There are many qualities in sport and life that high achievers tend to share.  They are usually skilful, hard-working, resilient and possessed of indefatigable perseverance but one of the things that I truly love about golf is that the very best also come in a variety of shapes and sizes and it’s possible to list as many differences between major champions as it is similarities.  Add in to the mix the wide array of golf courses and conditions that would-be major winners face and you begin to understand there is no blueprint for a major golf champion.  As I’m always fond of pointing out – you can’t film what makes a player great.  It’s lodged deep in his or her soul or psyche.

It’s a rare Englishman (Justin Rose is one) that can have every Celtic golfer I know rooting for him.  Historically, the Irish, Scots and Welsh (the Celts) are collectively known to support ABEs – Anyone But the English – all stemming from years of a deep-seated sense of inferiority, I suspect.  Well, that rarest of Englishmen, Wolverhampton’s Aaron Rai, joined the major champion club last Sunday when he bested the field in the 108th PGA Championship at Aronimink just outside Philadelphia – and it says such a lot about the man when his victory was greeted with near-universal delight by his fellow competitors and peers.

Xander Schauffele, winner of this championship in 2024, summed him up beautifully with the phrase, “all-world gentleman, no doubt”.  Rory McIlroy opined, “There won’t be one person on this property who won’t be happy for him,” and Jon Rahm said,  “I have heard consistently there’s very few people that are nicer and kinder human beings than Aaron Rai.”

Quite the validation for the 31-year old who first swung a club at 3 Hammers Golf Complex as a four-year old and joined Patshull Park as a five-year old.  Incidentally, the Ladies’ European Tour held a tournament back in the day at Patshull Park which was won by Anne Rollo (nee Jones) and around that time I used the facility a great deal as I worked with a physical trainer who was attached there.  I think we just missed overlapping with the young Aaron.

It’s well documented how Aaron’s father scraped and saved to manage to buy the youngster his first set of clubs and Rai junior lovingly cleaned those clubs protecting, not only the woods with covers, but the irons as well – a habit he employs to this day to ensure, as he says, that he never loses his perspective or sight of where he has come from.

There was early evidence of the discipline he would bring to his game when, as a fifteen-year old he set a world record in holing 207 consecutive 10 footers. and this same discipline was much in evidence last week as he wore down his opposition.  A strategist and tactician, Aaron’s thoughtful, studied approach was the perfect foil to Aronimink, a course with deceptive difficulty off the tee and ferocious green complexes.  He stayed in his own bubble and when the pressure was at its height he covered the last ten holes of the championship in six under par.

No one could live with him.  He won by three, adding his first major to his list of victories as a professional which had hitherto read:  three wins on the HotelPlanner tour, three on the DP World tour and one on the PGA tour.

I wonder if we’ll now see a proliferation of players playing with two gloves, a habit the young Aaron acquired to combat the cold of all those winter rounds as a youngster.  When the summer came he found himself unable to discard the right-hand glove as the grip didn’t feel so secure.

Sean Foley, who coaches many of the top players, has always said he doesn’t understand why golfers mostly only play with a glove on their lead hand.  He points out that baseball players use two gloves and that traction and force applied down the bat provides more power.  I don’t pretend to understand the physics of it all but it does seem that the one-glove option may be more of an affectation than anything truly useful……..and the manufacturers could earn a good deal more selling gloves in pairs!

The new champion gives a great deal of credit for his performance inside the ropes to the support he receives outside the ropes from his wife, Gaurika Bishnoi, who is also a professional golfer.  Bishnoi, originally from Gurugram in India has won eight times on the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour, twice finishing as the number one player.  She has caddied for him in the past, as has he for her on the Ladies’ European tour and they spend many hours practising together and having chipping, putting and wedge contests.

Outside the ropes she lives and dies every shot with her husband and on Sunday, when watching his composure and attitude under the severest pressure, she knew that if he didn’t win then he assuredly would in the future.  Aaron certainly doesn’t underestimate how much she helps him – “I’m not exaggerating when I say I wouldn’t be here without her.

“Her mindset, her advice, her thoughts, whether it’s technique or the way I’m holding myself is absolutely invaluable,” Rai said of his wife. “She encompasses so many different sides in her opinions.”

They’re quite a team, a popular team – and now they’re a major team.  The sky’s the limit.

Where does a year go!  It seems no time at all since the 2025 Cambridge Beer Festival and now we’re back again, ready to sample the wonderful – and sometimes weird – selections on offer from all over the country.  I tried Grave Diggers Mild from Church End in Nuneaton and Moulin D’Etienne from Burwell in Cambridgeshire, two very different beasts – but surely that’s what a festival is for, a bit of experimentation.

Also, if you’re partial to punning, this is the place for you.  For instance, Electric Bear from Bath offered a stout called Darkside of the Spoon, a pale ale called Jurassic Thrive and another one called William Shakes Beer.  Shameless.

And the creativity of the brewers seems endless.  Holla Brewing from Potton in Bedfordshire presented a lager called Blush Vegas “brewed with the use of Thai black glutinous rice, which gives a pinkish hue.  Clean, crisp with a classic lager note on the nose, along with light floral, herbal notes peaking (sic) through with the hops.”  Mmmm.  At 4.7% it was out of my comfort zone, I rarely venture much over 4.0%.

Being a lot of a wimp I was not in the least tempted by Green Jack of Lowestoft’s Baltic Trader, a stout billed at a head-banging 10.5%.  Here’s the description:  “Export stout brewed with molasses and three roasted malts giving fruity flavours with hints of vanilla and roasted coffee – a rich plum pudding in a glass.”  Mmmm.  Perhaps better saved for Christmas.

We also had a trip to Bury St Edmunds, to visit a few pubs, including a titchy place called The Nutshell, apparently the smallest watering hole in Britain.  There were ten of us visitors in there and one garrulous local and the place was packed.  There was also the most gruesome thing I’ve ever seen anywhere:  a mummified cat that was apparently excavated from the brick wall of an old fireplace at some stage.  “Fluffy” as the cat is called is reckoned to be about 400 years old.

The  dubious practice of putting cats – dead or alive – in specially created niches was, apparently, to ward off evil spirits or bring good luck.  Fortunately, I’d finished my pint before I looked up and noticed him (or her) in their Perspex Ⓡ box.  All cat lovers look away now.

Now, just in case anybody is worrying about how we managed all this beer drinking, we were quite abstemious and paced ourselves well enough and made sure we had plenty to eat too.  Most important, we went by bus – on the top deck, so we could admire the views and any number of delicious-looking thatched cottages and beautiful gardens.  If you’re old enough, don’t hesitate to pick up your bus pass, you never know when it might come in handy.

There were various toasts to be drunk too:  to the new PGA champion Aaron Rai; to Lottie Woad, who continued her rise by winning the Kroger Queen City Championship at Maketewah Country Club in Cincinnati, Ohio; to Leonie Harm, who won the Amundi German Masters at Green Eagle Golf Courses in Hamburg, thirteen years after being hit by a drunken driver and given a one per cent chance of surviving her injuries.

“I got hit by a car when I was out jogging before school,” Harm, now 28, recalled.  I got put into a coma and suffered some pretty serious injuries [including head injuries, multiple bone fractures and a collapsed lung].  I miraculously recovered.  I woke up from the coma and it was weird, I knew what had happened to me but I had no memory of the event.  Everyone around me who thought I was going to die was like, ‘please don’t worry about golf, just be safe’.”

Seven weeks later Harm was back on the golf course.

She went on to win a German championship, play in the PING Junior Solheim, won the (British) Women’s Amateur in 2018, have a successful college career at the University of Houston, graduate with a Bachelor of Science degree in biochemical and biophysical sciences and turn professional.  She also had to learn to cope with the death of her mother from cancer but nearly gave up a couple of years ago when she lost her swing and was in despair, ready to retire.

“I was kind of on the verge of turning insane because nothing was working on the course even though I was working so hard,” she said.  Then, in Saudi Arabia caddying for her friend Momoka Kobori, she decided to hit a few balls on the range and Scott Edwards, a coach, asked if she’d mind him saying something.  “I thought, honestly, knock yourself out because I was ready to quit.

“He made a few tweaks and suddenly everything started to feel more like my swing again.  I was then able to work on all the other parts of my game.  I made a few trips over to work with him and instantly started seeing improvements…

“Resilience is a good thing and I have shown this at times but I believe right now I’m in a good spot mentally and for it to then be paired with success in golf is such a great feeling because I don’t have to be miserable.”

If you go to the LET’s YouTube site, you can hear – and see – Leonie tell her remarkable story.

Away from golf, I have to congratulate Arsenal on winning the Premier League title for the first time in 22 years.  We, the not-so-mighty Spurs, have never won that trophy, so it’s the Gunners doing the crowing, not our cockerel.  Still, they deserve it.  Having finished second in each of the last three seasons, to mocking cries of “Chokers, bottlers, wimps, losers”, whatever, they’ve earned it.

I draw the line at putting in a pic of the celebrations and think this is much more fun.  It made me laugh – and buy the book.