Rai ready to return to US after 'tough' Open

Aaron Rai was playing in his third Open Championship

Aaron Rai is ready to get back to the United States for a bit of welcome refuge in the American sunshine after four days of being buffeting about in the Scottish wind and rain.

After going into the 152nd Open Championship in really good form on the back of three straight top-ten finishes, the Wolverhampton golfer's fine run came to an end on the Ayrshire coast.

While Xander Schauffele shot nine under par to win at Royal Troon, Rai finished 15 over, tied for 75th, with rounds that got progressively worse throughout the week - 73, 74, 75, 77. He had only six birdies in 72 holes.

Having tied 19th at his first Open in England, at Sandwich in 2021, Rai's two Open appearances in Scotland have proved a lot less satisfying, having missed the halfway cut by three strokes at St Andrews in 2022, before his four trying rounds on such a punishing track as Troon's Old Course.

But now the world top-50 ranked player can escape the Scottish weather and get back to this year's real target - to end as high as he can on the US PGA money list and challenge in the end-of-season Fed Ex Cup play-offs.

“It was just great to be there competing, " Rai told BBC Radio WM. "It was something I didn't have scheduled until a really good Scottish Open. So it’s been a bonus playing this week.

"Royal Troon was a tough course in tough conditions and I just didn’t do well enough to manage my way round. So I’m feeling a bit disappointed.

“But really you have to expect very difficult conditions at an Open wherever the venue it is played."

While he will miss this week's US-based event in Minnesota, then put his feet up to watch the Olympics golf, the now Florida-based Rai is then scheduled to return to action at Greensboro, North Carolina for the Wyndham Championship on 8 August.

Aiming to get into the US PGA Tour top 50 to qualify for the lucrative BMW Championship in late August, he currently sits 53rd, just behind Open joint runner-up Justin Rose, who is 52nd - and now also ahead of him in the world rankings.

Rose's good week and Rai's drop of one place from 46th to 47th leaves the 3Hammers product as England's fifth-highest world-ranked golfer behind the Olympics-bound pair of Tommy Fleetwood (13th) and Matt Fitzpatrick (22nd), and Tyrrell Hatton (25th) and Rose (34th).

Aaron Rai was paired with Mexico's Santiago De La Fuente (left) and 1995 Open champion John Daly (with beard) on day one at Royal Troon

“I now have a couple of weeks off," Rai said. "Then I will be playing at the Wyndham Championship, followed by the start of the play-offs.

"But it will depend on how things go there, will determine how the rest of the season goes and how many play-off events we get into.

”Pretty much every event we play, whether it's over here or in the States now feels pretty important. It's phenomenal for me to be able to be based out there.

"The level of golf is incredibly strong and incredibly challenging. It brings you on and helps you improve."

As for next year and the chance to add Portrush to his Open portfolio?

"It would be great to be back next year," he said. "But that's a hell of a long way away and I will have to play a lot of good golf in between just to get there."

Aaron Rai was talking to BBC Sport's Jamie Broughton