Considering Spieth's Career Slam Chances
Quail Hollow may not be ideal for his game but the 3-time major winner's in good form after wrist surgery. A double-dose of elite golf history in just 36 days would be incredible.
Jordan Spieth could gain entry into Career Grand Slam G&CC just 36 days after Rory McIlroy accomplished the feat. Two golfers in just over a month after a 25-year wait list to join Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Tiger Woods? Are we, as fans, worthy of so much history in so little time?
McIlroy had ten prior cracks while on the waiting list and Spieth arrives at Quail Hollow taking his ninth try at winning each of The Masters, U.S. Open, The Open and the PGA. The sports and even non-sports world can grasp the difficulties and oddities of mastering four different disciplines as they can with the tennis CGS. Having eluded some of greatest ever also makes it easy to understand: Walter Hagen (no Masters in his prime), Sam Snead (the U.S. Open eluded him), Byron Nelson (only played The Open twice), Arnold Palmer (no PGA), Tom Watson (no PGA), and self-described- billionaire-turned-social media addict Phil Mickelson (no U.S. Open).
Quail Hollow’s long and lush presentation seems like Spieth’s least appetizing opportunity with his well-stated preference to play firm, fast, and windy golf that rewards creativity and precision iron play. Monday’s forecast of over an inch of rain won’t help. Next year he gets to tackle Donald Ross greens at Aronimink before the PGA comes to a new Gil Hanse design in greater Dallas. Spieth can exploit his residency to learn a Frisco course that might be more up his alley.
Spieth’s limited track record in prior events at Quail Hollow—excluding match play in the 2022 Presidents Cup—means he and wife Annie will be naming their third child “Quail” (beats Hollow though):
2013 - T32 (69-71-75-73)
2017 - PGA T28 (72-73-71-70
2022 - Presidents Cup: 5-0-0 (4-0 in matches paired w/ Justin Thomas)
2023 - MC (72-77)
2024 - T29 (69-71-76-70)
At 7,626 yards, Quail Hollow looks like a bad fit on paper. But 7,600+ isn’t long anymore, and he’s averaging 304.5 off the tee this year, which is more than enough firepower to get around the property. The 2017 PGA winner and three runners-up all ranked inside the top 20 approaching the green and putting. Spieth has rebounded in both categories this year, with his approach play leap the most encouraging sign of improving health. He’s gone from 138th in Strokes Gained Approach last year to 48th in 2025, with especially noticeable gains inside 150 yards boosting his number (even though his overall proximity average has remained the same).
Quail’s greens are big but have plenty going on, meaning the week will again call on putting prowess more than bombing and gouging. Or so we hope. Every player is significantly longer in the eight years since the Charlotte club last hosted and an increasing number rely on someone who tells them the numbers reward length over accuracy without regard for the stress caused by the approach. Spieth’s still not been great from the rough this year (145th SG), but Quail Hollow’s thick stuff is expected to be topped off at a modest 2.75”. Plus, he’ll be fighting through predominantly rye instead of illaqueable bermuda.
Spieth’s game is also rounding into form post-wrist surgery. Before Sunday’s finish at Philadelphia Cricket Club entering the final round T29/-4, Spieth’s 2025 results look encouraging: T69-T4-MC-T9-59-T28-T12-T14-T18-4.
A final round 62 at the Nelson was his lowest on the PGA Tour since August, 2021.
“Jordan has been motivated by just how good Scottie [Scheffler] is,” says CBS analyst Dottie Pepper. “He came out with kind of a stone-cold truth that the guy is better than me. He didn’t used to be, but he is now. And I think that 62 on Sunday and the motivation he’s gotten from Scottie’s success over the last couple years makes this PGA Championship maybe more compelling than any we’ve had in a very long time.”
Post-Rory’s Masters win, the outpouring of excitement built around witnessing history offered a reassuring reminder that the career Slam is both precious and rare because of the different disciplines (usually) asked by the four majors. Spieth’s U.S. Open win came on a parched and rough-light Chambers Bay. But to the record books, it’s still a U.S. Open. Winning a PGA on a green, inland, rough-lined course would squelch any suggestions he slipped by CGS’s membership committee.
McIlroy’s accomplishment came after weathering the burden of an 11-year major drought, one interspersed with heartbreakingly close losses, the evolution of his game into a complete package of skills, and career-long expectations that The Masters would be the first of his major wins. Not the last.
“It's hard, I think, for Jordan,” McIlroy said this week. “You have to go back to the same tournament every year for Jordan, but not the same golf course. It's a bit of a different proposition for him rather than me having to go back to the same venue every year and trying to, I guess, do that as well.”
Spieth seems far less burdened, even borderline flippant about Grand Slam pressure.