Learn more<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cI struck the ball well. I drove it really well. I was in a good position on a lot of holes. If I drive it like that, I’d expect to shoot what I did or better,\u201d Speith said. \u201cJust didn’t quite finish the way I wanted to on the last three holes, but under-par was a good score.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s one of those rounds where I feel like I played better than I scored, which is frustrating because you want to get the most out of your round. It’s also a good thing, which means things are in a good spot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Spieth\u2019s opening round at Aronimink Golf Club wasn\u2019t quite the full \u201cJordan Spieth Experience\u201d that we\u2019ve come to expect week-in and week-out on the PGA Tour. He didn\u2019t find himself in all kinds of odd places and had to make all kinds of heroic returns. Instead, he made a string of pars on his opening nine, added a simple birdie on the par-5 16th, and then added three more circles on his scorecard to go with the aforementioned bogeys. He gained almost two shots off the tee and was otherwise steady.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was blowing really hard, and it was cold this morning. The course played very, very difficult. It was a good start. I’m going to need to improve on it, I think, each day,\u201d Spieth said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Spieth\u2019s chase for the career grand slam has had its ebbs and flows over the last near-decade. He busted out of the major gate, winning both the Masters and the U.S. Open in 2015 \u2013 becoming just the fourth golfer in history to win the first two majors of the year. He very nearly successfully defended his Masters title in 2016, eventually finishing tied for second, and then won The Open Championship in 2017. His best result at the PGA Championship came in that fateful 2015 season, where he finished solo second, just three back of the winner.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Spieth has come in and out of the golfing abyss for the last half-decade or so, however. He won in both 2021 and 2022 \u2013 his last victory coming in a playoff at the RBC Heritage \u2014 but has been kept winless since. He also became a father three times over (2021, 2023, and 2025) and missed, for the first time in his career, some hefty time due to injury. He had surgery on his left wrist in 2024 and didn\u2019t return until six months later.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He came into both last year\u2019s PGA Championship and this year\u2019s with some momentum, however. Spieth had four top-20 finishes in five starts heading into the 2025 PGA, but missed the cut at Quail Hollow Club. This year, he\u2019s had five top-20s, total.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While in some years the spotlight isn\u2019t as bright on Spieth and his chase for the career grand slam, there was something about this particular year that got people excited once again. He\u2019s 34th in strokes gained: putting, this season, for example, a big leap from last season and a near 100-spot jump from two seasons ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be amazing, right, because it’s just a very, very short list in history,\u201d Spieth said of the potential to complete the career grand slam.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While Spieth seemingly stumbled coming into the house on Thursday, Aronimink Golf Club played a little more difficult in the opening round than many assumed it would. The wind was swirling through midday, the rough was thick, and the pins were tucked. The scoring average on Thursday was more than 2-over par.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou could see how this course could play very fun for members if they want to make the pins in bowls. Seems like us they want to put them right in the corners and stuff,\u201d Spieth said. \u201cThey give you kind of an easier start on the first hole, on No. 1, and from there it got kind of diabolical.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alas, Spieth finished in red figures and has put his feet up for the rest of the afternoon. And if history is any indication at this particular major, it\u2019ll remain fairly open over the next three days for someone to make a run. In four of the last nine PGA Championships, the eventual winner was outside the top 30 after Thursday, and only three of the last 20 winners were leading at the end of the first round.<\/p>\n
Spieth has given himself a chance to win and to make history.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cJust winning this tournament in general would be very special,\u201d Spieth said. \u201cBut obviously, with having won the other three, that\u2019s the one that everyone focuses on.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. \u2013 \u201cAs far as the career grand slam,\u201d Jordan Spieth said earlier this week, \u201cif…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":670427,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-670426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=670426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/670427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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Just play, we\u2019ll handle the rest<\/p>\n