Career Grand Slams in golf: How Jordan Spieth can join Rory McIlroy, others with 2026 PGA Championship win originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
A grand slam is a penultimate achievement in sports. In baseball, you get four runs; in tennis, you’ve won the four majors across the globe, and in golf, you have played great rounds at the four premier events on the golf calendar.
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Golf’s version of the career Grand Slam is the most prestigious, with only seven winners to date. To win a career Grand Slam in golf, a golfer must emerge victorious at the four major championships: the Masters, U.S. Open, PGA Championship, and The Open.
Rory McIlroy became the latest golfer to join the exclusive club after finally winning the Masters in 2025. One golfer can become the seventh this weekend at Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, Penn.: Jordan Spieth.
Spieth’s career got off to a blazing start after turning pro in 2012. The Dallas native won the Masters and U.S. Open in 2012, along with finishing runner-up at that year’s PGA Championship. With his 2017 win at The Open Championship, he moved just one win away from completing a career Grand Slam.
Here is some background on a career Grand Slam in golf, and how Spieth can join the club if he is victorious at Aronimink this weekend.
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MORE: What time is Jordan Spieth teeing off at Aronimink on Thursday?
What is a career Grand Slam in golf?
In golf, winning a career Grand Slam requires wins at the Masters, U.S. Open, PGA Championship, and The Open (also known as “The British Open”). It has proven to be quite the fabled task, with only six golfers accumulating those four major wins thus far.
Rory McIlroy became the latest golfer to join the short list after finally winning the Masters in 2025. Prior to McIlroy, Tiger Woods was the most recent Grand Slam entry with his 2000 win at The Open Championship. Woods is also currently the youngest golfer to complete the career Grand Slam, when he was 24 at the time he hoisted the Claret Jug at the Old Course in St Andrews, Scotland.
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In order to become the seventh golfer to complete a career Grand Slam, Spieth needs to win an elusive PGA Championship. After 2019, Spieth has not finished higher than T-29, so the task appears daunting at this stage of his career.
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List of golfers to win a career Grand Slam
Becoming a Grand Slam champion is the toughest thing to do in the sport of golf. The list of golfers to do so currently sits at six after McIlroy’s 2025 win at Augusta National.
Here are the golfers in order who have achieved a career Grand Slam, along with a list of major championships they won (bold denotes the tournament where a career Grand Slam was completed).
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Gene Sarazen
Sarazen was one of the world’s premier golfers throughout the 1920s and 1930s, during the early stages of the PGA. In his career, the Harrison, N.Y. native won seven major championships and 38 times overall on the PGA Tour. Sarazen hit one of golf’s most memorable shots ever during the 1935 Masters. He holed it from 235 yards away on Augusta’s par-5 No. 15 hole, which was later dubbed “the shot heard round the world,” and he was able to write a double-eagle on his scorecard. He became the first golfer to complete a career Grand Slam at that same Masters. Augusta named the bridge on No. 15 after Sarazen to commemorate the remarkable shot: “The Sarazen Bridge.”
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Masters Tournament: 1935
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PGA Championship: 1922, 1923, 1933
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The Open Championship: 1932
Ben Hogan
It took him 15 years after going professional on the PGA Tour at age 19, but Hogan accumulated a career repertoire that was one of the sport’s best. He is one of only four golfers to win four U.S. Opens (Willie Anderson, Bobby Jones, Hogan, Nicklaus), and was one PGA Championship away from winning a Grand Slam in a single season during 1953. That year, he completed his chase by winning at Carnoustie Golf Links in Scotland. Hogan ended up winning nine majors in total, tying him for fourth all-time with Player. He won 64 times overall on the PGA Tour.
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Masters Tournament: 1951, 1953
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PGA Championship: 1946, 1948
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U.S. Open: 1948, 1950, 1951, 1953
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The Open Championship: 1953
Gary Player
Player made history in 1965 by becoming the first non-American to win a career Grand Slam. The South African completed his quest at the 1965 U.S. Open at Bellerive Country Club in Town and Country, Mo. Throughout his career, Player won nine major championships. When he hoisted the U.S. Open Championship Trophy for the first and only time of his career, he became the youngest golfer (29) to complete a career Grand Slam before being surpassed by Nicklaus (26) the following year. In 2000, Nicklaus’ record was finally usurped by Woods when he was just 24 years old. Player won 24 times overall on the PGA Tour.
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Masters: 1961, 1974, 1978
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PGA Championship: 1962, 1972
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Open Championship: 1959, 1968, 1974
Jack Nicklaus
Nicklaus is comfortably one of golf’s greatest players of all time. The man nicknamed “the Golden Bear” holds the sport’s record with 18 major championship victories. Along with holding the record for top-placed major finishes, his 19 times finishing second is also a record in golf major history. He was the youngest golfer to win a career Grand Slam for 34 years. Overall, Nicklaus won 73 tournaments on the PGA Tour.
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Masters: 1963, 1965, 1966, 1972, 1975, 1986
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PGA Championship: 1963, 1971, 1973, 1975, 1980
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U.S. Open: 1962, 1967, 1972, 1980
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Open Championship: 1966, 1970, 1978
Tiger Woods
In the late 1990s to early 2000s, Woods was the sport’s most dominant name, if not in all of sports. He won 15 major championships from 1997 to 2019 and is tied with Sam Snead for the most wins on the PGA Tour (82 wins overall). Woods holds the top two spots in the record books with the longest tenure at golf’s world No. 1 spot at 281 weeks (June 2005 to October 2010) and 264 weeks (August 1999 to September 2004) consecutively. At the age of 24 in 2000, he became the youngest player to achieve a career Grand Slam and broke Nicklaus’ record by two years.
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Masters: 1997, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2019
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PGA Championship: 1999, 2000, 2006, 2007
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U.S. Open: 2000, 2002, 2008
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Open Championship: 2000, 2005, 2006,
Rory McIlroy
McIlroy became the latest addition to golf’s career Grand Slam list after his 2025 win at the Masters Tournament. He burst onto the sport’s scene quickly after winning four majors by the age of 25, a feat accomplished only by Nicklaus and Woods. Throughout his pro career that began in 2007, the Northern Irishman has won 30 times overall on the PGA Tour, but he had to wait 14 years until finally completing the career Grand Slam.
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PGA Championship: 2012, 2014
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The Open Championship: 2014
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Current golfers one win from career Grand Slam
If Spieth can win the PGA Championship, there would be only two current golfers who are one win away from a career Grand Slam: Scottie Scheffler and Phil Mickelson.
With Scheffler’s 2025 wins at the PGA Championship and British Open, golf’s current No. 1 moved one win at the U.S. Open away from completing a career Grand Slam. He finished tied for second at the USGA’s championship in 2022 at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass., but has not finished in the top five for the last two outings. Scheffler has won four major championships thus far: the Masters (2022, 2024), PGA Championship (2025), and Open Championship (2025).
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Mickelson is another golfer who rose to stardom in the 2000s. Unfortunately, he shared the era with one of golf’s most dominant winners in Woods. Mickelson will not be suiting up for this year’s PGA Championship due to a family health matter. Lefty has won six major championships: the Masters (2004, 2006, 2010), PGA Championship (2005, 2021), and Open Championship (2013). He, like Schefter, is still chasing that elusive U.S. Open after finishing runner-up six times.
MORE: Which golfers have the best odds to win this year’s PGA Championship?
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