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Longshot major winners: Where Aaron Rai ranks among century’s biggest surprises

'Extremely rewarding' road to becoming PGA champion
Aaron Rai joined Todd Lewis to discuss his 2026 PGA Championship victory and the journey from his modest upbringing in England to becoming a major winner.

From a historic perspective, Aaron Rai’s win at Aronimink has a little bit of everything: First Englishman to hoist the Wanamaker since 1919, first time in a decade a non-American won the PGA Championship, and first time since the Masters started in 1934 that the year’s first two major winners are European players.

From a gambling perspective, there’s a little bit of history, too. Or a lot of it, depending on how you see numbers.

Rai went off before Thursday’s opening round as a 150-to-1 longshot to win the tournament. So where does Rai rank from an oddsmakers perspective? Is he the biggest underdog to ever lift the Wanamaker? Or how about any major championship title for that matter?

Let’s take a look to see how he compares to seven other winners from this century who went on to win despite being given triple digit odds to do so by the bookies.

longshots-to-win-majors-21st-century

Ben Curtis retains the title of biggest longshot to win a major championship this century despite Aaron Rai’s best underdog efforts.

Golf Channel