DUBLIN, Ohio (AP) — Aaron Rai finally returned home to Florida as a major champion and it didn’t take long for him to realize how life was different.

One clue was a trip to the grocery store.

“I wasn’t even in golf clothes,” Rai said Tuesday at the Memorial, his first tournament since winning the PGA Championship at Aronimink.

“Just a couple of customers that were doing their regular grocery shopping just came over and congratulated me on the PGA and the performance,” he said. “So yeah, that was very unexpected — and different.”

When he did get back to his regular practice routine at the TPC Sawgrass, he said it took him longer than usual to get from the parking lot to the range because of so many people who stopped him. That, too, was different.

Most meaningful, however, was when his father came to Ponte Vedra Beach from London. Rai said only when they talked about the week and what he had done did it start to sink in.

And then there was the hug they shared.

“My dad, he’s a very proud man. He doesn’t show a huge amount of emotions,” Rai said. “But the first evening that I saw him his hug was a little bit different. His smile was a little bit different. We sat and we spoke for probably a good couple of hours or so.

“I could probably hear it more from what I associate with how he is normally and how he was during those first couple of days,” he said. “So I think, yeah, that definitely held a lot of weight for me internally.”

The ‘Mad Scientist’ gets a little help from AI

Golf must have been much more complicated for Bryson DeChambeau nearly a decade ago when his mind would race through nine calculations before each shot, from the obvious (yardage and wind) to the scientific (air density and dew point).

Now he apparently just talks to Gemini to find solutions.

That’s what he explained after the most recent LIV Golf event in South Korea when digging it out of the dirt wasn’t enough.

“I spent some long hours on the range trying to figure some stuff out and I was talking to AI quite a bit last night trying to go through some different physics principles that makes the club turn over, having some alpha torque and gamma torque put in there,” DeChambeau said Sunday.

“I was like, ‘What makes that possibly do that?’ And was talking about just grip pressure and tension.”

He closed with a 65 to finish third, one shot out of the playoff.

DeChambeau had been spotted on the practice range the night before the final round and was asked if he was using AI while hitting golf balls.

“I was slamming the club in the ground trying to figure out what to do. I was frustrated,” he said. “I didn’t actually figure it out on the range. I went back and started talking to Gemini and trying to figure out just what it could be to passively make the club turn over.

“I’m still working it out,” he said. “I don’t have the answer.”

Best in college making pro debut at Riviera

Megha Ganne was low amateur when she made her U.S. Women’s Open debut at Olympic Club while still in high school. The Stanford senior is at Riviera this week playing for cash.

Ganne and Catherine Park, the top two college seniors on the LPGA Collegiate Advancement Pathway program, are making their professional debuts in U.S. Women’s Open.

The U.S. Women’s Open has the largest purse in women’s golf — $12 million last year, still to be announced for this year.

Turning pro was always the plan for Ganne, whose U.S. Women’s Amateur title came with an automatic spot in the Curtis Cup, to be held next week at nearby Bel-Air Country Club. Ganne played in the 2022 Curtis Cup, while Park played on the last two teams.

They will have status on the Epson Tour the rest of the year and all of 2027, along with the eight other seniors in the top 10 of the LCAP program.

“I think there’s a little bit of uncertainty when you’re starting a new chapter of professional golf and playing on a new tour,” Ganne said. “So I guess just being comfortable being uncomfortable and just go play my golf game.”

Blades Brown becomes a PGA Tour special temporary member

Blades Brown, the 19-year-old who turned pro before leaving high school, made it official by accepting special temporary membership on the PGA Tour. That allows unlimited sponsor exemptions the rest of the year.

Brown earned enough points for that privilege with a tie for 14th in The CJ Cup Byron Nelson. He then headed back to the Korn Ferry Tour, where he tied for 13th last week to move to No. 11 on the points list.

The top 20 on the Korn Ferry Tour earn PGA Tour cards. Brown also would have to finish equal to 70th place on last year’s FedEx Cup to get a card.

He is back on the Korn Ferry this week at the BMW Charity Pro-Am in South Carolina.

Brown could become the youngest player to get a PGA Tour card, breaking the record of Jason Day, who was eight days short of his 20th birthday when he got a card in October 2007.

Women’s world ranking reducing points for no-cut fields

LPGA tournaments that do not have a cut will be getting a “virtual cut” when it comes to the world ranking.

The Women’s World Golf Ranking announced a change to the formula for no-cut events. Players finishing in the bottom 15% of the field will not receive any points. The exception is the CME Tour Championship on the LPGA, and other season-ending events on other tours, where the field is based on a season performance and does not include sponsor exemptions.

For the LPGA, the “virtual cut” would apply to the season-opening Tournament of Champions, and to the seven events on its two Asia swings.

The move is to keep in line with the men’s world ranking and how it treats no-cut tournaments.

Divots

Andre Gonzalez, who played five seasons on the PGA Tour and has been doing broadcast work at PGA Tour events, is taking over as golf coach at UNLV. … Ben James kept his spot atop the PGA Tour University ranking, meaning the Virginia senior will have a PGA Tour card through the 2027 season. He is eligible to make his pro debut next week in the RBC Canadian Open. … Brooks Koepka will be playing the Scottish Open on a sponsor exemption ahead of the British Open. It will be his first appearance at the Scottish Open since 2015.

Stat of the week

Russell Henley at Colonial became the first player since Rickie Fowler at the 2015 Players Championship to make birdie or better his final three holes and win in a playoff.

Final word

“I know nothing about business. I’m never going to claim to know anything about business, and if I was in a business pitch, I would not know the first thing to say. My job is to play golf, and I’ll say it’s hard enough as it is.” — Jon Rahm on his role in helping LIV Golf find financial investors.

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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf