Jordan Spieth

Charlotte, N.C. – When Rory McIlroy won the 2025 Masters to complete a professional grand slam, he opened the championship’s press conference with his own questions.

“What will we talk about next year?” McIlroy greeted the media, who has been questioning him for his historical pursuit.

For McIlroy, Augusta National’s annual Grand Slam Hunt was his 365-day weight. No matter how he competes, it is always a question that comes.

“It’s very difficult,” McIlroy said. “I think I’ve taken that burden since August 2014. It’s been almost 11 years. Not only is it going to win my next major, but it’s a professional grand slam.

“It’s very heavy to carry, and thankfully, I don’t have to carry it now.”

Nine months after McIlroy won the 2014 Open Championship, Jordan Spieth embarked on his own historical parade. He won the 2015 Masters and won the U.S. Open in 2015. The third leg of Spieth’s professional grand slam was in the 2017 Open Championship, leaving only Spieth’s unclaimed Wanamaker Trophy.

But while McIlroy is burdened by the burden of time and the place needed to conquer, the PGA Championship isn’t Spieth’s Boogeyman, who will win his ninth game in the Quail Hollow Club’s professional grand slam this week.

When asked if McIlroy’s victory put the forefront of the Grand Slam, Spieth said Tuesday: “I was surprised – I’ve been in the PGA for many years and no one really asked me.” “It’s funny, I think if Rory didn’t, then it’s not a storyline for me. I mean, if I work hard, it’s always a storyline, but at least ahead of time, I just feel like I’ve been asked more than other years.”

“I was surprised by the dynamics. It always hovered around the calendar. For me, if I could only win one game for the rest of my life, I would have chosen this game for that reason. Obviously, it was inspiring to watch Rory win after trying for many years. You could say it was hard to win, which was obviously a difficult thing. There was a reason, but I would love to put my hat on this weekend of the week.”

McIlroy and Spieth live different realities in their pursuit of immortality in golf.

For McIlroy, the ghost who won in Augusta National is the place that has been haunting him since his collapse in 2011. But Spieth didn’t feel the need to drag the PGA champion’s luggage behind him for nine years. He has no problems every year. At PGA, Spieth’s weight is not as burdened as McIlroy’s weight every April at Augusta National.

That is the product of the history of the trophy that the champions, players and players chase themselves.

“I think for Jordan you have to go back to the same game every year, but not the same golf course,” McIlroy said last week at the Truist Championship at Philadelphia Cricket Club. “I think it’s a little different – it’s a different proposition for him, not that I have to go back to the same venue every year, and I think so.”

While McIlroy has to travel to Augusta Country every year and re-recognize himself with the ghost of 2011, Spieth is different every year at the PGA Championship. He has taken classes that suit him (2015, Whistle Channel), some of whom he argues is (2019, Bethpage Black), while others who simply don’t suit him (2024, Valhalla).

Spieth also didn’t get tortured like McIlroy at Augusta National or Phil Mickelson at the PGA Championship at the U.S. Open. Spieth finished second in 2015 and third in 2019, but did not finish the top ten more in 12 attempts.

Scar tissue is not there because of McIlroy and Masters. Probably never. The Master of 2011 is the beginning of one of the great golf stories in history, and it is the beginning of tragedy to victory 11 years later. This is also one of the biggest assumptions of golf.

“Honestly, if the 11th Master goes away, I think he will achieve much more than he has already achieved,” Jon Rahm said of McIlroy on Tuesday. “I think it’s a very difficult obstacle and you can see his emotions at the end, just because he’s really the first chance to win professionally, how it goes down. I know he won the U.S. Open shortly after the record margins, but every time he goes to Augusta, that’s his head.”

Spieth and the PGA Championship have no such torment. It’s not something Spieth lives and fights with.

Spieth will chase history this week at Quail Hollow. If he grabs it, the result will be different from the story written by Augusta National last month.

A man about solidifying his own legend. Instead of conquering ghosts.