CHARLOTTE, N.C. — There have been years when Jordan Spieth arrived at the PGA Championship and wasn’t even asked about the prospect of completing the career Grand Slam.
He didn’t find it insulting. In fact, he kind of understood it.
“A lot of times,” he said, “I wasn’t in very good form.”
But that’s not the case this year, and it was fitting, a month after Rory McIlroy finally checked off the final leg of the Slam, that Spieth on Tuesday kicked off the player interviews here at Quail Hollow.
This will be Spieth’s ninth attempt to win the fourth and final leg. McIlroy needed a record 11 attempts (the previous high was three) to finally claim the Masters.
“It’s always circled on the calendar,” Spieth said. “For me, if I could only win one tournament for the rest of my life, I’d pick this one for that reason.
“Watching Rory win after giving it a try for a number of years was inspiring. Most of the time he makes it look a lot easier; so obviously that 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 like to throw my hat in the ring and give it a chance come the weekend.”
Since his first attempt in 2017 (also here at Quail Hollow), Spieth has not come particularly close. His only top-10 finish was in 2019, when even he admitted that he needed to “fake it” around Bethpage Black without anywhere near his best stuff and Brooks Koepka staked to a significant lead.
Throughout his career, Spieth has long believed that the PGA Championship would be the second-most difficult major for him to win. He acknowledged that he was perhaps fortunate that the tournament he least expected to win, the U.S. Open, came at an atypical venue in Chambers Bay in 2015 and with some assistance from a late Dustin Johnson three-putt. Meanwhile, the PGA, with its preference for big ballparks with thick rough, has not typically fit Spieth’s profile. But improvements to his driver have imbued him with a new sense of confidence that he can handle this major’s unique demands. This season he has increased both his ball speed and his accuracy off the tee while posting three top-10s in his comeback from wrist surgery.
“Because of my driver becoming a weapon more than it used to be,” he said, “that leaves me in a position where I feel a little more comfortable on these courses.”
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Throw in the fact that he has seen Quail Hollow before during the regular PGA Tour stop — four tries, zero top-25s — and features wall-to-wall, sloped Bermudagrass that he grew up on in Dallas, and this could represent one of Spieth’s best chances to join golf’s most exclusive club.
“It’s a good opportunity this week, for sure,” he said.
