Aaron Rai Explains Iron Covers Through Working-Class Roots — Rai Golfer
Aaron Rai said his iron covers come from how he was raised, not from style or superstition. The rai golfer explained that growing up in a working-class family made him treat expensive equipment carefully, a habit that started with the first clubs his father bought for him.
Aaron Rai and Titleist 690 MBs
“I grew up in very much a working-class family, and golf has always been a very expensive game,” Rai said in an interview with Sirius XM PGA Tour Radio. He said he started playing at age 4, and that his dad paid for his equipment, memberships and entry fees even though “it wasn’t money that we really had, to be honest.”
That background showed up again when he was about seven or eight years old. Rai said his father bought him a set of Titleist 690 MBs that cost about 800-1,000 pounds (GBP) for a kid’s clubs, and he said, “I cherished them.”
Father's Care After Practice
The routine around those clubs was just as strict. Rai said his father cleaned every groove after practice with a pin and baby oil, then the family put iron covers on the clubs to protect them. “To protect the golf clubs, he thought it would be good to put iron covers on it,” Rai said.
He said that habit stuck. “I’ve pretty much had iron covers on all of my sets ever since just to appreciate the value of what I have, and it all started with that first set,” Rai said. He also uses two golf gloves when he plays, another uncommon choice that fits the same hands-on approach.
Rocket Mortgage Classic Pressure
The explanation carries extra weight because Rai was in position to win for the first time on the PGA Tour during the final round of the 2024 Rocket Mortgage Classic. The equipment habit is one small window into the way he has handled the game since childhood: careful, deliberate, and shaped by the cost of everything around it.
Most golfers mock iron covers and treat them as unnecessary, but Rai’s version comes from a specific family routine built around preserving what his father worked to provide. The clubs were expensive, the care was constant, and the habit never went away.
