Only six men in golf history have achieved a career Grand Slam. Rory McIlroy was the latest to join that elusive club with his victory in the 2025 Masters.
With a victory in the PGA Championship this week at Aronimink, Jordan Speith could become the seventh career grand slam winner in the men’s game.
While it’s a nice storyline for those close to the game to follow, don’t expect the hype to get in the way of the task at hand for Speith.
“As the career Grand Slam, this tournament's always highlighted,” Speith said on Monday. “If I can win one more tournament in my life, it would obviously be this one for that reason. But the easiest way to do that is to not try to, in a weird way, you know. Just go out and get ready for the first hole, get a good game plan in and attack it the way it needs to be attacked.”
Spieth picked up the first three legs of the Slam in short order with victories in the Masters and U.S. Open (2015) and the Open Championship (2017). In the 2015 PGA Championship at Whistling Straits in 2015, he finished solo second, three shots behind champion Jason Day.
In the years since, the PGA Championship has been a tough nut to crack for the 32-year-old, 13-time PGA Tour winner. His lone PGA Championship top 10 since Whistling Straits was a T3 in 2019 at Bethpage Black.
But Speith isn’t worried about that.
“My game has been getting better and better,” he said. “It's plenty good to have a chance to win. It's about working my way into contention. I was able to do that a couple weeks ago [T18 at the Cadillac Championship].”
Speith has had six, top-25 finishes this year, but is still searching for his first victory since the 2022 RBC Heritage.
Consistency with the all-around game, Speith says, has been the biggest stumbling block when it comes to making a good week a great one.
“It's a whack-a-mole situation because I have had weeks where I'm leading in putting, weeks where I've leading in driving, weeks where I am leading in ball-striking, and then I just haven't been able to kind of put them all together, at least have -- haven't had -- you know, been able to lean on something on an off-day and not have, you know, something be a negative strokes that throws me out of a chance on any of those categories, right,” he said.
While that can be frustrating for the best players in the world, Speith is choosing to look at it with optimism.
“The good news is within this season I've been able to lead in each [category], so I should be confident that I have at least each part of the game as a weapon,” he said.
“It's just focusing on the right things, putting it together, limiting the mistakes, and then when something feels a little bit off, managing to be able to shoot a couple under par versus a couple over par.”
A victory this week would be grand in every sense of the word.
“It would be amazing, right, because it's just a very, very short list in history,” he said. “But obviously with having won the other three, that's the one that everyone focuses on,” Speith added. “But when I'm out here, and certainly when I get out on the golf course, I've been in contention a couple of times in this tournament. It didn't feel any different than any other majors, so I wouldn't expect to if I get there this week.”