'My dad used to clean every single groove afterward with a pin and baby oil'

Aaron Rai does things a bit differently; he likes to wear two wet-weather gloves and he uses iron covers. Both his which look a bit amateurish but both are founded on some sound reasoning. If you don’t know much about Rai he’s as genuine as anyone out there and he now has a PGA Tour card.

Of his MacWet gloves from Glenmuir he explains: “It started when I was eight years old. I just happened to be given these two gloves – the guy who actually makes them sent a pair over – and I got into the habit of wearing them.

Then, a few weeks down the line, my dad forgot to put the two gloves in the bag so I had to play with one. It was terrible. I couldn’t play, I couldn’t feel the grip, so I’ve always stuck with the two gloves ever since.”

As for the iron covers, which cause a few titters among spectators, this also goes back to his early days.

“It started from the age of four years old, when my dad used to pay for my equipment,” said Rai, who added that his family weren’t the typical golfing crowd. “He paid for my membership, paid for my entry fees. It wasn’t money that we really had, to be honest, but he’d always buy me the best clubs.

“When we used to go out and practise, he used to clean every single groove afterward with a pin and baby oil, and to protect the clubs he thought it would be good to put iron covers on them. And I’ve pretty much had iron covers on all my sets ever since, just to kind of appreciate the value of what I have.”

Even better Rai remembers that a set of Titleist 690 MBs were his pride and joy at the age of seven.