Career Grand Slams in golf: How Scottie Scheffler can join Rory McIlroy, others with 2026 U.S. Open win

Career Grand Slams in golf: How Scottie Scheffler can join Rory McIlroy, others with 2026 U.S. Open win originally appeared on The Sporting News.
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Scottie Scheffler’s already impressive career can take a major step this week with a win at the U.S. Open.

Scheffler enters the tournament with two Masters, a British Open and a PGA Championship to his name, making this his first chance to complete the career Grand Slam. Scheffler has come close to winning this tournament, with a second-place finish in 2022 and a third-place finish in 2023, but it remains the only major he hasn’t secured in his career.

If Scheffler can win the U.S. Open, he will join an exclusive list in golf that includes some of the best golfers in the sport’s history. To do so, Scheffler will have to possibly beat Rory McIlroy, the last player to get golf’s career Grand Slam.

Here’s what to know about Scheffler’s quest for golf immortality.

MORE: Who has won the most U.S. Open titles in golf history?

What is a career Grand Slam in golf?

The career Grand Slam in golf is when a golfer wins each of the four major tournaments: the Masters, the U.S. Open, the British Open and the PGA Championship. As those four tournaments are known for being the toughest tournaments in golf, winning all four of them is considered the ultimate accomplishment in the sport.

In golf’s history, only six players have ever completed this iteration of the career grand slam. Bobby Jones completed an older version of the career grand slam, which included the U.S. Amateur tournaments instead of the PGA Championship in the early 1900s.

MORE:Complete list of U.S. Open winners by year

List of golfers to win a career Grand Slam

Gene Sarazen

• Masters: 1935
• PGA Championship: 1922, 1923, 1933
• U.S. Open: 1922, 1932
• British Open: 1932

The first player to secure the career Grand Slam was Gene Sarazen, who won his first and only Masters in 1935 to produce the career accomplishment. Sarazen has seven major victories overall, with three PGA Championships for his most of the four, and set the tone for the greats that would come after him.

Ben Hogan

• Masters: 1951, 1953
• PGA Championship: 1946, 1948
• U.S. Open: 1948, 1950, 1951, 1953
• British Open: 1953

Ben Hogan had a dominant stretch of golf, winning all nine of his majors in a seven-year span from 1946 to 1953. Hogan found his most success at the U.S. Open, as he is one of four players to win the tournament four times, but he completed the career Grand Slam in his first and only appearance at the British Open in 1953.

Gary Player

• Masters: 1961, 1974, 1978
• PGA Championship: 1962, 1972
• U.S. Open: 1965
• British Open: 1959, 1968, 1974

Player was the first international player on this list, and he did so in efficient fashion. Each of Player’s first four major victories came at the four different majors, completing the career Grand Slam with just four majors to his name. Player went on to add five more majors before retiring and is one of a few players with nine career majors.

Jack Nicklaus

• Masters: 1963, 1965, 1966, 1972, 1975, 1986
• PGA Championship: 1963, 1971, 1973, 1975, 1980
• U.S. Open: 1962, 1967, 1972, 1980
• British Open: 1966, 1970, 1978

No player in golf has more majors than Nicklaus, as he won 18 majors over a 24-year span from 1962 to 1986. Nicklaus secured the career Grand Slam by 1966, as his final major to earn the accomplishment came at the 1966 British Open for his sixth major. Nicklaus has at least three wins in each of the four majors, and he his six Masters wins is the most by a player at a single major.

Tiger Woods

• Masters: 1997, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2019
• PGA Championship: 1999, 2000, 2006, 2007
• U.S. Open: 200, 2002, 2008
• British Open: 2000, 2005, 2006

Woods burst onto the scene with a dominant Masters win at 21 years-old in 1997, which began the most dominant stretch of any golfer in the sport’s history. Like Nicklaus, Woods has at least three wins in each major, but unlike Nicklaus, Woods was the defending champion of each major at the same time. Woods secured the career Grand Slam by winning the 2000 U.S. Open and British Open, then won the next PGA Championship and Masters tournaments for the full “Tiger Slam.”

Rory McIlroy

• Masters: 2025, 2026
• PGA Championship: 2012, 2014
• U.S. Open:  2011
• British Open: 2014

McIlroy won four majors in a four-year stretch, but his 11-year quest to complete the career Grand Slam is the longest any golfer took to secure the accomplishment. McIlroy then followed that up by going back-to-back at the Masters, putting him at six majors as he looks to rise the list of most majors all time.

MORE:Complete look at youngest U.S. Open winners

Current golfers one win from career Grand Slam

Getting that fourth major is perhaps the toughest of the four, as the pressure mounts for golfers who 

After winning the PGA Championship and British Open in 2025, Scottie Scheffler is just a U.S. Open away from becoming the seventh member on the career Grand Slam list. Scheffler’s first crack comes at Shinnecock Hills on Father’s Day this year, which also marks Scheffler’s 30th birthday.

The other active player still searching for that fourth major is Jordan Spieth, who won the Masters in 2015, U.S. Open in 2015 and British Open in 2017. He needs just a PGA Championship for the accomplishment, with his best finish coming as a runner-up in 2015.

Besides those two active players, 10 others came one leg short of completing the career Grand Slam. Most notably, Phil Mickelson has six majors but never won the U.S. Open, while both Arnold Palmer and Tom Watson never won the PGA Championship.