ABU DHABI HSBC GOLF CHAMPIONSHIP

November 8, 2025

Aaron Rai

Yas Links

Quick Quotes

Q. Good day's work here at Yas Links. Give us a description of your day out there?

AARON RAI: Yeah, a really good round overall. Drove it extremely well. Some really good iron play. Created a lot chances. Felt like I rolled it really well on the greens. A lot of putts had a good chance of going in.

The wind definitely picked up for us on the back nine. Yeah, it played tricky out there, especially the back nine.

Q. Looking at your group and the leaderboard, plenty of birdies out there today. How difficult was it to keep your foot down while keeping the lead today?

AARON RAI: Yeah, I think as cliché as it sounds, you've got to try to stick to how you see the course, and if you play well, there are a lot of opportunities that naturally present themselves.

But again, you have to be cautious. I think if you get too aggressive, if you put your foot down too much, it can also bite you really fast. When the scores are as low as what they are, if you drop one or two shots, it really feels like you're moving backwards.

Like any course, you have to strike that balance between playing well and creating chances but not being too cavalier about it at the same time.

Q. You're already a Rolex Series winner at the Scottish Open in 2020. How excited are you to possibly add another gold star tomorrow?

AARON RAI: Yeah, this is a huge events. This is one of the biggest events we have on the DP World Tour. To win this week, to have a chance going into the weekend, is great. Still a long way to go and a lot of really good players. Yeah, we'll give it our best and see how it comes.