Charlotte, NC – There have been years that Jordan Spieth arrived at the PGA championship and was not even asked about the possibility of completing the Grand Slam race.
He did not find it insulting. In fact, he understood.
“Many times,” he said, “I wasn’t in a very good shape.”
But that is not the case this year, and it was appropriate, a month after Rory Mcilroy finally reviewed the final stage of Slam, which Spieth began on Tuesday the interviews of the players here in Quail Hollow.
This will be Spieth’s ninth attempt to win the fourth and last stage. Mcilroy needed a record of 11 attempts (the previous maximum was three) to finally claim the masters.
“It is always in a circle on the calendar,” Spieth said. “For me, if I could only win a tournament for the rest of my life, I would choose this for that reason.
“Seeing Rory winning after trying for several years was inspiring. Most of the time he makes it look much easier; so obviously that was at the forefront of his mind. Something like that has not been done by many people, and there is a reason why. But I would like to throw my hat in the ring and give him a chance at the weekend.”
Since his first attempt in 2017 (also here in Quail Hollow), Spieth has not closer particularly. His only end of the 10 best was in 2019, when he even admitted that he needed to “pretend” around Bethpage Black without any place near his best things and Brooks Koepka put himself at a significant advantage.
Throughout his career, Spieth has long believed that the PGA championship would be the second largest difficult for him. He acknowledged that perhaps he was lucky that the tournament he expected to win, the United States Open, came to an atypical place in Chambers Bay in 2015 and with some help from a late Dustin Johnson of three whores. Meanwhile, the PGA, with its preference for large stages with thick rough, does not usually adapt to Spieth’s profile. But the improvements to its driver have imbued it with a new sense of confidence that it can handle the unique demands of this major. This season has increased the speed of his ball and his precision of the TEE while publishing three Top 10 on his return from wrist surgery.
“Because my driver became another weapon than it used to be,” he said, “that leaves me in a position in which I feel a little more comfortable in these courses.”
Add the fact that you have seen Quail Hollow before during the regular PGA Tour stop, four attempts, zero Top-25, and presents Bermudagass inclined from wall to wall that grew in Dallas, and this could represent one of Spieth’s best opportunities to join the most exclusive golf club.
“It’s a good opportunity this week, sure,” he said.
