NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. — Aaron Rai sat in his parked courtesy car Saturday night for 30 additional minutes, hashing out the day’s events. Before retiring for the evening, before letting his head hit the pillow on the eve of what would become the most consequential round of his life, he turned to his wife, Gaurika Bishnoi. The soon-to-be PGA champion expressed a worry that she’d never heard before.“Sometimes, I feel that the things around me are going to change too much if I do something too crazy,” Rai told Bishnoi, a professional golfer on the Ladies European Tour herself.Rai feared the summit. When the journeyman pro from the English Midlands envisioned his climactic career moment, he saw not just a trophy but also the newfound fame, attention and demands on his time. The things that come with the pinnacle of this profession scared him, because he worried that in the process of it all, he might lose himself.But right then and there, sitting in a dark hotel parking lot, Bishnoi reassured him she would not let that happen. It wasn’t an option. Because Aaron Rai is not Aaron Rai without a steadfast resistance to change. It is instilled in his being, both as a golfer with a deep respect for the game and as a human who appreciates where he came from.“We’re going to lead our lives the same way,” she said. “And that is a choice we are going to consciously make. He can still be true to himself because that is what makes Aaron so unique.”So as the No. 44-ranked player in the world charged to a breakaway victory from a historically crowded PGA Championship leaderboard Sunday, creating a shock to Aronimink’s system with his final-round 65, he thought back to Bishnoi’s words. And hours later, sitting in the player interview room as the first Englishman to lift the Wanamaker Trophy in 107 years, he set the tone for what’s to come. He doubled down on the rituals that turned him from a 17-year-old trying to make it on the European developmental tours to a 31-year-old major champion.“I felt like I was strong enough in why I did certain things to be able to continue to move that forward. I knew the reasons why I do them. I believe in the reasons why I do them. So I had no reason to really shift from that as I got older,” Rai said.Rai is referring to a well-documented set of quirks that distinguish him as a professional. But they also define who he is as a person.Rai is the only player on the PGA Tour who wears two black weatherproof rain gloves, rain or shine, May or November, instead of one traditional white leather glove on the nondominant hand. It’s because he grew up practicing for hours during England’s harsh, damp winters, and the sensation of having both hands covered became comfortable. So Rai stuck with it.