Jordan Spieth Is Taking a Different Approach to His Most Elusive Goal

“It would be amazing, right? Because it’s just a very, very short list in history,” Spieth said at his press conference Monday.

The 32-year-old famously burst onto the scene and won the 2015 Masters and the U.S. Open at age 21, becoming the sixth player in history to start a season by winning those two majors in a row. He also won the 2017 British Open at Royal Birkdale, but since then it’s been a turbulent ride.

He hasn’t won a Tour event since the 2022 RBC Heritage and underwent wrist surgery in 2024. Now fully healthy, he’s still chasing and feels good about his game. He has no top-10 finishes in 12 starts this season, but he’s recorded six top 25s.

“If you look at the stats, it’s a whack-a-mole situation,” the world No. 51 said, “because I have had weeks where I’m leading in putting, weeks where I’m 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.”

The PGA Championship, however, is the third consecutive week he’s teeing up, following two consecutive signature events (that’s a scheduling quirk that has some pros agitated). Yet, Spieth feels that might benefit him going into this week.

“Having played two very difficult golf courses [Doral and Quail Hollow] leading into this is helpful, I think,” said Spieth, who posted consecutive results of T18 and T52. “I don’t mind a third week in a row. I’ve played some of my best golf having been third week in a row. But I’ve got to get kind of some legs under me after the last two and everybody is kind of doing that. I think most of the field played last week.”

The significance of a career Grand Slam

Back to the career Grand Slam, Spieth knows it’s a tall task. Gary Player, one of the six to complete it, once told a story about how he walked into a church hoping it would propel him toward that achievement. But he didn’t ask for a victory, he prayed for “patience, courage and to enjoy adversity.”

McIlroy’s road to winning a green jacket required all those characteristics. It took him 11 tries in Augusta to complete the Slam, and along the way he endured so much heartbreak that he would become tense just from stepping onto the property.

“There was a lot of pent-up emotion that just came out on that 18th green,” McIlroy said after winning the 2025 Masters. “A moment like that makes all the years and all the close calls worth it.”

Spieth, however, isn’t sure he’d have those same emotions as McIlroy if he won this week. He’s just treating this PGA like any other major.

“Rory’s was obviously a very unique final round and his history of having led there and stuff like that,” Speith said, “so I don’t think it would feel similar. For me, it would just be like, look, I’ve been kind of—I went on a run of feeling like I was contending or having a good chance of contending at every major for a number of years and then it was periodic, and I feel like I’m close to being able to go back to doing that again.

“So I just want to give myself a chance.”

But if that mindset culminates into him hoisting the Wanamaker Trophy, Spieth’s willing to relinquish any other accolades that he could achieve in his career.

“As far as the career Grand Slam, this tournament’s always highlighted,” he said. “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. 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.”

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