England's Rai wins PGA Championship for first major title, LIV's Rahm finishes runner-up

NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pennsylvania, May 17 : Aaron Rai secured the biggest win of his career with a three-shot PGA Championship victory over Jon Rahm and Alex Smalley on Sunday to become the first Englishman to win the tournament in the stroke play era.

Rai separated himself from a packed leaderboard with four back-nine birdies, including a 68-footer at the par-three 17th that delivered the knockout blow, en route to a five-under-par 65 that left him at nine under on the week.

With the win, Rai becomes the first Englishman to win the PGA Championship since it transitioned to stroke play in 1958 and the first since Jim Barnes in 1919.

When Rai's final putt dropped there were still two pairings on the course, and while his name was already being engraved on the Wanamaker Trophy he did not break into the type of final-hole celebration typical of a major champion.

"Very surreal," Rai, the first player in PGA Championship history to lower his score in each round, said after being presented with the trophy on the 18th green. "It's been a bit of a frustrating season so to be standing here is definitely outside of my wildest imagination."

The triumph by Rai, which comes a month after Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy retained his Masters title, marks the first time in the era of the four current major championships that the season's first two majors have been won by Europeans.

The Wolverhampton-born Rai, who went out in the third-to-last pairing and two shots behind overnight leader Smalley, was one over through eight holes after mixing three bogeys with two birdies before kickstarting his round at the par-five ninth where he drained a monster 40-foot eagle putt.

Two holes later, Rai made birdie after stuffing his approach shot to four feet to