Has Anyone Won All Four Golf Majors In A Year?

Three of the greatest players of the today's era - Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy and Phil Mickelson - have each been trying to close out victory in the final Major they've yet to win for several years.

In Speith’s case, he has tried six times to claim the PGA Championship title since getting his hands on the Claret Jug for his 2017 Open win and a third separate Major title.

For McIlroy, who won the 2014 Open to leave him a Masters title away from claiming all four, the wait has been even longer. He has now had nine attempts at winning at Augusta National since that Royal Liverpool win.

As for Mickelson, he has finished runner-up six times in the US Open, but has yet to claim victory in the Major 10 years since his 2013 Open win added to his previous PGA Championship and Masters titles.

Given the calibre of the three players, with McIlroy rarely seen outside the world’s top 10, Spieth a 13-time PGA Tour winner and Mickelson a six-time Major-winning veteran, it demonstrates how hard claiming all four titles over the course of a career is, let alone in a calendar year.

A look at the list of those who have managed a career Grand Slam brings the enormity of the task into even sharper focus. Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Gene Sarazen, Gary Player, Ben Hogan and Bobby Jones are the only players to have won all four Majors at some point in their careers, but only one of them, Jones, achieved it in the same year.

Before The Masters was established, in 1934, the US and British Amateur Championships were considered Majors. That meant that to win all four in a calendar year - a Grand Slam - a player would need consecutive victories in the US Amateur, British Amateur, US Open and The Open. Jones achieved just that in 1930 at a time when the idea of a Grand Slam in golf didn’t even exist as no one thought it would be possible.

That assumption was almost right. Ever since Jones’ achievement, only Woods has come close to matching it. In 2000, he finished fifth at The Masters then won the year's remaining three Majors. He then won the 2001 Masters to win all four Majors within 365 days, albeit not within the same calendar year.

It was still an incredible achievement, and it became known as the Tiger Slam, which is regarded as the modern-era equivalent of Jones' feat.

Such was Woods’ dominance at his peak that, thanks to his 15 Major titles, he has won all four Majors enough times for three career Grand Slams. However, at that age of 47 and with considerable wear and tear on his body, matching Jones’s achievement will almost certainly elude him.

Meanwhile, Hogan would have had a chance after winning The Masters, US Open and The Open in 1953, but he couldn't compete in the PGA Championship as the dates of it overlapped the latter tournament. As it happened, he had already won the PGA Championship seven years earlier, so completed a career Grand Slam.

An honourable mention also goes to Nicklaus, who, like Woods, won three career Grand Slams, but never won more than two Majors in a calendar year.

For Spieth, McIlroy and Mickelson, there are still sufficient opportunities to join Woods, Nicklaus, Sarazen and Player on the list of career Grand Slam winners, and it's hard to imagine that at least one of them won't achieve it before their playing days are over. 

However, Jones continues to stand alone as the player to win all four Majors in a year. With the centenary of the achievement looming, it could be some time before he is joined by anyone else.