What Is The Women's Career Grand Slam? And Why It's Slightly Ambiguous?

Unlike the four men's Majors, the women's is made up of a quintet: the US Women's Open, the AIG Women's Open, the KPMG Women's PGA Championship, the Evian Championship and the Chevron Championship.

The US Women's Open is the oldest of the five Majors, dating back to 1946, and it has the largest purse. In 2022, the prize fund nearly doubled from $5.5 million to $10 million. Now $12 million, the 81st edition of the USGA event will take place at Riviera Country Club, home of the Genesis Invitational, in June this year.

The KPMG Women's PGA Championship was formed in 1955, originally as the LPGA Championship. However, the PGA of America became a partner of the event in 2014, which engineered the name change, and inserted the event as a mirror of the men's version.

The Chevron Championship is the third Major that is contested in the United States. It has been deemed a Major since 1983, and is the first one of the season.

The Ladies European Tour sanctions the AIG Women's British Open and the Evian Championship. The Open was established in 1976, but women's golf in Europe lagged behind the trailblazing United States.

The LPGA didn't officially recognise the Women's British Open as a Major until 2001. Unlike the men's rendition of the Open Championship, the women's Open is not solely played on links-style courses. In recent times, it has been hosted by Walton Heath, Sunningdale and Woburn.

The Evian is played at the Evian Resort Golf Club in France, and has been held in July for the most part. Originally, it was just a standard LET event before being co-sanctioned by the LPGA in 2000. It was only in 2013 that it was announced that the Evian Masters would become the Evian Championship and thus be considered a Major Championship, the fifth in total.

The LPGA states all five of these tournaments as Majors, but the LET only recognises the two that it hosts as Majors, which instigates the confusion surrounding the women's Career Grand Slam.

Additionally, some of the Majors only became such relatively recently, so if someone won the event before its elevated status, does it still count as a Major retrospectively?

What Is Considered As The Grand Slam?

Four Major wins out of the five are widely considered as a career grand slam, but although it is celebrated, it is also questionable. The reasoning behind the conjunction is that the tournaments crowned as Majors have varied over time and playing eras.

The Evian only became a Major in 2013, so female professionals prior to then only competed in four or even fewer.

This is dichotomous to the men's side, where all four Majors have donned the elevated status since their inception. The last of the four men's majors to form was The Masters, which was first played in 1934.

Who Has Won The Women's Version Of The Career Grand Slam

Seven female golfers have won a version of the Grand Slam, that being four separate Major Championships.

Louise Suggs was the first to accomplish the feat back in 1957 by winning the LPGA Championship. The Atlanta native won her first of 11 Major titles in 1946 before the LPGA had been founded. She also won two US Opens, as well as four Western Opens and four Titleholders Championships, both of which were Majors at the time but no longer exist.

Second to complete the slam was Mickey Wright in 1962, who won 13 in total, and is the only player in LPGA history to hold all four Major Championship titles at the same time.

Pat Bradley followed suit, but not until 24 years after Wright. The American won six Majors between 1980 and 1986 to become the third LPGA member to seal the slam.

Juli Inkster completed her interpretation of the Grand Slam just before the millennium. The Californian won the US Women's Open and LPGA Championship in the same year, with her seven total career Majors spanning across 18 years from 1984 to 2002.

Early in the noughties, Annika Sorenstam joined the Grand Slam class as the only European to ever do so. The Swede recorded ten career Major victories, with the 2003 Women's British Open completing the set. She won eight Majors in six years, including three consecutive LPGA Championships from 2003 to 2005.

Lastly, the most recent Grand Slam winner is South Korean Inbee Park, who joined the club in 2015 by winning the Women's British Open. The 37-year-old has enjoyed four separate spells as World No.1 and has accrued seven Major titles in her career.

The Super Grand Slam

The only woman to achieve what is deemed the Super Grand Slam, ie winning five different Majors, is Karrie Webb.

The Australian won five different Majors, all in the space of three years. Webb is the only female golfer to own the Super Slam, and she triumphed in seven Majors throughout her illustrious career.

No one has yet to match Webb, although the timing of the Women's British Open coming into the picture in the early 2000s aided her collection of Major Championships.

If the current five Majors in the women's game remain as a solidified set for years to come, will someone be able to join Webb as a Super Grand Slam holder?

Who Could Capture The Grand Slam This Year?

There are four current playing female golfers who have won at least three different Majors.

The first being In Gee Chun, who has won the US Open, KPMG Women's PGA Championship and Evian Championship, the last coming in 2022. The South Korean would need either the AIG Women's Open or Chevron Championship, but has not finished in the top ten at a Major since a runner-up at the 2022 AIG Women's Open.

Anna Nordqvist has also won three Majors, the first and most recent falling 12 years apart. The Swede has the Open, PGA and Evian to her name, meaning a US Open or Chevron would achieve the Grand Slam.

Australian Minjee Lee, the brother of PGA Tour professional Min Woo, has claimed three Majors in the last five years. Those being the US Open, the KPMG Women's PGA Championship and the Evian. Therefore, a victory at the Chevron or AIG Women's Open would place her amongst the golfing greats.

Lastly, Lydia Ko can also complete the slam with a win at either the US Open or the PGA Championship.

The Kiwi became the youngest ever Major winner at just 18 years old at the 2015 Evian. She won the Chevron a year later, before triumphing at the AIG Women's Open in 2024 at The Old Course at St. Andrews.

What Truly Counts, And Does It Really Matter?

In the men's game, there are four concrete Majors that have existed for decades and even for over a century.

The Grand Slam is universally viewed as the Mount Everest of achievements in the sport. This was epitomised by Rory McIlroy's 14-year heartbreak that ended last year with his Masters triumph.

All of the Majors are surrounded by history and identity, but it is simply not as crystallised on the women's side.

Those who have won at least four different Majors should be rightfully celebrated among the greats of the women's game.

But for golf to continue to flourish on the women's side, there needs to be stability and sequence in the schedule, in order for the Grand Slam to become an insurmountable spectacle.