Who Is the Next Golfer To Win Career Grand Slam?

On Sunday evening, Rory McIlroy became the sixth male golfer of all-time to complete the career grand slam – and just the second in the last 58 years.

They say those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it, but hell, that was pretty fun, so I don’t think a lot of us would mind seeing another addition to golf’s most exclusive club in their lifetime.

Let’s take a look forward and try to deduce which players have an opportunity to join the list next.

Who Is the Next Golfer To Win Career Grand Slam?

Jordan Spieth

It might take another half-century for a player to capture the career slam… or it might happen four weeks from now. Spieth’s major championship odometer has been stuck on three ever since 2017, when he captured the Open Championship to go along with his 2015 Masters and U.S. Open wins. While it might seem unlikely, considering his 13 career PGA Tour titles include just two this decade and none in three full years, Spieth is coming off a solid T-14 result in Augusta and was T-28 at the 2017 PGA Championship, the last time it was held at this year’s host venue, Quail Hollow Club.

Xander Schauffele

I could’ve gone in a few different directions for my player with the next-best chance of following in McIlroy’s footsteps, but I decided to go with Schauffele, who quickly knocked off half of the majors last year, winning the PGA Championship and Open Championship. Realistically, those might’ve been the two toughest for him, as the others tend to suit his game. He’s never finished worse than T-14 at the U.S. Open and owns six top-seven results in eight career starts. And with a T-8 finish this past weekend, he’s now been top-10 at the Masters in five of the last seven years. It’s tough to think he could go from zero-to-four in, say, three or four years, but it’s certainly not out of the realm of possibility.

Collin Morikawa

Like Schauffele, Morikawa might’ve crossed off two that were the toughest – or at least one, as he took home the Claret Jug four years ago, despite never having played links golf until the previous week. He still needs a green jacket, but he’s been top-15 at Augusta National in each of the past four years, so it would hardly be a shock if one of the world’s best iron players someday wins on what’s been described as a second-shot golf course. And he’s posted similar results at the U.S. Open, with four top-15 finishes in the past four years there, as well.

Jon Rahm

Time will tell, of course, but I get the sense that this weekend could be a springboard toward more major title contentions for Rahm. He was almost-snapped-the-driver kind of frustrated during Thursday’s opening round, then needed a final-hole birdie on Friday to make the cut on the number. He parlayed that into a share of 14th place, though, and it could mean bigger things moving forward. Rahm owns wins at the Masters and U.S. Open already, and he’s whispered that the Open Championship might be the one he wants the most. 

Scottie Scheffler

It wasn’t the week that Scheffler had envisioned, as the defending Masters champion and pre-tournament favorite “only” finished in fourth place. Of course, it wouldn’t have helped him for the career slam, as the world’s No. 1-ranked player still needs the other three. So, why is he so high on this list if he’s only one-quarter of the way there? Well, I did mention he’s the world’s No. 1-ranked player – and he also happens to own a combined nine top-10s in 14 starts at the other three.

Brooks Koepka

Between 2017 and 2019, Koepka was a major championship assassin, twice winning the U.S. Open and twice winning the PGA Championship. In his first two major starts after joining LIV Golf in 2023, he finished runner-up at the Masters, then won the PGA for a third time. Since then, however, he hasn’t finished better than 17th in seven starts. Even so, it’s tough to think he won’t someday figure things out at the big ones again.

Phil Mickelson

Come on, don’t pretend like you weren’t skimming this piece to look for his name. Mickelson owns three Masters wins, two at the PGA and one at the Open Championship, but he’s famously finished runner-up a half-dozen times at the U.S. Open without a victory. At 54 – he’ll turn 55 the day of Round 3 of this year’s U.S. Open – the window is closing in a hurry, but at least he doesn’t have to qualify, earning a five-year exemption after winning the 2021 PGA.

Ludvig Aberg

If you’re scoring at home, Aberg currently owns zero major championships, which doesn’t seem like a problem until you realize that Tiger Woods had captured the career slam by his age and McIlroy had three out of four. Perhaps Bryson DeChambeau or Hideki Matsuyama or Jon Rahm or Justin Thomas would’ve made more sense in the spot, considering they each have one, but they’re all older than Aberg, who’s shown flashes of brilliance at the majors in his brief career. He’s obviously still a massive longshot to join that exclusive club, but if there’s one young player who could do it, it’s him.

John Doe

Hey, that’s how the police identify unknowns, so if it’s good enough for them, it’s good enough for us. There’s a decent chance that the next career slammer is a young kid who just watched McIlroy’s victory and was inspired to start playing. Or maybe someone who hasn’t even been born yet. As much as it makes sense that someone like Spieth, with three legs completed, is the obvious choice to do it, there’s also the very real possibility that it could be another generation or two before someone claims all four of ‘em.