Grand Slam (golf)

The Grand Slam in men's golf is an unofficial concept, having changed over time. The Grand Slam is taken either as holding the championship of all four of the major championships simultaneously, or by the more strict winning the four major championships of a calendar year.

The term also refers to a tour tournament, the PGA Grand Slam of Golf, an annual off season tournament contested by the winners of the four major championships.

In annual playing order, the modern major championships are:

April - The Masters (weekend following 1st Monday in April) - hosted as an invitational by and played at Augusta National Golf Club
June - US Open (weekend ending with the 3rd Sunday in June) - hosted by the USGA and played at various locations in the USA
July - The Open Championship (weekend containing the 3rd Friday in July) - hosted by the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews (R&A) and always played on a links course at various locations in the UK
August - PGA Championship (4th weekend after The Open Championship) - hosted by the Professional Golfers Association of America as part of the PGA TOUR and played at various locations in the USA.

The term "Grand Slam" was first applied to Bobby Jones' achievement of winning the four major golfing events of 1930: The Open, the US Open, the U.S. Amateur and The Amateur Championship.

The modern definition could not be applied until at least 1934, when The Masters was founded, and still carried little weight in 1953 when Ben Hogan, after winning The Masters, the US Open and The Open, could not compete in the PGA Championship; the nearly concurrent PGA Championship and the Open and the state of cross-Atlantic travel made completing the Grand Slam impossible. Hogan is the only player to have won The Masters, the US Open and The Open in the same calendar year.

Tiger Woods has come closest to meeting the modern definition of golf's Grand Slam by holding all four modern major championships simultaneously — the 2000 US Open, The 2000 Open, the 2000 PGA Championship and the 2001 Masters — although not in the same calendar year. This has been referred to as a Consecutive Grand Slam or, after the only player to achieve it, a Tiger Slam.

Only five golfers have won all four of golf's modern Majors at any time during their career, an achievement which is often referred to as a Career Grand Slam: Gene Sarazen, Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, and Woods. Nicklaus has three Career Grand Slams, having won each major at least three times, while Woods has two, having won each major at least twice.

A number of dominant players of their eras have failed to achieve the Career Grand Slam because of their inability to win a particular major. Sam Snead failed to win a US Open; Arnold Palmer and Tom Watson failed to win a PGA Championship; Lee Trevino failed to win a Masters. These shortcomings have been attributed to various concepts: a particular major is just ill-suited to a player's game; the player lacked the ability to fully adapt to that major; and the player experienced just sheer bad luck.

The Women's Grand Slam

Women's golf also has a set of majors. No woman has completed a four-major Grand Slam, but Babe Zaharias won all three majors contested in 1950 and Sandra Haynie won both majors in 1974.

Six women have completed the Career Grand Slam by winning four different majors. There are variations in the set of four tournaments involved as the players played in different eras, and the women's tournaments defined as "majors" have varied considerably over time in a way that has not been paralleled in the men's game. The six are Pat Bradley, Juli Inkster, Annika Sörenstam, Louise Suggs, Karrie Webb, and Mickey Wright.

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The Women's Grand Slam

See also