Rory McIlroy namechecked Jordan Spieth ahead of next week’s US PGA Championships as the American looks to complete his own career grand slam
It took 25 years for golf’s most exclusive club to admit a new member after Rory McIlroy completed the career grand slam by winning the Masters. Just five weeks later, that club could expand from six to seven as Jordan Spieth bids to end his own major drought by winning the US PGA Championship at Quail Hollow.
It will be Spieth’s ninth attempt to complete the career grand slam since he claimed the third leg in the 2017 Open Championship at Royal Birkdale and the former world number one will be hopeful of mounting a realistic challenge for the first time. Although the record books show that Spieth was third at Bethpage in 2019, he finished six shots behind winner Brooks Koepka and was only that close thanks to five bogeys in the last eight holes from his Ryder Cup team-mate.
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It is also three years since Spieth’s last victory on the PGA Tour at the RBC Heritage, but he has recorded four straight top-20 finishes and closed with a bogey-free 62 in the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, his lowest round for four years.
Unfortunately for Spieth, and the rest of the US PGA field, that still left him 12 shots behind runaway winner Scottie Scheffler as the world number one recorded his first win of the season in record-equalling fashion.
Scheffler, who missed the start of the season following surgery on a hand injury suffered while preparing dinner on Christmas Day, led from start to finish at TPC Craig Ranch and shot 31 under par for an eight-shot win, his aggregate of 253 matching the PGA Tour record.
It was an impressive response to losing his Masters title to McIlroy, with Scheffler topping no fewer than 14 statistical categories in his first win in his adopted home state of Texas.
“Rory has been playing some tremendous golf this year,” Scheffler said. “The career grand slam was really special to watch. I was glad to be able to be there for it.
“I think any time you’re getting beat, you’re always fired up just a little bit extra to go out and practice.
“I feel like my game is trending in a good direction. I’m excited to start the rest of the season.”
As for McIlroy, he returned to action following his nail-biting Masters triumph with 12th place alongside Shane Lowry in the defence of their Zurich Classic title and could hardly wish for a better major venue than Quail Hollow.
McIlroy won his maiden PGA Tour title there in 2010 with a closing 62 and has since racked up three more wins in North Carolina, while McIlroy playing free from the burden of chasing the career grand slam is a “scary” prospect for his rivals, according to defending US PGA and Open champion Xander Schauffele.
The world number two is not the only player with an impressive track record at Quail Hollow however, Justin Thomas winning the US PGA there in 2017 and posting a 4-1-0 record in the 2022 Presidents Cup.
Thomas’s only defeat came in the singles and meant his foursomes and fourballs partner was the only player on either side to record a perfect 5-0-0 record.
His name? Jordan Spieth.