Jordan Spieth eyes historic ‘American Slam’ with PGA Championship win

Jordan Spieth, but for an uncharacteristically balky flat stick in the final round of last month’s British Open, might be going for the calendar grand slam this week at the PGA Championship.

A four-putt double-bogey on the par-3 eighth hole at St. Andrews essentially ended Spieth’s bid to make history at Whistling Straits later this week by capturing all four majors in a single season. But though he finished T4 after Zach Johnson prevailed in a three-way playoff in Scotland, Spieth can still make history by becoming the only player to win all three majors on U.S. soil in the same year.

”When did that start?’’ Spieth recently asked Doug Ferguson about the origins of the so-called “American Slam.”

No one would be surprised to learn — as Spieth already knew, according to Ferguson — that the term gained currency after Tiger Woods failed to claim the third leg of the same-season grand slam at the Open Championship at Muirfield in 2002. He missed out on notching all three U.S. majors by one stroke to Rich Beem at the PGA a month later.

Spieth, with a T10 finish in his final PGA tuneup at Firestone last week after firing a final-round 4-under 66, had his bid for the calendar grand slam come to an end when he came up one shot shy of making it to extra frames at St. Andrews. In addition to standing alone in the annals of the game with a win at Whistling Straits, the 22-year-old reigning Masters and U.S. Open champion would join an elite club of three — after Ben Hogan in 1953 and Woods in 2000 — to win three majors in a single season.

Spieth believes his game is up to the challenge

“Today was a good solid round. I had more momentum. I felt more connected too … I’m very pleased with the way that we rebounded,” Spieth said, comparing his closing 66 to Saturday’s 72 at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.

“Aside from yesterday, I thought I played some really good golf this week, good enough to contend in the tournament,” Spieth added. “I’m looking at it as a nice solid week, and I’ll really just try and feed off of this round more than anything.”

Of course, Spieth’s prospects for cadging that third U.S. major title presumably got rather more difficult when world No. 1 Rory McIlroy returned from injury for weekend practice rounds at Whistling Straits. McIlroy told reporters that his left ankle, which suffered torn ligaments after a friendly soccer game five weeks ago, was a “non-issue.”

Second-ranked Spieth would have leapfrogged McIlroy for the top spot in the rankings with a win at Firestone and could still do so after the PGA.

The best two players in the world will be up close and personal with each other for at least the first two rounds of this week’s final major on the men’s schedule.

“It’s going to be great,” Spieth told Sky Sports 4 about teeing it up with the defending champion. “I’m very, very happy that he is back, everybody is. He certainly takes the interest in the game to a different level.

“It will be cool to battle it out with him hopefully for the No. 1 spot if it comes down to Sunday,” added Spieth. “I am certainly ready to be in that position and hopefully we can do so.”

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SB Nation video archives: Urban golfing with a U.S. Open champ (2012)