CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Tiger Woods became the youngest player to complete the career Grand Slam at age 24 when he crossed the Swilcan Bridge at St. Andrews and marched right into history. No one bothered asking who was next because no one was particularly close.
It’s different now.
That was some grand occasion for Rory McIlroy when he won the Masters. There was sheer joy from 17 years of trying to win the green jacket, the last 11 years fully aware that he could join the most exclusive group in golf. “Welcome to the club, kid,” is the text Woods sent him.
That raised the question: Who’s next?
The attention immediately falls to Jordan Spieth, who has been trying to complete the Grand Slam at the PGA Championship since 2017, the last time it was at Quail Hollow. He has never finished closer than six shots in those previous eight attempts.
“There’s been a number of years I’ve come to the PGA, and no one’s really asked me about it,” Spieth said Tuesday. “There’s been some years where it was a storyline, I guess. It’s funny, I think if didn’t, then it wouldn’t have been a storyline for me here necessarily.”
Perhaps he’s been lost behind McIlroy and Phil Mickelson, who has been trying to get the career slam since the 2014 U.S. Open. This year’s might be Lefty’s last chance. His five-year exemption to the U.S. Open from winning the 2021 PGA Championship at age 50 runs out.
“I would put money on Jordan being the next guy,” Xander Schauffele said.
But this is no easy money, even when it’s only one more major to win.
That surely was the feeling some 60 years ago when golf celebrated a career Grand Slam in consecutive years — Gary Player at the 1965 U.S. Open, Jack Nicklaus at the 1966 U.S. Open. Next in line was Arnold Palmer. All he needed was the PGA Championship.
“Certainly the incentive is there,” Palmer said when he arrived at Firestone for the 1966 PGA Championship. “I feel so good there can’t be any excuses.”
But there was no Grand Slam, not that year or the next 28 years that followed until Palmer played his last PGA Championship in 1994 at age 64. Lee Trevino, Tom Watson and Raymond Floyd all reached the cusp of golf’s greatest feat and never crossed the line.
After Nicklaus, it took 34 years before Woods got his Grand Slam, and then 25 years until McIlroy did it.
“Do I think it will take another 25 years? It’s a good question,” Scottie Scheffler said. “Jordan can win the Grand Slam by winning four majors. Rory did it in five. … The odds would say he’s good enough to do it, for sure.”
Scheffler has been the dominant player for the last three years, winning the Masters in 2022 and 2024 and spending more consecutive weeks at No. 1 than anyone except Woods.
“I’ve only one won, technically. That’s the other side of the coin,” Scheffler said of his chances at the Grand Slam. “I’ve been playing some pretty good golf and I’m not even close.”
The PGA Championship, which starts Thursday, and the next two majors at Oakmont (U.S. Open) and Royal Portrush (British Open) could go a long way in shaping the conversation for the next several years.
Jon Rahm winning the PGA Championship or British Open. Schauffele or Collin Morikawa winning at the U.S. Open. Dustin Johnson at the PGA Championship or British Open. Brooks Koepka at the British.
That’s all it would take to add to the list of players on the verge of a feat realized by only Woods and McIlroy over the last 59 years.
But as hard as it is to win two majors, getting the third leg is no small task. That much is evident by the number of players who have two legs of the slam and got no closer.
Nick Price won the PGA Championship in 1992 and the British Open in 1994.
“From the time I won the first PGA, I wanted to win that Grand Slam so badly,” Price said. “It’s every golfer’s dream. I always struggled at Augusta as a low ball-striker. And then the U.S. Open, I had two or three good chances. It was definitely one of those things on my mind.”
Before him was Sandy Lyle and Nick Faldo, Fuzzy Zoeller and Larry Nelson, Hubert Green and the late Seve Ballesteros. The Spaniard had two legs of the Grand Slam at age 23.
Faldo won six majors — three apiece at the British Open and Masters — giving him the most majors of any players in the last century who got only two legs of the Grand Slam.
“It’s not easy to get on the cusp, but it’s a lot easier to get on the cusp than to actually pull it off,” Scheffler said. He paused before adding, “I think it’s really hard to get on the cusp.”
And it doesn’t get any easier as time goes on. The modern version of the Grand Slam didn’t start until Palmer mentioned it in 1960. Gene Sarazen (1935) and Ben Hogan (1953) won the career slam retrospectively. It still counts.
Player (29), Nicklaus (26) and Woods were all in their 20s when they captured the last leg. McIlroy was 35 when he finally got the Masters, perhaps another reason he was so emotional that day at Augusta National, and still looks to be floating on air.
Johnson turned 40 last year and his game in the majors has dropped substantially since joining LIV Golf. Koepka turned 35 last month and has gone seven straight majors without a top 10 since winning the 2023 PGA Championship, the longest such streak of his career.
Spieth is 31, winless in three years but still in his prime. If he isn’t next, perhaps the focus shifts to who joins the line.
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On The Fringe analyzes the biggest topics in golf during the season. AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
