Hard work and preparation the key to Rai’s success

Caddie Jason Timmis says he has never seen a player as prepared as the 2020 Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open champion.

Golfers, like all professional sportspeople, often make the things that are very difficult to us amateurs look incredibly easy.

The ability to do that comes from a number of things: some natural talent, of course, but also a huge amount of hard work and an awful lot of preparation.

Aaron Rai's caddie Jason Timmis is himself a professional golfer, with 13 top tens on the Europro Tour, and he has said he has never seen anyone prepare like Rai.

These pictures of his incredible yardage book are testament to that and now that preparedness has made Rai a Rolex Series champion.

"He's played for a long time as well, it's incredible to have his experience on the bag," Rai said of Timmis.

"In terms of preparation, I try and see the course a couple of times during the week, nine holes on one day, nine holes on the other, just to get a feel for how it's playing, how the fairways are releasing, the speeds of the chips around the greens, the speeds of the putts.

"I just try and calibrate myself based on what's happening that given week.

"I have a load of numbers and, if you looked at it, it probably wouldn't correlate to anything, but it's my way of just calibrating speed and calibrating how the course plays.

"During the four days of the tournament, I think just doing the pins the night before, seeing the right areas, the right spots, times you can be aggressive, times to back off, it's a really important part for me with the way that I play.

"I think that gives me a little bit more assurance and confidence that for the most part, I'll be making good decisions. It doesn't mean it's always the case, but certainly it helps give me that confidence to just back myself a little bit more."

They say that failing to prepare is preparing to fail - there is no danger of that with Aaron Rai.