Spieth slam a grand aim
FOLLOWING Rory McIlroy’s best attempt yet at completing the career grand slam, it will be Jordan Spieth’s turn in similar circumstances at the US PGA Championship.
McIlroy admitted he was happy to undertake his preparation at Augusta National largely “unhindered” thanks to the presence of a certain Tiger Woods, the last of the five men to have won all four major titles.
At Southern Hills it will be the presence or absence of defending champion Phil Mickelson which will dominate the conversation, in particular his association with the Saudi-backed series of events causing increasing divisions in the professional game.
Mickelson has been in exile since the fall-out from his explosive comments about the PGA Tour and the breakaway spearheaded by Greg Norman.
The 51-year-old accused the PGA Tour of “obnoxious greed” and acting like a “dictatorship” yet admitted he was well aware of Saudi Arabia’s human rights record but was using the threat of a breakaway to “reshape” how the Tour operates.
Despite seemingly burning his bridges with the Saudis, Mickelson requested a release from the PGA Tour to play the first LIV Golf Invitational Series event in June at the same time as registering for his title defence and the US Open, the major he needs to win to complete a grand slam.
His agent stressed the six-time major winner was simply keeping his options open and did not have “concrete plans” about his return to action, ensuring the circus will continue to rumble all the way to Tulsa. All of which could be good news for Spieth, who has needed to win the US PGA to join Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Woods in golf’s most exclusive club since winning his third major in the 2017 Open.
His best result in the event is second behind Jason Day in 2015, the year he won the Masters and US Open and missed out on a play-off in the Open at St Andrews by a shot, while he was also a somewhat distant third to Brooks Koepka in 2019. Spieth is likely to need all departments of his game firing to triumph at Southern Hills, which will be a testing par-70 measuring 7,556 yards and which features two par fives stretched to 656 and 632 yards.