) – through 2027
CATEGORY 5 (0 players)
The Players Championship Winners (3 years)
—
CATEGORY 6 (0 players)
Current Olympic Gold Medalist (for 2025)
—
CATEGORY 7 A&B (2 players)
Current U.S. Amateur champion (A, Honorary, non-competing after 1 year) and runner-up (B)
TBD Aug. 18, 2024
CATEGORY 8 (1 player)
Current British Amateur Champion (Honorary, non-competing after 1 year)
#*Jacob Skov Olesen (8) – Denmark
CATEGORY 9 (1 player)
Current Asia-Pacific Amateur Champion
TBD Oct. 6, 2024
CATEGORY 10 (1 player)
Current Latin America Amateur Champion
TBD Jan. 19, 2025
CATEGORY 11 (1 player)
Current U.S. Mid-Amateur Champion
TBD Sept. 26, 2024
CATEGORY 12 (1 player)
Current NCAA Individual Champion
#*Hiroshi Tai (12) – Singapore
CATEGORY 13 (9 players)
First 12 players (including ties) in previous year’s Masters
Ludvig Åberg (13) – Sweden
Cam Davis (13, 17) – Australia
Tommy Fleetwood (13) – England
Tyrrell Hatton (13) – England
Max Homa (13)
Mattieu Pavon (13) – France
Adam Schenk (13)
Cameron Young (13)
Will Zalatoris (13)
CATEGORY 14 (3 players)
First 4 players (including ties) in previous year’s U.S. Open
Patrick Cantlay (14)
Tony Finau (14)
Rory McIlroy (14, 17) – Northern Ireland
CATEGORY 15 (3 players)
First 4 players (including ties) in previous year’s British Open
Billy Horschel (15)
#Thriston Lawrence (15) – South Africa
Justin Rose (15) – England
CATEGORY 16 (2 players)
First 4 players (including ties) in previous year’s PGA Championship
#Thomas Detry (16) – Belgium
Viktor Hovland (16) – Norway
CATEGORY 17 (6 players)
Winners of non-opposite PGA Tour events from previous Masters to current Masters
Robert MacIntyre (17) – Scotland
#Taylor Pendrith (17) – Canada
#Aaron Rai (17) – England
#Davis Riley (17)
#Davis Thompson (17)
Jhonattan Vegas (17) – Venezuela
CATEGORY 18 (TBD players)
Eligible qualifiers for previous year’s season-ending Tour Championship
TBD
CATEGORY 19 (TBD players)
Top 50 on final Official World Golf Ranking for previous calendar year
TBD
CATEGORY 20 (TBD players)
Top 50 on Official World Golf Ranking published week prior to current Masters
TBD
SPECIAL EXEMPTION (TBD)
The Masters Committee, at its discretion, also invites players otherwise not qualified
TBD
Jimmy Ellis, 39, shot a 61 at Chaska Towne Course to win medalist (Chris Keane/USGA)
‘Blind squirrel’ medalist Ellis: ‘This is just weird’
CHASKA, Minn. (USGA/DD) — In a competition featuring the best collegians and juniors, it was a 39-year-old oil and gas landman who stole the show on the final day of stroke play at the 124th U.S. Amateur.
Jimmy Ellis, who half-jokingly said he’d have trouble winning his club championship at Atlantic Beach (Fla.) Country Club, came within a few inches of matching the all-time USGA 18-hole scoring record en route to claiming medalist honors against a 312-player field that includes 18 of the top 20 players in the World Amateur Golf Ranking.
Ellis, who claimed the 2024 Florida State Amateur to get a spot in this year’s field, carded a 9-under-par 61 at Chaska Town Course on Tuesday — and coupled with his 1-under 71 at Hazeltine National Golf Club, he registered a 36-hole total of 10-under 132 to best Duke rising sophomore Ethan Evans by a stroke. Evans, 20, played his final nine holes at Chaska Town front nine in 29 strokes en route to a 7-under 63.
Three others shared third at 7-under 135: first-round co-leader Paul Chang, of the People’s Republic of China; UNC’s David Ford and Luis Masaveu of Spain, who qualified for this year’s Open Championship at Royal Troon and finished 78th. Chang (71) and Ford (68) played Hazeltine, while Masaveu fired a 65 at Chaska Town, which is 697 yards shorter.
Ellis, a Ohio University graduate, became the first mid-amateur to garner medalist honors since Neil Raymond, then a 27-year-old from England, was co-medalist with Brady Watt in 2013 at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass. The last solo mid-am medalist was Jeff Wilson in 2010 at Chambers Bay.
His 132 total was one off the championship mark set by Hayden Wood in 2017 at The Riviera Country Club/Bel Air Country Club in Los Angeles. Five others have posted 132 in the championship, including 2013 USA Walker Cupper Bobby Wyatt at Cherry Hills Country Club/CommonGround Golf Course in suburban Denver.
“That’s pretty crazy,” said Ellis, competing in his second U.S. Amateur and sixth USGA championship. “It’s just a blind squirrel. I literally made everything today. I bet if we play this tournament 100 times, there is zero percent chance I would be the medalist.
“[My goal this week was] just try to sneak into match play and try to upset some big name. That would have been the cool thing to do. But this is just weird.”
Ellis, a Pittsburgh native, has always been a solid golfer, good enough to play at the Division I level at Florida Gulf Coast and later Ohio University when he realized he wasn’t going to play the game for a living. But it wasn’t until COVID hit in 2020 that his game began to take off. He won the Pennsylvania Open and Pittsburgh Open, and two years later qualified for the 2022 U.S. Amateur. Two of his three U.S. Mid-Amateur starts have come in that time as well (he also played in 2014).
Because he works from home, Ellis, his wife Erin and two young children (Palmer, 7 and Lyla, 4) moved to northeast Florida, falling in love with Atlantic Beach, and the year-round golf opportunities. At Atlantic Beach Country Club, he regularly plays with junior phenom Miles Russell, a 15-year-old lefty who was the 2023 American Junior Golf Association’s Player of the Year and now a member of the USGA’s inaugural U.S. National Junior Team.
While he rarely beats Russell – “I make him sign the scorecards when I do beat him” – it has helped sharpen Ellis’ game. In June, he carded a final-round 64 to win the Florida Amateur and garner a spot in the U.S. Amateur. For the first time this year, the USGA awarded exemptions to winners of state/Allied Golf Association amateur championships.
The championship now moves to Hazeltine for the match-play portion. The 64-player bracket will be set after a 14-for-11 playoff — which includes WAGR No. 14 Omar Morales — Wednesday morning at 7:30 a.m. CDT to determine the final spots in the draw. The Round of 64 will commence at 8 a.m. off the first tee at Hazeltine. Golf Channel has live coverage from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. EDT, with Peacock streaming simultaneously.
Among the WAGR top-20 players along with No. 3 David Ford to make the cut to qualify for match play are: No. 7 Jackson Van Paris (T8, 137); No. 5 Ben James (T12, 138); No. 6 Preston Summerhays (T12, 136); No. 29 Bastien Amat (T12, 136); No. 3 Luke Clanton (T18, 139); No. 11 Brendan Valdes (T22, 140); No. 13 Christian Maas (T22, 140); No. 1 Gordon Sargent (T32, 141); No. 10 Jose Luis Ballester (T32, 141); No. 12 Calum Scott (T32, 141); No. 17 Jackson Buchanen (T32, 141); and No. 18 Tommy Morrison (T32, 141).
Notable players to miss the cut include: WAGR No. 2 Jackson Koivun of Auburn; No. 9 Ian Gilligan; No. 15 and reigning U.S. Mid-Amateur champion Stewart Hagestad; No. 1 junior Miles Russell; 2023 medalist Blades Brown; John Daly II; 2022 Latin America Amateur champion Aaron Jarvis; 2024 NCAA champion Hiroshi Tai
There was plenty of drama on the other end of the spectrum as well. World No. 1 Gordon Sargent opened stroke play with a 2-over 72 at Chaska Town Course, which played just more than five strokes easier on Day 1. In the second round at Hazeltine, an early bogey on his third hole of the day had the Vanderbilt rising senior thinking he might be headed for a premature exit from a championship where has never advanced past the Round of 64. Then he played 4-under golf over his final 15 holes to qualify for match play, including three consecutive birdies from No. 13.
“Yeah, it’s definitely nice to play your way into some form a little bit,” said Sargent, who missed the cut in this year’s U.S. Open and Open Championship. “I haven’t played a ton this summer, honestly, so it’s hard to really tell how your game feels at homejust hitting balls on the range and stuff. Just getting some reps in and seeing good shots, putting them together and building some confidence.”
World No. 2 Luke Clanton, fresh from a solo fifth-place finish in this past weekend’s PGA Tour Wyndham Championship, backed up a first-round 69 with a 2-under 70.