Inside Jordan Spieth's quest for golfing immortality at PGA Championship
Just over a year ago, ahead of the 2025 Masters, all the world of golf could discuss was Rory McIlroy completing the career Grand Slam. It was a feat he ultimately achieved, with the Briton going on to make it back-to-back green jackets.
With this year's PGA Championship, meanwhile, brief discussions have been had with Jordan Spieth matching the Northern Irishman's feat and becoming the seventh player to complete the career Grand Slam in the men's game.
Spieth, 32, has been in and out of form coming into this tournament in recent years, but admitted he is getting "close" to the level he played at during his early success.
The American finished second in 2015, losing to Jason Day, but the key for the 32-year-old this time, as he highlighted speaking to the media, is to give himself a "chance".
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Judging by his form coming into the competition, he certainly will.
The former Masters champion has only missed the cut at the Phoenix Open this year, reaching the weekend in 11 out of 12 tournaments and recording five top 20 finishes.
His T12 at the Masters and T18 at the Cadillac Championship a couple of weeks ago could be signs that Spieth is able to contend at majors again.
Since surgery on his wrist at the end of August in 2024, the American has been rebuilding his game, using a recent time cooking as an analogy for his journey back to the form golfing fans know he is capable of.
Spieth said: "I was smoking chicken in the fall on a big smoker I have, and it got up to 155 quickly and then takes a while. I was like, man, this kind of feels like what I was working on [with swing] stuff, and I was. It kind of feels like what I'm trying to do in the swing."
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The American continued: "I go play, and it's a little bit out of the barriers that we call sustainable. Kind of outside the margins that we call okay.
"If it's that way for everybody and just seemed that way for me right now, where, it's there. It's like close. It's matching what I want to do. It feels good, and it's producing right stuff."
Spieth's stats back up his words, with the American driving the ball better and making 0.333 strokes off the tee in his last five starts.
He ranks 31st in strokes gained across the rest of the PGA Tour, slotting him well in the contending zone for another major.
But the focus for the American will be on keeping consistent throughout and ensuring he is in touching distance of the leading pack.
The 32-year-old explained: "It's a whack-a-mole situation because I have had weeks where I'm leading in putting, weeks where I've leading in driving, weeks where I am leading in ball-striking, and then I just haven't been able to kind of put them all together.
"The good news is within this season I've been able to lead in each [category], so I should be confident that I have at least each part of the game as a weapon.
"It's just focusing on the right things, putting it together, limiting the mistakes, and then when something feels a little bit off, managing to be able to shoot a couple under par versus a couple over par."
Outside of Spieth's control is the competition around him, of which there is plenty, with several players bang in form.
Scottie Scheffler returns as the defending champion, with the American also just one major away from completing the career Grand Slam, but he will have to wait till next month at the US Open to get his shot.
Englishman Matt Fitzpatrick has been one of the standouts on the tour, coming second at the Players Championship, winning the Valspar Championship, RBC Heritage, and the Zurich Classic of New Orleans with his brother Alex Fitzpatrick.
McIlroy will, of course, be in contention if he can nurse his toe injury after abandoning his practice session on Tuesday.
Other names that will be in contention include Tommy Fleetwood, red-hot Cameron Young and LIV's Bryson DeChambeau, who has finished second at this competition in the past couple of years.
Spieth, however, knows he has a shot. He said: "If I can win one more tournament in my life, it would obviously be this one for that reason.
"But the easiest way to do that is to not try to, in a weird way, you know. Just go out and get ready for the first hole, get a good game plan in and attack it the way it needs to be attacked."
The American is partnered up with McIlroy and Spaniard Jon Rahm for their first round tee times.
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