“What are we all going to talk about next year?” McIlroy quipped to the media, who had been peppering him with questions about his chase for history since 2015.
For McIlroy, the annual Grand Slam hunt at Augusta National was a weight he felt for 365 days. No matter how he was playing entering the tournament, the deluge of questions always arrived.
“It’s very difficult,” McIlroy said. “I think I’ve carried that burden since August 2014. It’s nearly 11 years. And not just about winning my next major, but the career Grand Slam. You know, trying to join a group of five players to do it, you know, watching a lot of my peers get green jackets in the process.
“It was a heavy weight to carry, and thankfully now I don’t have to carry it.”
Nine months after McIlroy won the 2014 Open Championship, Jordan Spieth started his own march toward history. He won the 2015 Masters and immediately followed that with a win at the 2015 U.S. Open at Chambers Bay. The third leg of Spieth’s career Grand Slam came at the 2017 Open Championship, leaving only the Wanamaker Trophy unclaimed by Spieth.
But while McIlroy was burdened by the weight of time and of the place he needed to conquer, the PGA Championship hasn’t been the same boogeyman for Spieth, who will make his ninth run at the career Grand Slam this week at Quail Hollow Club.
“I’ve been surprised — 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 when asked if McIlroy’s win has put the career Grand Slam more at the forefront of his mind. “It’s funny, I think, if Rory didn’t, then it wouldn’t have been a storyline for me here necessarily. I mean, it’s always a storyline if I work my way in, but at least ahead of time, I just feel like I’ve been asked about it more than other years.
“I’ve kind of been surprised by the dynamic a little bit. It’s always circled on the calendar. For me, if I could only win one tournament for the rest of my life, I’d pick this one for that reason. Obviously, watching Rory win after giving it a try for a number of years was inspiring. You could tell it was a harder win than — most of the time he makes it look a lot easier. So that obviously 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 love to throw my hat in the ring and give it a chance come the weekend this week.”
McIlroy and Spieth have lived different realities when it comes to chasing golfing immortality.
For McIlroy, the specter of winning at Augusta National, a place that had haunted him since his 2011 collapse, was omnipresent. But Spieth has not felt the need to lug PGA Championship baggage behind him for nine years. He has not been peppered with questions annually. The weight has not been as burdensome for Spieth at the PGA as it was for McIlroy every April at Augusta National.
That’s a product of the championship, the players and the players’ own history with the trophy they are chasing.
“I think, for Jordan having to — you have to go back to the same tournament every year for Jordan, but not the same golf course,” McIlroy said last week at the Truist Championship at Philadelphia Cricket Club. “I think it’s a little bit of a different — 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.”
While McIlroy had to roll up to Augusta National every year and reacquaint himself with his 2011 ghosts, every year at the PGA Championship is different for Spieth. He has arrived at courses that suited his game (2015, Whistling Straits), some that didn’t but at which he contended anyway (2019, Bethpage Black) and others that didn’t fit him at all (2024, Valhalla).
Spieth has also not been tormented at the PGA Championship like McIlroy has at Augusta National or Phil Mickelson at the U.S. Open. Spieth finished second in 2015 and third in 2019 but doesn’t have another top-10 at the PGA Championship in 12 tries.
The scar tissue isn’t there for Spieth as it was for McIlroy and the Masters. It probably never will be. The 2011 Masters was the start of one of the great golf stories in history — one that turned from tragedy to triumph 11 years later. It also remains one of golf’s biggest what-ifs.
“To be honest, if that Masters in ’11 had gone his way, I think he would have achieved so much more than he has already,” Jon Rahm said of McIlroy on Tuesday. “I think it’s been a very difficult hurdle to overcome, and you could see his emotion towards the end, just because his real first chance to win a major, how it went down. I understand he won the U.S. Open shortly after by a record margin, but every time he went to Augusta, that was on his mind.”
Spieth and the PGA Championship don’t have that kind of tormented relationship. It’s not something Spieth has lived with and battled.
Spieth will chase history this week at Quail Hollow. If he catches it, the result will be a different story than the one written at Augusta National last month.
One only about cementing himself as a legend. Not about vanquishing ghosts.
Josh Schrock is a writer and reporter for Golf.com. Before joining GOLF, Josh was the Chicago Bears insider for NBC Sports Chicago. He previously covered the 49ers and Warriors for NBC Sports Bay Area. A native Oregonian and UO alum, Josh spends his free time hiking with his wife and dog, thinking of how the Ducks will break his heart again, and trying to become semi-proficient at chipping. A true romantic for golf, Josh will never stop trying to break 90 and never lose faith that Rory McIlroy’s major drought will end (updated: he did it). Josh Schrock can be reached at josh.schrock@golf.com.
