CHARLOTTE, N.C. – After waiting 25 years for a player to join the list of those who completed the career Grand Slam, the possibility exists that we would have two in consecutive major championships.
Rory McIlroy took care of business in dramatic fashion last month at Augusta National, winning the Masters for his fifth major overall to join Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods in the exclusive club of players to win all four majors in their career.
Now it’s Jordan Spieth’s turn.
The three-time major winner is actually trying to complete the career slam for the ninth time, having won the British Open in 2017 after winning the Masters and U.S. Open in 2015.
The quest has been mostly futile as Spieth, 31, has rarely contended at the PGA Championship and admitted it wasn’t much of a talking point on some of his attempts.
But after what McIlroy just did ...
“There’s been a number of years I've come to the PGA, and no one's really asked me about it There's been some years where it was a story line, I guess,” Spieth said Tuesday at rain-soaked Quail Hollow Club, site of this week’s PGA Championship.
“It's funny, I think if Rory didn't (win the Masters), then it wouldn't have been a story line for me here necessarily. It’s always a story line if I work my way in, but at least ahead of time, I just feel like I've been asked about it more than other years, including years where I've come in—I want to say '22 I came in after winning and finishing second back-to-back, which I would have thought would be a time where that would have been one.
“So I've kind of been surprised by the dynamic a little bit. But it's always circled on the calendar.
“For me, if I could only win one tournament for the rest of my life, I'd pick this one for that reason. Obviously watching Rory win after giving it a try for a number of years was inspiring.”
The hype around Spieth has been tempered because he’s not been a consistent winner of late. He’s gone three years since his last win at the RBC Heritage and that was just his second victory since he captured the Open at Royal Birkdale in 2017.
At the time, Spieth had three major titles and 11 PGA Tour wins. He’s now at three majors and13 wins.
Perhaps for that reason, Spieth has taken the quest in stride. He doesn’t view it as the burden that McIlroy did. He hasn't been winning enough, anywhere, to make it top of mind.
“The years I'm talking about, I wasn't in very good form,” Spieth said. “If you're not in very good form coming into a major—I mean, I had a chance in 2019, and I was not in form. I was in the final group on Saturday with Brooks (Koepka), and I was like, I know what it's like to have control of my game. I've played with Brooks with control of my game, and I see what he's doing right now, and I don't have mine. Let's see if I can fake it these next two days.
“I feel a lot better now than, say, I did in that. I'm not insulted by it. Typically there's a lot of story lines. I feel like for so many years watching Phil (Mickelson) at the U.S. Open, there was some, then it wasn't some, and then he wins the PGA recently, and all of a sudden it becomes a story line in the U.S. Open. It just kind of bounces back and forth within the noise, I guess.”
Spieth’s reference to the 2019 PGA at Bethpage is the only time he’s finished in the top 10 at the tournament during his career Slam journey. And even then, he finished third, six shots behind Koepka and four behind second-place finisher Dustin Johnson.
In fact, Spieth has not been much of a factor at the PGA Championship, with just two top-10s in 12 appearances. He was second to Jason Day in 2015 after winning the Masters and U.S Open and missing a playoff by a shot at St Andrews.
In 2017, coming off his Open win at Royal Birkdale, Spieth was only on the fringe of contention at Quail Hollow, site of this week’s event, finishing in a tie for 28th. Since then, aside from the tie for third at Bethpage, his best is a tie for 12th in 2018 at Bellerive.
In recent years, he’s been plagued by a wrist injury that required surgery last fall and kept him from advancing in the FedEx Cup playoffs. He didn’t return until February and had dropped outside of the top 80 in the Official World Golf Ranking.
He’s now ranked 48th and admitted that he’s trying to take the long view.
“So when I'm golfing, I haven't really been thinking about it the last couple of months,” Spieth said. “I wake up in the morning, I'm very aware I had surgery. My left wrist feels twice the size of my right for about a half hour every morning. They say that stops about a year post-op, some days are better than others. I haven't exactly given it a lot of rest in the last few months, and I'm sure that will help once we hit the offseason.
“It's still there, very much so. I'm still aware, but I'm not worried about the same thing happening anymore thanks to the doctors that I've had and their rehab process that I went through. It was a lot of hard work. Last fall and into the winter, physically and mentally, it was one of the hardest things that I've had to do.
“It tested every bit of what I could do, and I went by the book. By the time I was able to play, I think I played well and was kind of in contention in Phoenix, and I was just like, man, I am just incredibly grateful just to be back out here doing this because there was months where you're going through the process wondering if or when that would happen again."
Spieth has just one missed cut this year and has posted three top-10s, including a fourth recently at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson where he shot a final-round 61. He also tied for 14th at the Masters.
Like most of the golf world at Augusta National, Spieth watched with great interest as McIlroy went through the highs and lows of winning the green jacket—and why now some focus has shifted to him.
“You could tell it was a harder win than . . . most of the time he makes it look a lot easier,” Spieth said. “So that obviously was on the forefront of his mind. Something like that has not been done by many people, and there's a reason why.
“But I'd love to throw my hat in the ring and give it a chance come the weekend this week.”
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Jordan Spieth Embraces Chance to Follow Rory McIlroy Into History Books This Week.
