'An Elephant In The Room' - Jordan Spieth On Career Grand Slam Attempt

Jordan Spieth is paired with Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy at the PGA Championship as he bids to become just the sixth golfer to win the modern day Career Grand Slam. 

The enormous pressure on what are still young shoulders is something that he described ahead of the first round as an "elephant in the room" before he re-affirmed: "It's a goal of mine." The American added: "If you just told me I was going to win one tournament the rest of my life, I'd say I want to win this one, given where things are at."

Spieth is the second male golfer to be presented with the opportunity to join the illustrious group after Rory McIlroy came within a whisker at Augusta National. All eyes will turn to the American this week at Southern Hills.

The 28-year-old first entered the Major winner's circle when he tasted success at the 2015 Masters; a tournament he recently described as "my favourite growing up." In the process, he tied the 72-hole scoring record set by Tiger Woods in 1997 and became the second-youngest, again behind Woods, to win the Masters. He was the first wire-to-wire winner since Raymond Floyd in 1976.

Spieth claimed his second Major title just a few months later at the US Open when he carded a one-under 69 in the final round to finish five-under-par and one shot ahead of Dustin Johnson and Louis Oosthuizen. 

Bad weather on the back-nine at the Old Course hampered Spieth's hopes of a third consecutive Major title at the Open Championship before a spirited Jason Day proved to be too much to handle at the 2015 PGA Championship at Whistling Straits. It wasn't all doom and gloom for the American as he surpassed Rory McIlroy as the World No.1.

An agonising, and well documented, return to Augusta National in 2016 ensued but he bounced back like a true champion in the 2017 Open Championship at Birkdale when, despite a shaky start to the final round and a chaotic bogey at the 13th, he posted a final round 69 to finish three clear of Matt Kuchar. By claiming the Claret Jug, Spieth became just the second player in history, after Jack Nicklaus, to win three of the four men's Majors before his 24th birthday.

It seemed all the while that the American would go on to claim many more Major titles but after three consecutive winless seasons, Spieth found himself as low as 92nd in the Official World Golf Ranking.

The American ended his 1,351-day spell without a victory at the 2021 Valero Texas Open and, riding high on the confidence that a win can so often provide, came within two shots of Collin Morikawa at the Open Championship. With victory earlier this year at the RBC Heritage and a second place the following week at the AT&T Byron Nelson, Spieth finds himself back in the top-10 and in prime position to claim the fourth and final Major championship that is missing from his impressive resume.

Should Spieth hoist the Wanamaker Trophy at the end of this week, he would join Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods as the only modern day players to win the illustrious Career Grand Slam.