“But it was also still not the same”, Spieth said during a press conference at Whistling Straits.
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In contrast, Kaymer led from start to finish to win the US Open at Pinehurst in 2014, a month after winning the Players Championship – the so-called “fifth major” – in the same style at Sawgrass. “If you go over the last two years, I would say it’s probably a toss-up between Jordan and myself”.
“Unfortunately, my foot just got stuck on the turf and went over on it. It could have been much worse”. Spieth had won the Masters and U.S. Open, and ended up one shot out of a the three-man playoff Johnson won over Louis Oosthuizen and Marc Leishman at St. Andrews.
The PGA Championship has no such recognizable identity.
Two major triumphs in one year and a shot at the number one world ranking have Jordan Spieth rapidly recalculating his career goals. Next up is a chance to become the only player to sweep the three U.S. majors in the same year.
“Certainly they have gone according to plan up to this point”, Spieth said. “And unlike the first two majors I had a chance to win and I didn’t pull it off. That was the hardest part to get over for me”.
The intriguing storylines for this weekend’s PGA Championship at Whistling Straits Golf Course are plentiful, and so are the contenders for the title.
It’s far from a two-man show and there are strong cases to be made for in-form players like Rickie Fowler and Bubba Watson, whose length off the tee gives them a serious advantage here.
McIlroy had to skip the British Open while recovering from an ankle injury, but he was watching Spieth’s Grand Slam quest. Watson, who invested in January as minority owner of the Pensacola Blue Wahoos and will soon open a candy and ice cream shop downtown, has earned $5.6 million this season.
Kaymer will play with former winners Tiger Woods (1999, 2000, 2006 and 2007) and Keegan Bradley (2011) in Thursdays opening round. We arrived on Sunday and it’s been fun getting out on the golf course again and seeing what’s in store for us this week…trust me, this place is a little bit special.
However, that major is often remembered for leader Dustin Johnson’s blunder on the last hole, where he grounded his club in what he thought was just a patch of dirt but was actually a bunker, leading to a two stroke penalty which saw the title slip through his fingers. Adam Scott and Henrik Stenson are both listed at 25-1.
The day’s showpiece group don’t tee off until 7.20pm (BST) but before then we’ll have updates from around the course as Tiger Woods aims to put his major disappointments behind him.
All that, of course, has changed for the two-time Masters champion, who is having a career year on the PGA Tour. Weekley’s best major has been the PGA Championship where he’s finished three times in the Top 20.
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“This year if I can get in contention again and not only get over that hurdle of making the cut at a PGA Championship, but also to contend to win, I think we’re going to be a lot more mature in that situation”.
