Aaron Rai's heartfelt gesture; Pablo Larrazábal discovers handwritten note in his locker at Genesis Scottish Open

At a time where he has been open about his struggles on the course, Pablo Larrazábal revealed that US PGA Championship winner Aaron Rai is a 'true champion' and left a hand-written note of encouragement in his locker the day before teeing up in the Genesis Scottish Open.

We asked both of them about it after their opening rounds, with both men revealing a that it came about after a conversation on the range on Monday.

"I know Aaron for a long time," Larrazabal revealed.

"When he came on Tour we used to play a lot. We played a lot of golf together through Covid and all of that stuff. On Monday I saw him, obviously I congratulated him for the year he’s having and for Major champion that he is.  And you know, he asked me how my year was going and obviously I told him that my year wasn’t going my way. And obviously he looked at it and he discovered that not only it wasn’t going my way, it was going very very poorly."

"So we were on the range on Monday and it’s the first time that I’ve seen Pablo probably since the back end of last year," Rai explained further.

"- a quick conversation, he was very congratulatory on winning the PGA a couple of months ago and I asked him how his season was and he said he was struggling a little bit.

"I hadn’t really checked the Race to Dubai so I haven’t really kept track of what players are doing so it was the first that I heard of how his season has been. Then yeah, continued practicing but it kind of stuck with me a little bit what he had said.  He’s won nine times and been one of the strongest players on the DP World Tour for 15 years now. I thought, those periods can be extremely difficult for anyone, let alone someone who has been as successful as what he has. I just felt like it’d be a nice little bit of encouragement to write a little note for him."

Inspired somewhat subconsciously by notes he received after his Major victory, Rai said it felt like the right thing to do.

"[It was] something that I received from a couple of players after the PGA which I thought was a nice and lovely touch, so that was probably subconsciously was in the back of my mind after receiving a few myself.

"I first got on Tour in 2018 and Pablo was always very welcoming to me. We’ve been paired together a little bit more in recent years, and we’ve got to know each other a little bit more. It just felt like the right thing to do."

Rai then enlisted the help of his brother in law to choose and print some photos for him, choosing his first victory, his win in Abu Dhabi in 2014 and his two most recent wins in 2023 and 2024.

"My brother in law is with me this week so I asked him if he could print the pictures off, he also helped me choose the pictures. He got that done at the clubhouse then gave me the paper to write the note.

"I just left it in his locker, I thought he would read it and I didn’t think anything else would come from it."

The note read: "Pablo, the guy in these pictures is you and is much closer to the present you than you think. Keep fighting, keep working hard and most importantly keep believing - in each tournament, in each round, and each shot. Best wishes, Aaron Rai".

Touched by the gesture, Larrazábal shared a video on instagram, and told the DP World Tour about how happy it made him.

"I arrived on Tuesday afternoon to my locker after practice I saw three photos and a beautiful note from a young kid that I saw him grow up on the DP World Tour and now he’s a full member on the PGA Tour for five years and a Major Champion.

"To receive a note like that make me very happy that I’ve been doing the right things around for the last 19 years. And a guy like Aaron, he’s a Major champion but a true champion. That’s how champions have to behave. When they see a rival or a friend that is down in the ground, they try the best to push us up. It doesn’t matter the pictures, it’s all about what it meant. Aaron is not only one of the best players in the world, he’s a true champion and that’s how they were when I got in love with this game 40 years ago.

"It’s not all about winning, and his family teach him very very well, it’s about leaving a legacy. Aaron will be leaving a legacy around the world, not only because of his game, but because of how he behaves not only on the golf course but outside the golf course. A true gentleman."

It comes at a time where Larrazábal has been open about struggling on Tour this season. The nine-time DP World Tour winner missed nine consecutive cuts before making it to the weekend at the DS Automobiles 83° Open d'Italia last month.

“This is my 19th season out here, I have a family to support and I have a kid to take care of," the 43-year-old said candidly after the KLM Open at the start of June.

"Out of the 480 tournaments I’ve played in my career, the first five and these last five, I have been thinking about money and that’s not easy to play with.”

A week later, despite a closing bogey, he made his first cut since the Qatar Masters.

"It means so much," he said.

"I started thinking about the cut line. I made the best bogey of my career on the last to make it, there's not many times you putt from nine feet thinking careful.

"My game is a lot better than what the numbers are, and we have to think bigger."

While he finished tied 55th in Italy, Larrazábal then missed the cut again at last week's BMW International Open before arriving for the second Rolex Series event of the year at The Renaaissance Club.

After Rai's victory at the US PGA Championship there was an outpouring of sentiment about him being one of the nicest guys on Tour.

Rai's gesture to Larrazábal only cemented that status.