There are few achievements in sport that have never been accomplished. Every tournament in every sport crowns a winner – somebody always wins The World Cup, The Grand National or even The World Conker Championships.

Nobody has ever won golf’s four Major Championships* in the same calendar year.

Never.

Nobody has even really come that close: Tiger, Jack and Arnold won the first two – The Masters and The US Open – in 2002, 1972 and 1960 respectively but couldn’t get over the line at The Open. Tiger, of course, won all four Major’s in a row from the 2000 US Open to the 2001 Masters but his run stopped after that.

Here we are again then, with the weight of history looming large on the shoulders of young Jordan Spieth. For the first time in well over a decade golf finds itself in the most unique of positions: someone with a genuine shot to achieve the unachievable.

Before the year began the Texan was well known in golfing circles as an upcoming talent, someone to watch for in the future as a potential Major Champion. You’d have been hard pressed to find anyone however, aside from maybe Jordan himself, who thought this first half of the year was possible. He blew everyone out the water at The Masters to win by 4 strokes, then followed that up with a topsy-turvy, nail-biting victory at The US Open; holding his nerve brilliantly under extreme pressure.

His maturity for someone his age is exceptional. He’s 21 but listen to him speak and you hear a man twice his age – sagacious and knowledgeable. As much of an asset as his temperament is, Spieth’s real gift is his putting. He avoids overthinking many of his putts by taking a rather unique approach; instead of looking at the ball during the strike he simply looks at the hole and, more often than not, it ends up in the bottom of the cup.  

Despite all of his many qualities there’s no sugarcoating how tough the task still is. Neil Payne at fivethirtyeight.com calculated his chances stand around 1% to complete the Grand Slam**. This is the challenge that golf poses unlike any other sport, no matter how much better you are than your opposition the fact you have so much opposition makes it infinitely more difficult. You have to hope that your best effort over the four days is better than 100 other people's.

He moves on to The Open Championship at St.Andrews with as good a chance as anyone - his edge around the green’s should be even more pronounced and the withdrawal of Rory McIlroy is obviously beneficial.

He’s given himself a chance to chase immortality, you can’t ask for more than that. Now what will Jordan Spieth do?  

*(FOOTNOTE – this is from 1958 onwards when the PGA Championship adopted a stroke-play format to match the other three majors. Bobby Jones won a ‘Grand Slam’ in 1930 when the US and UK amateur championships were in place of The Masters and The PGA)

**(Calculated before Rory McIlroy’s likely withdrawal)

Other Notes

•          Welcome home – The Open returns this year to the spiritual home of golf, The Old Course at St Andrews. Steeped in history and tradition it gives every player that extra incentive to play well this week knowing The Open will not return here for another five years or so.
•          How’s your putting? – As is often the case with links golf it’s going to take someone with a good imagination around the greens to be successful. Having to use your putter more often will suit those players that are particularly strong in that area, for those that aren’t however it’ll be a long couple of days.
•          Check the forecast – If it blows a gale then anything could happen and the tournament will turn in to survival of the fittest. If the weather stays fair then there’s the potential for some low rounds, the last two winning scores at St.Andrews have been 14 under (Tiger Woods, 2005) and -16 (Louis Oosthuizen, 2010) so you can see the potential there for guys to go low. 
•          British interest – Paul Casey has been in relatively good form this year, he finished in the top 10 at The Masters and just missed out in a Play-Off against Bubba Watson at the Traveleres Championship. Justin Rose is always in with a chance of course but also look for some of the Scottish lads to perform well in their home Major. Marc Warren finished in the top 30 at the recent US Open so maybe he replicates that form at St Andrews.
•          Dark Horse – Shane Lowry played exceptionally well at Chambers Bay to finish in the top 10 and has also been fairly consistent on The European Tour this year, maybe the Irishman is on the verge of a breakthrough. 

Harrison Ryle

harrison.ryle@foremostgolf.com