The 2025 PGA Championship begins May 15 at Quail Hollow in Charlotte, N.C. This will be the second golf major of the year, and the second chance for a golfer to make history.
The 2025 Masters was epic. Rory McIlroy had near-record low rounds, but spectators were waiting for him to implode because a win at Augusta had eluded him for his career.
And then it happened.
📲 Follow The Sporting News on WhatsApp
After losing a big lead, McIlroy went to sudden death against Justin Rose. McIlroy kept it together for one hole and won the green jacket. Finally, he had gotten the major win he needed to become a career Grand Slam winner.
The 2025 PGA Championship presents another opportunity for someone to join the exclusive list of career grand slam winners in golf. Jordan Spieth is one of two active golfers who is one major win away from a career Grand Slam title, and his elusive jewel is the PGA Championship.
Here’s more on what it takes to win a career Grand Slam, and how Spieth can pull it off in 2025.
What is a career Grand Slam in golf?
A grand slam tends to involve four of something. In baseball, it is a home run with the bases loaded resulting in the maximum of four runs being scored with one batter. Tennis and golf take it a step further and have two versions of a Grand Slam champion. The first is pulling off the Grand Slam, which is winning each of the sport’s four majors in the same calendar year.
The second, and more common, is winning each of the sport’s four majors at some point during your career. This is still challenging, but at least athletes aren’t tasked with pulling it off in the same calendar year.
For golfers, becoming either a regular or career Grand Slam champion would entail winning the Masters, U.S. Open, PGA Championship, and The Open (also known as “The British Open”).
List of golfers to win a career Grand Slam
Becoming a Grand Slam champion is the toughest thing to do in the sport of golf. Only six golfers have achieved the feat, and the most recent, Rory McIlroy, happened at the 2025 Masters.
Here are the golfers who have achieved a career Grand Slam and their major championships won (bold denotes the tournament where a career Grand Slam was completed).
Jack Nicklaus
Nicknamed “the Golden Bear,” Nicklaus is widely considered to be the greatest golfer of all time with a career-high 18 major championship victories. He finished as the runner-up in 19 majors, which is also a record. Overall, Nicklaus won 73 tournaments on the PGA Tour.
- Masters: 1963, 1965, 1966, 1972, 1975, 1986
- PGA Championship: 1963, 1971, 1973, 1975, 1980
- U.S. Open: 1962, 1967, 1972, 1980
- Open Championship: 1966, 1970, 1978
Tiger Woods
Woods was the most dominant golfer, if not athlete, of his era. He won 15 major championships from 1997-2019 and has a career-high 82 wins overall on the PGA Tour. He was the world No. 1 from August 1999 to September 2004 (264 consecutive weeks) and from June 2005 to October 2010 (281 consecutive weeks). At the age of 24, he became the youngest player to achieve a career Grand Slam.
- Masters: 1997, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2019
- PGA Championship: 1999, 2000, 2006, 2007
- U.S. Open: 2000, 2002, 2008
- Open Championship: 2000, 2005, 2006,
Gary Player
Player is from South Africa and won nine major championships during his professional career. He became the first non-American to clinch a career Grand Slam when he won his first and only U.S. Open in 1965. At the time, he was the youngest golfer (29) to win it before being surpassed by Nicklaus (26), who was then passed by Woods (24). Player won 24 times overall on the PGA Tour.
- Masters: 1961, 1974, 1978
- PGA Championship: 1962, 1972
- U.S. Open: 1965
- Open Championship: 1959, 1968, 1974
Gene Sarazen
Sarazen was one of the world’s top players in the 1920s and 1930s. He won seven major championships and 38 times overall on the PGA Tour. In the 1935 Masters, he hit what is known as “the shot heard round the world,” a 235-yard strike that went straight into the hole for a double eagle at the par-5 15th. The bridge on No. 15 at Augusta National is named after Sarazen to commemorate the remarkable shot.
- Masters Tournament: 1935
- PGA Championship: 1922, 1923, 1933
- U.S. Open: 1922, 1932
- The Open Championship: 1932
Ben Hogan
Hogan is considered to be one of the most influential figures in golf history, but he was a late-bloomer on the course, as he didn’t win his first major championship until he was 34. Hogan ended up winning nine majors in total, tying him for fourth all-time with Player. He won 64 times overall on the PGA Tour.
- Masters Tournament: 1951, 1953
- PGA Championship: 1946, 1948
- U.S. Open: 1948, 1950, 1951, 1953
- The Open Championship: 1953
Rory McIlroy
McIlroy won four majors by the age of 25, a feat accomplished only by Nicklaus and Woods, and has won 28 times overall on the PGA Tour, but he couldn’t get an elusive victory at the Masters until 2025. It’s safe to say it was worth the 14-year wait.
- Masters: 2025
- PGA Championship: 2012, 2014
- U.S. Open: 2011
- The Open Championship: 2014
Current golfers one win from career Grand Slam
If Spieth can win the PGA Championship, there would be only one current golfer who is one win away from a career Grand Slam: Phil Mickelson.
Mickelson, one of the best golfers of the 2000s who had the unfortunate circumstance of competing in the same era as Woods, has won six major championships, including the Masters (2004, 2006, 2010), PGA Championship (2005, 2021) and Open Championship (2013). He has never won the U.S. Open, finishing as a runner-up six times.
