I caught a glimpse of my golf clubs the other day, slumped forlornly in a corner like some maudlin pub drunk, and realised that how you store your sticks says a lot about how you actually play the game.
I bet there are some of you reading this, for instance, who cradle them into the house, give them a thorough buffing up and place them lovingly in a designated space during an earnest ritual of unwavering diligence that ensures they are primed for another outing of satisfying endeavour on the course.
If you’re anything like me, on the other hand, you’ll just hurl them into the garden shed with the kind of shrugging indifference you’d adopt when tossing a soiled semmit into an overflowing laundry basket.
Aaron Rai, the newly crowned US PGA champion, would be horrified by such callous disregard. The 31-year-old, whose wonderful win at stern Aronimink saw him become the first English champion since Jim Barnes in 1919, still puts head covers on his irons.
In golfing circles, particularly at a recreational level, such a curiosity tends to spawn sniggering mockery. It’s broadly equivalent to pointing and chortling at a middle-aged man in Lycra wheezing along on a bicycle.
Rai’s reasoning, of course, is well documented and highly personal. “When we used to go out and practice, my dad used to clean every single groove afterwards with a pin and baby oil, and to protect the golf clubs he thought it would be good to put iron covers on them,” he said.
“I’ve pretty much had iron covers on all my sets ever since, just to kind of appreciate the value of what I have. They are a reminder of where I’ve come from and what I have access to.”
There’s a lesson in there for us all. The rich and varied leaderboard heading into Sunday’s closing round was so intriguingly log-jammed, you half expected the local authorities to hit the championship with a congestion charge.
Amid a few lesser lights like Rai, there were superstars and major champions lining up galore as we awaited a frenzied charge for glory that could’ve featured mounted cavalry.
Jon Rahm was going to do this, Rory McIlroy was going to do that and Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Cam Smith, Justin Rose or Matt Fitzpatrick were going to do a bit of the other.
Predictions in this game, of course, are a fool’s errand. In the end, it was the calm, composed and superbly clinical Rai who made the telling thrusts.
He was accurate, patient and resilient and he hit the shots that nobody else could in the big moments.
Some of his putts were, quite literally huge. There was a 40-footer for eagle on nine to energise his title tilt and a gasping 70-footer for birdie on 17 which delivered the coup de grace.
That one was so long, I thought it was going to run out of room on the tele, roll out the side of it and trundle along the floor.
The motto of Rai’s home city of Wolverhampton is ‘out of darkness cometh light’. It sounds like a phrase I’d mutter with a wry sigh after making a solitary par in a round of overwhelming bleakness.
Out of the madness of Sunday’s squeeze cometh Rai. It was a big win in more ways than one. The Wanamaker Trophy itself is bloomin’ huge.
In the grand traditions of those old Colemanballs gaffes made by commentators, I was waiting for one TV analyst to say, “and there is the Wanamaker Trophy, 24 pounds of solid silver that’s worth its weight in gold.”
Rai remains a charming, softly spoken and unassuming character. In fact, he’s so modest, if he ever gets round to writing an autobiography, he’ll probably not mention his own name in it.
From relatively humble golfing beginnings, the down-to-earth Rai is now a major champion. Golf is a winner too.
In this game for everybody, Rai has shown what can be achieved through hard work, discipline, dedication and drive, as long as you get the opportunity to thump a ball with a stick in the first place.
He began his journey at the 3 Hammers Golf Complex, a come-all-ye facility in his home city. It’ll be mobbed this week.
Back in 2015, Rai triumphed on the banks of the River Clyde when he won on the now defunct PGA EuroPro Tour at Mar Hall.
Five years later, in the Covid season, he upped the ante considerably with a play-off win over Tommy Fleetwood in the Scottish Open. Now he’s elevated himself into the rarefied air of a major winner.
Celebrated, decorated compatriots like Lee Westwood, Luke Donald and Paul Casey never managed a major victory in their pomp when England expected.
Rai, despite an increasingly impressive body of work, is perhaps the champion England didn’t expect.
But he outplayed the strongest field in golf – 98 of the world’s top 100 started the week in Philadelphia – and was a thoroughly deserving winner.
“Golf is an amazing game,” Rai said. “It teaches you so many things, and it teaches you so much humility and discipline and hard work because nothing is ever given in this game.”
We can all vouch for that, eh? Nothing was given to Rai on Sunday. He dug deep and won it like a true champion.
He may even inspire me to treat my clubs a bit better too. Now, where are those ruddy iron covers?
