With one swing, Aaron Rai made Players Championship history on what is arguably golf’s most iconic hole: TPC Sawgrass’ par-3 17th.
The 28-year-old Englishman, who moved to Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, two weeks ago, followed up a birdie on the par-5 16th by acing the par-3 17th with his gap wedge from 122 yards.
“Insane. It’s such a blur,” Rai said after carding a 7-under 65 in the third round. “It felt great off the face, looked perfect in the air, and then when I saw it pitch and spin back, it looked like it had a great chance. I didn’t expect it to go in … to see it disappear and to see my caddie running at me almost full speed was pretty awesome.”
‼️ An ace for Aaron Rai on No. 17 @THEPLAYERSChamp ‼️ pic.twitter.com/3zVYoXT8zU
— Golf Central (@GolfCentral) March 11, 2023
This year’s edition of The Players marks the first time that two players have aced No. 17. Hayden Buckley had a hole-in-one on the island green in Round 1.
Rai’s historic day, however, didn’t stop there.
Moments after his heroics on the penultimate hole, Rai hit a perfect tee shot on the par-4 closing hole that left him only 134 yards from the hole. Then, he nearly holed his approach for eagle, but settled for a birdie to become the first-ever player to card scores of 4-1-3 on the final three holes at TPC Sawgrass.
Did we mention it’s his Players debut?
Aaron Rai becomes the first to ever play Nos. 16, 17, & 18 at TPC Sawgrass with a birdie-ace-birdie combo!#THEPLAYERS https://t.co/5N1SUmNixF
— Golf Central (@GolfCentral) March 11, 2023
Full-field scores The Players Championship
His late stretch vaulted him up the leaderboard to T-4 at 9 under, five strokes off Scottie Scheffler’s 54-hole lead.
“Made a lot of pars just before that,” Rai said, “and it felt like the par was kind of moving steadily but not really moving anywhere. … Really proud of the way that we finished off there on 18, because it can be challenging after a moment like that to compose myself and play the hole well.”
Rai would love to prolong his heater through the final round for a come-from-behind victory, which would be his first on Tour. But even if he falls short of that feat, he still had a historic week in his new hometown.