Who Will Be The Next Career Grand Slam Winner in Golf

No one who witnessed Rory McIlroy winning the Masters in 2025 shall forget the emotional scenes when the Northern Irishman ended his major drought and finally slipped inside the Green Jacket. It was a triumph that was made all the more meaningful by seeing this generational talent join the immortals by completing the career Grand Slam.

The clock can be turned back to 1930 when Bobby Jones, the most legendary of amateurs, won the Amateur Championship, Open Championship, US Open and the US Amateur in the space of four months. That unique and historic feat was given the rather stately title of the impregnable quadrilateral.

Just after he conquered the world, Jones retired from competitive play and ultimately founded Augusta National Golf Club and the Masters Tournament, which later became part of what we consider to be the major championships in men's professional golf.

What is The Grand Slam in Golf?

We now perceive Gene Sarazen and Ben Hogan to have been career Grand Slam winners - but such a concept wasn't actively present in their day, especially when the former won the Masters in just its second year in 1935. Hogan's solitary foray to the Open Championship - when he lifted the Claret Jug at Carnoustie in 1953 - felt more like a career completion at the time, but the construct of what we view as the four majors wasn't properly established until the 1960s.

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Both Sarazen and Hogan won huge tournaments, but the significance of those victories grew in the subsequent decades.

Having won the Masters and the US Open in 1960, Arnold Palmer was the darling of the world of golf at the peak of his powers, and sportswriter Bob Drum - who followed the King closely - began to produce copy about how Palmer desired to emulate Jones by winning a Grand Slam of four titles, this time professional in nature, by swapping out the two amateur events and replacing them with the annual tournament in Augusta and the PGA Championship of the United States.

Venturing across to St Andrews that summer for the Centenary Open Championship, his debut, Palmer ultimately finished second behind Australia's Kel Nagle, and soon after that he was in seventh place at Firestone in the PGA. His dreams of achieving a new quadrilateral were gone, and despite being runner-up three times, Palmer never did win the PGA Championship, but he had played a starring role in creating what we now perceive to be the major championships.

Who Has Won The Career Grand Slam?

60 years ago at Bellerive, South Africa's Gary Player became the third golfer to have won these four showpieces when he clinched the US Open. Palmer didn't have to wait long to see his other great rival, Jack Nicklaus, become a Grand Slam golfer too when the Golden Bear secured the Open Championship at Muirfield in 1966.

It was decades until we saw the likes again. Despite remarkable careers, like Palmer, Lee Trevino, Tom Watson and Raymond Floyd won three of the four, while Seve Ballesteros and Nick Faldo enjoyed stunning success in the Open and Masters, but couldn't claim either of the other two American-based majors.

Tiger Woods changed that in the Millennium year of 2000 at St Andrews when his imperiously dominant win saw him become a Grand Slam winner. 

While no one has emulated Jones by winning four majors in the same year, Woods has his own place in history having won the 2000 US Open, 2000 Open, 2000 PGA, and 2001 Masters to hold all four titles at the same time.

And that was that until Rory McIlroy came along, but he did make us wait. After winning the Open at Royal Liverpool in 2014, the Northern Irishman now had three of the four majors in his possession, just the Masters eluded him, but it took over a decade for that momentous story to be completed.

Who Could Next Complete The Career Grand Slam?

The question now turns to who could next join the immortals - Sarazen, Hogan, Player, Nicklaus, Woods and McIlroy - and complete the career Grand Slam?

History has shown that it could be a generation until we witness something like it again, meaning that it's eminently possible that the next Grand Slam golfer will be someone who could be yet to pick up a golf club.

But it might happen rapidly. 

A past winner of the Masters, US Open and Open, Jordan Spieth has been on the precipice since 2017, with the PGA Championship's Wanamaker Trophy being the one remaining objective for the Texan. 

Most would view the former world number one as being far below his peak of a decade ago, but still in his early 30s, although many wouldn't bank on it, the American is the most obvious candidate. For now.

Phil Mickelson has been a runner-up six times in the US Open, but like Sam Snead before him, the national title has somehow evaded the grasp of the left-hander. We saw Mickelson defy father time when he won the PGA Championship in 2021, but now in his mid-50s, it's most unlikely that the Californian will ultimately complete the set.

Elsewhere, Dustin Johnson, Collin Morikawa and Jon Rahm are still active and have won two of the four, with the latter pair still being competitively relevant and potential candidates to go further. 

Xander Schauffele won both the PGA and Open in a sparkling campaign in 2024, and the former Olympic gold medalist has been a regular contender in the Masters and US Open. It's conceivable that he could be next in line.

However, despite having only claimed one of the four (albeit twice), Scottie Scheffler feels like the most inevitable. Bryson DeChambeau is a two-time winner of the US Open and undeniably has the ability to win other majors, but Scheffler seems more complete with a higher ceiling and adaptable game to overcome the distinct questions asked by each of the championships.

Winner at Augusta in 2022 and 2024, Scheffler has also been runner-up in both the US Open and PGA Championship. While yet to fully grasp the intricacies of links golf, you would fancy the current world number one to eventually find himself deep in contention on the Sunday of an Open Championship.

There is a chance that we haven't yet met golf's next career Grand Slam winner, but if he is known to us, then Scottie Scheffler may well be that man.

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