Inspired by Rory, Spieth eyes career Grand Slam

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- When Rory McIlroy recently suggested to Jordan Spieth that he would be the next golfer to complete the career Grand Slam at this week's PGA Championship, Spieth jokingly referred to Quail Hollow Club as the "Country Club of Rory McIlroy."

McIlroy is the only four-time winner of the Wells Fargo (now Truist) Championship at Quail Hollow, and he's among the favorites to win a Wanamaker Trophy, his third, after finally capturing a green jacket at Augusta National last month.

Spieth can become the seventh golfer to achieve the career Grand Slam if he wins the PGA Championship. It will be his ninth attempt to do so since he captured his most recent major championship victory at the 2017 Open Championship at Royal Birkdale Golf Club in England. He won the Masters and the U.S. Open in 2015.

"There's been a number of years I've come to the PGA and no one's really asked me about it," Spieth said Tuesday during a news conference at Quail Hollow. "There's been some years where it was a storyline, I guess. It's funny, I think if Rory didn't [complete his career Slam at the Masters], then it wouldn't have been a storyline for me here necessarily."

While McIlroy and world No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler are the betting favorites to win at Quail Hollow, this might be one of Spieth's best chances, especially since he seems to have recovered from surgery in August to repair a torn tendon sheath in his left wrist.

Spieth said his post-surgery symptoms have been "less and less" as the year has gone on, although he said his left wrist feels like it's twice the size of his right one for about a half-hour each morning. Doctors told him that feeling would go away about a year after surgery.

"It's hard to tell if it was preventing anything that I could or couldn't do, so I'm not going to say that it's everything," Spieth said. "But just the ease of not worrying about it dislocating -- or subluxing, I think is the term ... -- is really nice. Just off the course, I'm able to pick my kids up and throw them around, and my wrist doesn't dislocate. You can imagine that's a good feeling."

Spieth already has three top-10s amid six top-25s in 11 starts this season. He tied for fourth in the WM Phoenix Open and was solo fourth at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson. Last season, he had four top-25s, including three top-10s, in 22 starts before shutting it down to get his left wrist fixed.

Spieth's last victory on tour came at the 2022 RBC Heritage. He hasn't won in his last 66 starts, the second-longest winless streak of his career.

"Anybody who's come back from an injury, you want to be out there doing more and more and more," Spieth said. "It's not like I was top five in the world last year, right? I felt like I was going to be coming from behind, and I wasn't able to do much while other guys were getting better. So [it's] just a hard, hard process to be patient with, especially for me."

Spieth's best chance to win a Wanamaker Trophy came in 2015, when he finished second at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin, three strokes behind winner Jason Day. Four years later, he tied for third at Bethpage Black State Park in New York but was six strokes behind Brooks Koepka.

Spieth has finished outside the top 25 in each of his past six starts in the PGA Championship, including a tie for 43rd last year at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky.

"It's always circled on the calendar," Spieth said. "For me, if I could only win one tournament for the rest of my life, I'd pick this one for that reason. Obviously, watching Rory win after giving it a try for a number of years was inspiring.

"You could tell it was a harder win. Most of the time he makes it look a lot easier, so that obviously was on the forefront of his mind. Something like that has not been done by many people, and there's a reason why. But I'd love to throw my hat in the ring and give it a chance come the weekend this week."