How did Aaron Rai win PGA? You must hear about when we … ghost-hunted?

Aaron Rai and the author in 2023.

At no point, he was warned, would he hear a stranger question. Due to the subject matter and the fact that it was being asked two days before a PGA Championship, it suggested the questioner was coming not from the press room, but straight from the clubhouse taproom.

But I asked anyway.

Do you believe in ghosts?

He paused.

He laughed.

He answered.

“Yes,” Aaron Rai said.

Really? 

“Yes.”

More questions followed, of course. A suggestion, too, from Rai — who, three years and two days after that late Tuesday afternoon at Oak Hill Country Club, was not just playing another PGA Championship, but winning its Wanamaker. There Rai was, somehow bringing Aronimik Golf Club to its knees, after it had spent the week punching everyone else upside the head. After a bogey at 8, he eagled 9 on a 40-footer, birdied 11, birdied 13, birdied 16 and, most thunderously, birdied 17 on a 68-foot bomb, all the while looking completely like what I had seen when I once tried to hail a ghost with the Englishman.

Some background here. At Oak Hill, a few Oak Hillians had believed the water on its 7th hole was occasionally visited by “Buffalo” Bill Cody, who, unfortunately, had died well before any golf was played on the Rochester, N.Y., grounds. One of the preeminent performers of the late 1800s/early 1900s — and why the NFL’s Buffalo Bills are called the “Buffalo Bills” — Cody had lived in the area and enjoyed its outdoor activities and, some felt, still did. I made some calls. To two Buffalo Bill museums. (As I said, he was famous.) To Fred Beltz, Oak Hill’s club historian who graciously shared more of the story. To Susan Fiandach, a lifelong Rochesterian and, most crucially for this project, a psychic medium who guided me on how to talk to, yes, ghosts, because if this were true, one would certainly have to be conversational with the apparition. On the Tuesday of tournament week, on the 7th tee, I asked my question to a few players. Most weren’t interested, because, you know, they were golfers, not ghostbusters. One pro was, well, spooked.

Then, around 6 or so, came Rai, an alternate that week who I had never talked to previously, but I had known to be articulate in interviews. At the very least he’d tell me politely to make like a ghost and disappear. He explained, though, that he strongly believed in an afterlife, and, as I told him what I had learned, he joked that he regretted being out as our surroundings darkened. He also double-checked that what was happening was, in fact, not a spoof, so, yes, he’s not gullible, either.

We arrived at the water, and I did as Fiandach taught me.

Buffalo Bill, I want to see you. I want to talk to you. Please appear.  

Nothing.

I was ready to thank Rai for his time.

Only then he tried.

Buffalo Bill, we’d really like to see you. If you’re here, then, yeah, let us know. 

Nothing.

I extended my hand to Rai. I tried again to thank him. But he had an idea.
Let’s try it together this time. So we did.

Three-two-one.

Buffalo Bill, we would really like to see you. Please appear. 

Nothing.

But yes, of course there was something. The story and video are still on the world wide web. (It actually published three years ago to the day of his win.) That week, Brooks Koepka won, and Rai, unfortunately, never played. A few weeks later, we talked on a range. Had anyone given him ghost droppings about it? He said he’d heard a few comments. Since then, I’ll occasionally text him.

Sunday, I watched him.

And you saw what I’d already seen.

In a PGA Championship-winning moment, dude didn’t look like he had seen a ghost.

Unmoved.

Unbothered by what could happen at any point at Aronimink while he was playing for a PGA Championship title.

Unbothered by what turned out to be nothing happening at all at Oak Hill while he was waiting for a breakthrough at a PGA Championship.

“I’m super happy for him,” Xander Schauffele said. “He’s such a good dude. Rarely do you feel like people work way harder than you.

“I feel like I’ve played a pretty good amount of time, and Aaron is always there. He’s always in the gym. He’s always on the range. He’s always — you know, at the Scottish, I’m staying right on site there. I thought it was fun for [caddie Austin Kaiser] and I to go putt. Aaron is finishing up his little putting session at 9 p.m. and going to the gym at 9:45. This was three years ago. I think that’s what it’s about to be a major champion. You put the work in when nobody’s looking. Super pumped for him and his team.”

Late Sunday, I texted Beltz, the Oak Hill historian, who was watching. He responded: “How cool that Aaron Rai was part of the Wild Bill expedition!” I texted Fiandech, the psychic, and I asked her if she could have foreseen the win.

“Lol possibly.”

But then things got really strange. As part of this, I rewatched the video.

At the end of it, I told him we’ll talk again on Sunday when he hoists the Wanamaker.

Maybe I did see something that day.