Golf Majors and things on the line this year: Rory McIlroy's 10th attempt at Grand Slam, Brooks Koepka's continued dominance or something else?

As we get off to the first Major of 2024, there are bound to be speculations about who could be wearing the Green Jacket at the end of the week on Sunday. And yes, there’s another landmark, or two that could be achieved. A Grand Slam; a sixth Green Jacket? But of course, most are looking at a maiden Major or maiden Masters.

Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka, Collin Morikawa, Jordan Spieth, Cameron Smith, Dustin Johnson, Viktor Hovland, Will Zalatoris and Xander Schauffele are all in contention.

There have been 35 Majors since the 2015 Masters (the Open in 2020 was not held) and 22 different players have accounted for them. Some won two, some three and some even more like Koepka, who has the most at five.

Why did I choose 2015 as my starting point? That’s because the only man who has a chance to complete the Grand Slam is McIlroy who last won a Major in 2014, actually two.

The others who will have an opportunity to complete a Slam are Phil Mickelson (6 Majors) who needs the US Open and Jordan Spieth (3) who needs the PGA Championship. The rest will need at least two more to achieve a Slam.

I looked at about a dozen players or more, give or take a few, and a very interesting set of stats emerged.

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Awaiting the next Grand Slam Club member – Rory gets his 10th shot at it

The original Slam, however, is sometimes considered the one achieved by Bobby Jones in 1930 – the US Amateur, the US Open, the Open, the Amateur (the R&A Amateur).

The PGA Championship started in 1916 and the Masters started in 1934 and that’s when the modern Grand Slam began.

Gene Sarazen (1935), Ben Hogan (1953), Gary Player (1965), Jack Nicklaus (1966) and Tiger Woods (2000) achieved the Career Slam in these years.

McIlroy tees off this week for a tenth attempt to complete the Grand Slam and join an exclusive club, which has only five members. He won his first Major in 2011 at the US Open and the PGA Championship in 2012. He then won the Open and added another PGA Championship in 2014.

Since the Masters of 2015, Mcllroy has been coming to the Masters to get the ‘fourth’ and has been in the Top-10 six times since then, finishing T-21 once and missing the cut twice. So, he has come close but needs to close the deal.

For the record – the two players who have the most and second-most Majors – Jack Nicklaus (on Thursday) and Tiger Woods (on Tuesday) re-affirmed that McIlroy ‘can and will’ get that Slam one day.

McIlroy’s 30 Major Top-10s include seven at the Masters (six of them since 2015). Twenty of his 30 Top-10s have come since 2015, so the last nine years have been great, except that they have not brought him another Major or a Masters.

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Most Top-10s since Scottie Scheffler arrived

Top-10s in Majors since Scheffler arrived.

Of the top six players who have been World No. 1 since the official world golf rankings started on April 6, 1986, four are still active. They are: Tiger Woods (683 weeks), Dustin Johnson (135), Rory McIlroy (122) and Scottie Scheffler (82).

So, I decided to look at the most number of Top-10s in the Majors since Scheffler arrived.

Scheffler won his first Major at the 2022 Masters which is exactly two years ago and became World No. 1 on March 27, 2022. Of the 106 weeks since the time he became No. 1, he has occupied the pole position for 82 weeks – surely a kind of dominance hardly seen in the era of World Rankings.

Little wonder then, he has had nine Top-10s since he played his first Major and the only player to have had more Top-10s during this period has been Rory McIlroy (10).

Jon Rahm (8), Collin Morikawa (7) and a bunch of players including Brooks Koepka, Cameron Smith, Dustin Johnson, Will Zalatoris and Xander Schauffele have had six each.

No one has more Majors than Koepka since he arrived

Brooks Koepka played his first Major in 2012, made his first cut in a Major in 2013 and won his first Major (the US Open) in 2017. He now has a total of five Majors (3 PGA and 2 US Opens) and 18 Top-10s in his career.

His three Top-10s at the Masters include 2019 (won by Woods) and 2023 (won by Rahm). So, he is literally the ‘Major’ man. His nine PGA Tour wins include five in the Majors.

Last year, he looked a ‘certainty’ if there is anything like that in the Majors, until he ‘collapsed’ with three bogeys in the last six holes and ended in a tie for second. He has promised that he won’t let that happen ‘ever again’.

At least one first-timer each since 2015

The last time there was no first-time winner in a year was 2014. That year each of the four Major champs won at least their second Major. McIlroy won his third and fourth, Martin Kaymer won his second and so did Bubba Watson – none of them have added a Major since.