Jordan Spieth will make his second attempt to complete Career Grand Slam beginning on Thursday in the 100th PGA Championship at Bellerive Country Club in Town and Country, Mo., outside St. Louis.
In his first try last year, he could manage only a tie for 28th in the 2017 PGA at Quail Hollow, but Spieth heads into the final major of the year with a different mindset this time as he tries to join Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods as the only players to win all four major championships.
Player captured the 1965 U.S. Open at Bellerive to complete the Career Grand Slam.
“I probably was a little more anxious last year, having just won the Open Championship (at Royal Birkdale) and there was a lot more focus on me,” said Spieth, who has not won since outdueling Matt Kuchar down the stretch last year in England. “I was fresh and in good form. I’ve been somewhat under the radar this year, which I don’t mind.
“I will always have the PGA circled on my calendar for the rest of my career until I win it to complete the Career Grand Slam and achieve what has been a career goal of mine.”
The 25-year-old Spieth has been a bit inconsistent this year, but has stepped up in two of the three majors, finishing third in the Masters at Augusta and tying for ninth in the Open Championship at Carnoustie in addition to missing the cut in the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills.
His other two major titles came in 2015, when the captured the Masters and the U.S. Open at Chambers Bay, becoming the sixth player in history win the first two majors of the season.
Spieth’s good friend Justin Thomas will try to his title in the PGA this week at Bellerive one week after claiming the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio.
Thomas grabbed his first major last year at Quail Hollow and eight of his nine PGA Tour victories have come in the last two seasons.
Woods, who claimed the last of his four PGA titles in 2007 at Southern Hills, will be playing in the final major of the year for the first time since missing the cut in 2015 at Whistling Straits before undergoing several back surgeries.
Bellerive is hosting the PGA for the second time, with Nick Price of Zimbabwe claiming the title in 1992. Player won the U.S. Open at the club in 1965, Peter Jacobsen took the U.S. Senior Open there in 2004, and Koki Idoki of Japan claimed the PGA Senior Championship on the Robert Trent Jones-designed course in 2013.
Next year, the PGA will move to May at Bethpage Black, following the 83rd Masters at Augusta National in April and ahead of the 119th U.S. Open at Pebble Beach in June.
