Aaron Rai's under-the-radar reward for winning the PGA Championship

Life is good for Aaron Rai after winning the PGA Championship on Sunday. He’s got the Wanamaker Trophy in his possession, a $3.69 million first-place prize money payout, the forever title of “major champion” … oh and potentially an extra helping of chips and guac from Chipotle to celebrate the victory.

With the victory, Rai also can boast that he’s exempt into every major championship for the next five years. And that’s no small reward considering that the 31-year-old Englishman wasn’t formally in the field at Shinnecock Hills before playing last week's PGA Championship.

Monday was the cutoff for players to earn direct spots into the field at Shinnecock Hills through a handful of the USGA’s exemption categories. Rai is one of 34 golfers who now have their place in the USGA’s marquee event locked in. (Here's the full field that has already earned exemptions.)

The Englishman has played in the last two U.S. Opens, going through qualifying in 2024 and being exempt in 2025. He finished T-19 and T-33 in those two championships, respectively. Mind you, had he not won at Aronimink, Rai was inside his place inside OWGR’s top 70 would have also gotten him out of having to play in Final Qualifying.

Here’s a list of the others who now know they’re on their way to Shinnecock Hills next month:

PGA Championship winner:

Aaron Rai

2026 FedEx Cup — top five not already exempt as of May 18:

Alex Fitzpatrick
Patrick Rodgers
Matti Schmid
Sahith Theegala
Sudarshan Yellamaraju

2025 Race to Dubai — top two not already exempt

Adrien Saddier
Laurie Canter

2026 Race to Dubai — top two not already exempt as of May 18:

Jayden Schaper

2026 OWGR — top 60 not already exempt as of May 18:

Patrick Reed
Si Woo Kim
Kristoffer Reitan
Kurt Kitayama
Nicolai Hojgaard
Min Woo Lee
Ryan Gerard
Rickie Fowler
Jake Knapp
Jason Day
Alex Smalley
Marco Penge
Daniel Berger
Michael Kim
Matt McCarty
Adam Scott
Nicolas Echavarria
Samuel Stevens
Ryan Fox
Michael Brennan
Pierceson Coody
David Puig
Ryo Hisatsune

2025 LIV Golf individual points list — top non-exempt player within top three of ranking:

Joaquin Niemann

2026 LIV Golf individual points list — top non-exempt player within top three of ranking:

Lucas Herbert