One of the things you might have heard when watching golf is the commentators saying that a golfer is “chasing the Grand Slam”. It is such an expression that is being used very seldomly, mainly because making such a feat is almost never accomplished. The times have changed, the definition of the majors has changed, and only very few golfers have reached that peak. Well, so exactly what is a grand slam in golf?
Let’s Talk About What is a Grand Slam In Golf?
Basically in this sport, if we are talking about the Grand Slam it implies that a single player has won all the major golf championships. For the male players, the modern majors would be the Masters Tournament, PGA Championship, U.S. Open, and The Open Championship.
Moreover, the quartet of major championships for women is different. A women’s Grand Slam in golf on the LPGA Tour is the feat of winning five events: The Chevron Championship, the Women’s PGA Championship, the U.S. Women’s Open, The Women’s Open, and The Evian Championship.
Currently, the term which is most frequently referred to by followers when talking about a Grand Slam in golf is either a Career Grand Slam or a very rare Calendar-Year Grand Slam. The idea of the Grand Slam itself has changed from one time period to another, the difference between the modern one and the Pre-Modern Grand Slam consisting of the amateur majors being quite significant. In the pre-modern era, Bobby Jones completed his version of the Grand Slam by winning all four major championships of 1930: the U.S. Open, The Open (British Open), the U.S. Amateur, and the British Amateur.
Types of Grand Slam in Golf
There are two recognised types, each with its own legacy and difficulty level.
The Career Grand Slam
The Career Grand Slam in golf is achieved when a golfer wins each of the four modern major championships at least once over the course of their entire professional playing career.
A few unique facts:
- Only five men have achieved a modern Career Grand Slam.
- Only seven women have completed the LPGA version.
- The order of winning doesn’t matter.
- Tiger Woods is the only one to have held all four majors of the modern era simultaneously (2000–2001), commonly referred to as the Tiger Slam, but it was not in a single calendar year.
If you are figuring out the scoring and skills of top players, it is also a good moment to know what a scratch golfer is as most Grand Slam achievers were scratch or better in the early phases of their careers.
The Calendar-year Grand Slam
The Calendar-Year Grand Slam in golf is by far the rarest and most valuable achievement in golf demanding the winning of all four major championships of the modern era within a single calendar year.
Just to name a few facts:
- It has never been done by any male golfer in the modern era.
- Bobby Jones is the sole person who achieved such a feat when he went on to accomplish the Grand Slam of the past (U.S. Open, The Open, U.S. Amateur, British Amateur) in 1930.
- In the women’s division, the major history is intricate, but the contemporary LPGA Grand Slam is generally recognized to include five tournaments: The Chevron Championship, the Women’s PGA Championship, the U.S. Women’s Open, The Women’s Open, and The Evian Championship.
- On the women’s side, the LPGA has several counted majors, but even there, a real calendar sweep has never been done.
Because of this, whenever fans ask, “Has any golfer had a Grand Slam?”, the truthful answer is: Only one golfer has ever completed a calendar sweep Bobby Jones but several players have achieved the Career Grand Slam.
Professional Golfers To Achieve Grand Slam
In the modern era, there has never been a golfer who has made a Calendar-year Grand Slam. The only one to do it is Bobby Jones when he achieved the feat in the pre-modern amateur era of 1930.
Here you can find the full rundown of both male and female golfers that reached a Career Grand Slam, sorted out by the year when they achieved it.
| Golfer | First Major Won | Final Major Won (Year Completed) | Years to Complete |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gene Sarazen (USA) | 1922 U.S. Open | 1935 Masters | 13 years |
| Ben Hogan (USA) | 1946 PGA Championship | 1953 The Open Championship | 7 years |
| Gary Player (South Africa) | 1959 The Open Championship | 1965 U.S. Open | 6 years |
| Jack Nicklaus (USA) | 1962 U.S. Open | 1966 The Open Championship | 4 years |
| Tiger Woods (USA) | 1997 Masters | 2000 The Open Championship | 3 years |
| Karrie Webb (Australia) | 1999 ANA Inspiration | 2001 Women’s British Open | 2 years |
| Annika Sörenstam (Sweden) | 1995 U.S. Women’s Open | 2003 Women’s British Open | 8 years |
| Inbee Park (South Korea) | 2008 U.S. Women’s Open | 2015 Women’s British Open | 7 years |
| Rory McIlroy (Northern Ireland) | 2011 U.S. Open | 2025 Masters | 14 years |
If you are working on your game, figuring out how scoring works and hence how to calculate your golf handicap can be very helpful in keeping track of your progress in a more accurate way.
FAQs
Has any golfer had a Grand Slam?
Bobby Jones is the only golfer who has ever done this – he dominated the 1930 season and won all the majors in one fell swoop, but that was prior to the establishment of the modern majors. No one has achieved a clean sweep within a year in the current era so far.
Has Tiger Woods done a Grand Slam?
What Tiger did pull off was something different but equally wild, over the stretch from mid-2000 to early 2001, he ended up holding all four major titles at once. Fans started calling it the “Tiger Slam,” and the name stuck. It’s not a calendar-year sweep, but it still puts him in the group of golfers who’ve won every major at some point in their career. Very few players can make such a claim.
What is the hardest golf major to win?
The majority of professional players would answer the U.S. Open. The USGA designs the course in a way that it becomes extremely difficult for the players – very narrow landing areas, thick rough, and greens that do not show any faults. There are people that say the Masters is tougher because you need to have perfect knowledge of Augusta, but yearly, it is the U.S. Open that reveals the most weaknesses.
