For the ninth time, Jordan Spieth will head to the PGA Championship with a chance to win the career Grand Slam.
Outside of a T3 in 2019, Spieth hasn’t been in PGA contention since his last slam appearance. Even with that high finish, he started the final round nine shots behind eventual champion Brooks Koepka.
As one of the most popular and entertaining players in golf, Spieth getting into the mix at the weekend and having a chance to complete the slam would make for a very attractive major championship.
It’s been a fairly quiet year overall for Spieth, so what are the chances that the three-time major champion can find form at the right time and produce some magic for the fans at Aronimink Golf Club in Philadelphia this week?
It will be an uphill climb. Spieth hasn’t won in over four years. In the last nine years, he has only two wins (2021 Valero Texas Open and 2022 RBC Heritage).
And it has been three years since he was in the top 10 of Data Golf. For most of the past few years, he has been ranked well outside the top 20.
Is the magic over or can he find something this week?
Spieth’s current form is a mixed bag
It’s been a very strange year for Spieth.
“If you look at the stats, yeah, it’s a Whac-a-Mole situation because I’ve had weeks where I lead in shots, weeks where I lead in drives, weeks where I lead in putts, and then I haven’t been able to put it all together,” Spieth said Monday.
After the beginning of 77th in the world rankings and falling to 89th placethhe managed to go up to 50th after a T18 at the Cadillac Championship.
Spieth has missed just one cut and played consistent golf in 2026, but he also hasn’t recorded a top 10 in 12 starts. A T11 at Bay Hill and a T12 at the Masters have been highlights, but everything has yet to click to put him deep in contention on Sunday.
Spieth’s game hasn’t cooperated throughout the bag in 2026. Earlier in the year, he was coming in and chipping well enough to win. At Riviera, he gained more than six strokes, but missed 2.48 tee shots and got nothing with his irons en route to a T12. A T11 at Bay Hill was the closest he got to a complete performance as it’s his only start all year where he won in all four major Strokes Gained categories. But he was basically average off the tee and around the green, and he didn’t have cuffed upside or putts to contend with that week.
Starting at The Players, Spieth’s irons caught fire for about a month during the Masters. While the putt was enough for Spieth to fight for the win, his putter was cold.
He won nearly six shots on the approach at Augusta but missed nearly two shots on the green. The following week, he led the field in placing at Harbor Town but struggled everywhere else.
That kind of inconsistency has been a microcosm of Spieth’s game: Good but not good enough.
In the last two weeks, Spieth’s irons have been completely broken, which is very concerning. But he is hitting the driver extremely well. He was no. 11 off the tee at Doral and he was no. 2 off the tee last week at Quail Hollow. It’s hard to feel good about his chances, though, as he had his worst performance of the year by a wide margin.
Overall, Spieth has shown a lot of potential across the board this year, but balance has been lacking. You would imagine that everything would click at some point, but it hasn’t yet so far in 2026. He went to the PGA in 2022 and 2023 in fantastic form, but never played well.
There isn’t much course history to see for most of the field at the PGA Championship. Aronimink hosted the AT&T National way in 2010 and 2011 and the BMW Championship in 2018. Spieth played in the latter, but he finished T55 in a field of 68 players during the start of what was a pretty rough fall for him.
I believe that Aronimink is one of the most suitable courses for Spieth among the last and future places.
The PGA has become a bomber’s paradise in recent years, playing in large ballparks that have generally required a lot of distance and firepower to compete. TPC Harding was the last PGA venue under 7,400 yards which is about what Aronimink will be this week.
With a greater focus on accuracy and these intricate Donald Ross green complexes, I think Spieth might relish the challenge that Aronimink presents. He tends to produce his best stuff on courses that require him to hit several types of shots and be creative on and around the green.
Aronimink should check a lot of the boxes where I think Spieth can be a factor.
Outside of the Olympic Club in 2028, the futures don’t necessarily favor Spieth, so this is hypothetically one of his best looks if his game follows suit.
Does Spieth have a chance to win this week?
The answer is yes. But the chances are slim.
There are many players coming into the PGA Championship in excellent form, including the top four players in the world. While the Masters felt wide open due to Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler not having their best stuff in the lead, it came back to McIlroy, Scheffler and world No. 4 Cameron Young.
Now Scheffler and Young have continued to play even better golf since the Masters, leading to some giants like the favorites in Aronimink.
It’s hard to see Spieth having the ceiling now to go up against those guys — along with Matt Fitzpatrick, Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau — if any of those guys have anywhere near their A-game.
But in the scenario that some of the game’s best fights, this is where Spieth has the opportunity to jump in.
He’s shown all year that all parts of his game have the potential to show up in any given week, but not all of them have done it in unison. Aronimink is a strong course for this to potentially happen as he will be able to focus on accuracy off the tee and will need plenty of wizardry with the irons and short game to navigate the level complex greens.
I’d be surprised if Spieth has a chance on Sunday, but if he does, it’s sure to be one of the most entertaining finishes to a major championship we could hope for.
Top Photo Caption: Jordan Spieth will go for another career Grand Slam this week. (GETTY IMAGES/Jared C. Tilton)
