THE 153RD OPEN

July 20, 2025

Aaron Rai

Mixed Zone

AARON RAI: Played really nicely tee to green. I hit a lot of good shots. I think any time you put yourself in some good positions and be able to deal with the challenge of the course that this presents, there's a lot of good things to take.

A little bit frustrated with the overall scoring and kind of other parts of my game. Yeah, there are always things to work on and improve.

Q. Did you like the course?

AARON RAI: I thought it was great. Really, really enjoyed it. Think it's extremely fair, very well designed. We had a little bit of everything all week from rain, strong winds, to a great weekend. It was nice to experience it in different conditions.

Q. What happened on 17? I saw Berger's ball came down to the green when you stood there.

AARON RAI: My caddie had a bag just on the front right of the green. We didn't realize the ball was coming down. By the time we kind of noticed, the ball was kind of traveling too fast, hit the bag, saved it from going into the bunker and instead went on the green. Yeah, it was just one of those things.

Q. A weird incident?

AARON RAI: Definitely.

Q. You've obviously played well here before. You had success at the Scottish Open. You must have that belief that you can one day come here and win it?

AARON RAI: Yeah, I've had a lot of good performances on links golf over the years. Starting to build up a little bit more experience as well on some of the major championships. Yeah, I think just keep building on the game, keep building on those experiences, and keep trying to improve each experience and each tournament.

Q. Just tell us about what's coming up now? Obviously a big title defence coming up on the PGA Tour?

AARON RAI: Yeah, looking forward to that. Nice to have an off week next week, and then the Wyndham Championship. We'll see how things go in the playoffs. Really looking forward to finishing the season off in the states.

Q. That was a big win for you. How much can you draw on those memories going into one of those title events?

AARON RAI: Yeah, definitely. You can take so much belief from weeks like that, obviously great memories going back to a venue you've had so much success at. Really looking forward to going back and finishing the season there.

Q. If you have a big win there again, do you think you can get into the Ryder Cup reckoning?

AARON RAI: We'll see. We'll see. I think there's still a long way to go, a good four or five events. A lot can happen in that time that can go in your favour, that can go against your favour. We'll see where things go over the next few weeks and see where we stack up.

Q. Is that a big ambition for you to maybe one day play in the Ryder Cup?

AARON RAI: I think it's always an honour to represent your country, to represent the continent. Of course that would be amazing one day. Again, we'll see. We have a lot of little steps in between and a lot of performances along the way before those things happen. Yeah, our focus is on those things, and we'll see what happens in the future.