Aaron Rai turned professional in 2012 and has steadily moved up the ranks from the PGA EuroPro Tour, to the DP World Tour, to now the PGA Tour, with the Englishman claiming some notable victories along the way.
His biggest win, to date, came at the 2020 Scottish Open, where he defeated Tommy Fleetwood in a playoff and, throughout the majority of his pro career, Rai has had caddie, Jason Timmis, on the bag. Here, we get to know him a little bit more.
Prior to his caddying journey, Timmis was an established player himself. Having started playing his golf at Greenway Hall in Stoke-On-Trent, he also played at Westwood Golf Club and Newcastle Golf Club.
Getting his handicap down to plus-three, he secured a scholarship to colleges in the USA, eventually playing at Texas for two years and Oklahoma for the final two. After his stint in the States, he opted to return back to the UK and turn professional, competing on the EuroPro and various mini Tours.
Impressively, Timmis made it all the way through to the final stage of European Tour Q School and secured some Challenge and European Tour starts. However, after five years of being a pro, he switched back to coaching at Greenway before caddying for Gian Marco Petrozzi.
So, how did Timmis start caddying for Rai? Well, Timmis had played with Rai in a few EuroPro events and, after qualifying for the Farmfoods British Par 3 Championship, Timmis mentioned to Rai he was doing some caddying. As they say, the rest is history.
Caddying for Rai in some big events, like the BMW PGA Championship and Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, Rai and Timmis' working relationship grew stronger and, ever since, the pair have worked together going through the ranks.
One particularly memorable story between the two came at The 150th Open Championship at St Andrews, where Rai was the second reserve. Travelling up to the event on Wednesday evening, the Englishman slept in Timmis' campervan overnight with the visit paying off, as Rai found out at 10am on the first day of the Major that he would be playing following Erik van Rooyen's withdrawal.
Aaron Rai drove 350 miles then slept in his caddie's campervan ahead of today's opening round.#150thopenJuly 14, 2022
Another moment between the player-caddie duo came at the 2023 Players Championship when, playing the iconic 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass, Rai made a hole-in-one to much fanfare.
Speaking after the ace, Rai stated: "It was a little bit of a blur. I saw it go in, and then I looked to the left to almost see, is it real, and I saw almost the crowd’s hands in the air. In the second after that, I looked to the right, towards my caddie, and he came running at me. So it happened very fast, but it feels very vivid now that I’m even talking about it and remembering some of those images. So I couldn’t quite believe that it happened, but very, very special. Very special. Something I’ll always remember."
