Jordan Spieth knows the questions are coming.
Rory McIlroy fielded them and beat them back for 10-plus years at the Masters before finally winning the green jacket to complete the career Grand Slam last month.
With McIlroy’s quest complete, the questions will now all be volleyed at Spieth, who will embark on his ninth attempt to complete the career Grand Slam when the PGA Championship tees off at Quail Hollow Club in two weeks.
Spieth hasn’t won a tournament in three years. He hasn’t won a major since the 2017 Open Championship. While those droughts might appear daunting on paper, McIlroy’s win and his journey to the green jacket told Spieth the opposite.
McIlroy’s Masters win resonated with Spieth not simply because the 36-year-old Northern Irishman finally summited the mountain, but because he showed that needing several swipes at the career Grand Slam was not a death sentence.
“Not only did he complete it,” Spieth told CBS’ Amanda Balionis after finishing fourth at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson. “But the time it took to complete it. It was obviously a very challenging week for him. It was harder than anybody maybe ever to win a Masters. To be that far form his most recent major as well, and then to go and do it, I mean, it was very inspiring.”
It took McIlroy 11 tries to complete the career Grand Slam. The other members of the club — Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Ben Hogan, Gary Player and Gene Sarazen — all won the final leg of the slam in three or fewer attempts.
The constant pressure of chasing the career Grand Slam every April at Augusta National wore on McIlroy. The annual barrage of questions stung and cut him as he tried and failed to join golf royalty in a pantheon reserved only for legends.
“It’s very difficult,” McIlroy said after winning the Masters. “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, and it frees me up and I know I’m coming back here every year, which is lovely.”
Spieth has faced those same questions at the PGA Championship for the past eight years. But even at the PGA, he hasn’t been the only storyline. McIlroy’s major championship drought sucked up most of the oxygen for the last 10 years. Sprinkle in dominant runs from Brooks Koepka, Scottie Scheffler and others, and Spieth has been able to share the microscope as he hunts for the career Grand Slam.
But with McIlroy off the hook, Spieth will arrive at Quail Hollow Club in two weeks as the storyline. Yes, Rory, JT, Scottie and Bryson will command attention, but they’ll be second to Spieth.
A multiple-time major champion in a drought who is looking to make history. Sound familiar?
Spieth hasn’t had a top-10 in a major since the 2023 Masters. But now fully healthy after offseason wrist surgery, Spieth is playing like a top-30 player in the world. He fired a 9-under 62 on Sunday at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson to finish in a tie for fourth place, 12 shots behind Scottie Scheffler’s record-tying mark. That 62 was good enough to pick up +6.441 strokes on the field, which is Spieth’s best round since the final round of the, you guessed it, 2023 Masters.
Scheffler, McIlroy and Bryson DeChambeau will garner attention at Quail Hollow. There’s no question.
But Spieth will be the main attraction, especially if he plays well at next week’s Truist Championship — a Signature Event that he needed a sponsor exemption to play.
If McIlroy can shed his demons at Augusta National and win the career Grand Slam on attempt No. 11, then why can’t Spieth, who doesn’t have the number of scars McIlroy does, do the same?
He believes he can. McIlroy showed him that time is not a curse. That persistence and belief can pay off. You just have to keep returning to the well.
In two weeks, Spieth will head back to the well and prepare for another run at history, hoping his ninth swing ends with him lifting the Wanamaker Trophy on Sunday.
