Golf's Career Grand Slam's Winners and Seekers

While winning the grand slam in a single year may be close to impossible, the career grand slam offers players something to strive for over the course of decades. The career grand slam — winning each major championship at least once during a career — has been accomplished by only five golfers, the last being Tiger Woods in 2000. Remarkably, Woods and Nicklaus have each won three Career Grand Slams and are the only players in golf’s history to do so.

While the four majors make up the grand slam today, the U.S. Amateur and the Amateur Championship were considered major championships at one time. Though with the full professionalization of golf, they are no longer considered majors.

The literal Grand Slam is when a player wins all four major championships in a calendar year. In the pre-Masters era, Bobby Jones, arguably the best amateur golfer in history, pulled off the Grand Slam, the only of its kind, in 1930 when he won both American and British Opens and Amateurs.

However, no golfer in the modern era has achieved this "rare air." Tiger Woods won four consecutive majors, but his streak spanned two seasons, beginning with the 2000 U.S. Open and ending with a triumph at the 2001 Masters. That feat, dubbed the “Tiger Slam” had never been accomplished.

While only five players have achieved the Career Grand Slam, there are a handful more who are oh-so-close to accomplishing the feat.

There are currently three active golfers who lack one major championship to complete the Career Grand Slam.

The youngest player to win three of the four majors, Jordan Spieth, managed to win the Masters, U.S. Open and Open Championship by age 24. Only the PGA Championship remains in his quest to join the game’s greatest players.

Spieth almost won three of the four in 2015 alone as he took home the green jacket and U.S. Open, and finished runner up at the PGA Championship. Two years later he won the Open.