By Frank Pingue
CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (Reuters) -Jordan Spieth has not lost sleep over his bid to complete the career Grand Slam at this week’s PGA Championship and said on Tuesday that watching Rory McIlroy accomplish the feat at last month’s Masters has inspired him.
McIlroy became the sixth player and first in 25 years to complete the collection of golf’s four majors, a feat that left Spieth as the next man up in the quest to join golf’s most exclusive club.
“For me, if I could only win one tournament for the rest of my life, I’d pick this one for that reason,” Spieth, 31, told reporters at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina, where the year’s second major begins on Thursday.
“Obviously watching Rory win after giving it a try for a number of years was inspiring.”
This week will be Spieth’s ninth attempt at completing the career Grand Slam and he arrives at the PGA Championship having recorded three top-10 finishes in 11 events this season, and a share of 14th at last month’s Masters.
Spieth, a three-times major winner, feels the par-71 Quail Hollow venue is a prime layout for him.
“I don’t feel like I have to learn where all the pins are and where all the misses are and stuff,” said Spieth.
“You can ask me the hole location on any green around this place right now, and I can tell you how I’m going to play the hole and where I’m going to try to hit it.”
A triumph at Quail Hollow would put Spieth alongside Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and McIlroy as the only players to complete the career Grand Slam.
The only other active player who is one win away from a career Grand Slam is 54-year-old Phil Mickelson, who needs a U.S. Open triumph to complete his collection.
Spieth, whose best PGA Championship result was a runner-up showing in 2015, is also feeling more comfortable on the course since having surgery last August on his left wrist which had been troubling him for nearly two years.
“When I’m golfing, I haven’t really been thinking about it the last couple of months,” said Spieth. “I wake up in the morning, I’m very aware I had surgery. My left feels twice the size of my right for about a half hour every morning.
“They say that stops about a year post-op, and it’s getting — some days are better than others … I’m still aware, but I’m not worried about the same thing happening anymore.”
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in TorontoEditing by Christian Radnedge)
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