The Players 2023 more miracles

The PGA Tour opened The Players Championship in 1974 with the same position as the major quartet.

Rai opened the miracle in the 3rd round, when he had just finished 15 holes with a score of -5, on March 11. On the par5 16th hole, the 28-year-old British golfer went to the green on his second shot, 15 meters from the hole, and then scored a birdie after two putts.

Going to the par3 17th hole with one of the hardest oasis greens in the world, Rai played with a gap wedge, 122 yards from the flag. The ball went up the side of the green, bounced three times, then bounced back to the target on the forward side.

It was the second ace at The Players 2023, after Hayden Buckley in the first round and the 12th in tournament history at the Stadium.

At last year's tournament, the penultimate hole had 423 plays, including 57 shots in the water, and in the PGA Tour last season's summary, it ranked 10th in difficulty in 204 par3 holes.

After hole-in-one on hole 17, Buckley added a birdie on hole 18. This is an achievement no one has done since 1982, when the settlement tournament was designed by the legendary Pete Dye. However, Rai also birdie on the 18th hole, thereby turning Buckley into a former record holder.

Par4 last hole, Rai is 134 yards from the flag on his second shot, right of the fairway. He put the ball in 1.2 meters from the hole to close the circle from there. With a score of -4 in the last three holes, Rai achieved a score of -9, moving up 16 places to T4. The top of the group after round 3 belongs to the world's second player Scottie Scheffler, at -14.

In the penultimate leg, Rai averaged 281.5 yards, 9.5 yards shorter than the average on this season's PGA Tour. But he hit 12 of the 14 fairways, hitting the green on a 13-hole standard with 25 putts for the whole round.

Rai has been playing golf professionally since 2012, so far he has owned two cups on the European first-class golf arena DP World Tour.