Seeing slam, Jordan Spieth always takes us on wild ride

I’m sure Jordan Spieth would get a good chunk of the vote if you asked folks which player they’d like to see win this week's PGA Championship.

The second men’s major of the season is taking place this week at Aronimink and Spieth is looking to complete the career grand slam, still in contention as of Saturday morning. He started the day five strokes off the lead.

Finishing the job, of course, is easier said than done. Having won the Masters and the U.S. Open in 2015, and The Open in 2017, this will be Spieth’s 10th attempt at the elusive PGA title he needs to complete the full set.

But where there’s a will, there’s a way. Rory McIlroy, after all, took 11 years to finally win the Masters and earn a career grand slam.

More: Our PGA Championship hub: Scores, stories, more

"You know that you’re not just trying to win another tournament, you’re trying to become part of history, and that has a certain weight to it,” McIlroy once said of a burden that would buckle the legs of Atlas.

It’s not just history that’s a millstone for Spieth, of course. His form and fortunes have weighed heavily, too.

While the relentless will he, won’t he surrounding McIlroy’s green jacket crusade became something of an all-consuming Masters tradition, Spieth’s slide from prominence means his own career grand slam quests at PGA Championships in recent years haven’t attracted anywhere near as much intense hullabaloo.

May 15, 2026; Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, USA; Rory McIlroy shakes hands with Jordan Spieth (right) after the second round of the PGA Championship golf tournament. Mandatory Credit: James Lang-Imagn Images

He can almost fly in under the radar. Saying that, Spieth will always be judged by those stirring conquests of his early 20s, which propelled him into the pantheon of greats.

As a result, his various stints in the doldrums tend to get magnified. There are not many hiding places in professional golf.

Through the ups, downs, twists and turns that are par for the course in this fickle game, he has confronted his challenges with honesty, heart, hard work and patience. He remains candid and has retained his charisma

Spieth, whose last top-10 in a major was at the 2023 Masters, hasn’t won on the PGA Tour since 2022.

In that same four-year period, Scottie Scheffler, his good friend since junior days, has won an astonishing 20 titles and will go after his own career grand slam in next month’s U.S. Open.

A generational talent, Spieth, the former world No 1 who is now 51st on the OWGR, remains a compelling and wonderfully topsy-turvy performer. Magic and mayhem tend to go hand in hand.

On a recent golf writers’ trip to Royal Birkdale, we got to retrace the journey Spieth took to Open glory there in 2017.

May 14, 2026; Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, USA; Jordan Spieth plays his shot from the 12th tee during the first round of the PGA Championship golf tournament at Aronimink Golf Club. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

But even us lot, who are prone to regular bouts of utter golfing lunacy that plunge us into some bewildering nooks and crannies, didn’t go on Spieth’s mighty diversion.

You’ll remember his escapades during that ridiculous closing Sunday when Spieth just about swapped a strokesaver for an Ordnance Survey Map and mounted an outrageous salvage operation on the 13th hole.

He’d launched his drive so far right into the dunes, the R&A officials just about had to call out the Sefton Sands Search & Rescue Unit.

After a prolonged 20-minute palaver, Spieth opted to take an unplayable, go back about 50 yards into the practice range, and clatter his third shot from there.

Spieth managed to limit the damage to a bogey, a brilliant outcome in the chaotic circumstances. The rest, of course, is history.

He powered home with a devastating salvo as he made three birdies and an eagle over his final five holes to win by three and leave all and sundry gasping for breath.

“17 pars and a birdie would’ve done but there are various roads to get there,” he chuckled at the time.

With Spieth, there tends to be a tourist route.

This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Jordan Spieth's quest for golf's career grand slam is a wild ride