History shows fourth major will be toughest

Three down, one to go for Jordan Spieth.

Only it’s not always that simple.

Spieth only has to wait three weeks until he gets his first crack at the career Grand Slam at the PGA Championship. He won the Masters and U.S. Open in 2015, and he added the British Open with his furious finish at Royal Birkdale.

Of the five players who have won the career Grand Slam, no one has ever completed it at the PGA Championship.

Ben Hogan might be the most impressive of the quintet — he won the only British Open he played.

“It’s a life goal of mine,” Spieth said.

His hope is that it doesn’t take a lifetime, and he only has to consider Arnold Palmer and Tom Watson.

Palmer captured the third leg when he won the British Open in 1961. He played the PGA Championship 34 more times without winning.

Watson got the third leg in the 1982 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. He played 24 more times in the PGA Championship and had his best chance in 1993. He started the final round one shot behind Greg Norman but closed with a 72 and finished four shots behind.

Spieth turns 24 on Thursday.

He is among three active players who are one major away from the career Grand Slam. Phil Mickelson won his third at the British Open in 2013, leaving him only the U.S. Open. Rory McIlroy won the third leg at the British Open in 2014. He’s missing the Masters.

How will Spieth respond at Quail Hollow in North Carolina when the PGA Championship starts on Aug. 10? One consideration is how he viewed his four-shot lead at the Masters that he converted into a green jacket.

“A huge monkey off the back,” Spieth said a few weeks ago about getting his first major. “The longer you go without is making each one harder. Look at DJ (Dustin Johnson) before he won, or Sergio (Garcia). Recognizing I was so young, you don’t get opportunities like that.” LYLE IN CANCER FIGHT AGAIN >> Jarrod Lyle is in a Australia hospital getting treatment following a recurrence of the cancer he has twice overcome. Lyle’s wife, Briony, confirmed to the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper’s website as saying the acute myeloid leukemia diagnosis has been confirmed.

LI ADVANCES >> Medalist Lucy Li, 14, of Redwood Shores, beat San Ramon’s Belinda Hu 7 and 6 on Wednesday to reach the round of 32 in the USGA Junior Girls’ Championship at Boone Valley GC in Augusta, Missouri. Her next match Thursday is against Taiwan’s Yu-Sang Hou. Concord’s Yealimi Noh lost her first-round match 1 up to South Korea’s So Whi Kang. Noh was runner-up at last week’s Girls Junior PGA Championship.

THE ROOKIE >> Xander Schauffele’s fortunes sure have changed in the last month. The PGA Tour rookie from San Diego had missed six cuts in 11 events this year and had not cracked the top 20. And then he earned the final qualifying spot for the U.S. Open in a playoff, and golf has never been more fun. He tied for fifth in the U.S. Open, and that was just the start of his remarkable run. Mostly because of his victory in the Greenbrier Classic, he has gone over $2.3 million for the season and is No. 27 in the FedEx Cup. He is coming off a tie for 20th in the British Open and gets a week off before going to the Bridgestone Invitational for his first World Golf Championship.