"I think as we get into the weekend, if I'm able to work my way into contention, it's something that will obviously be asked, and it's something that I certainly want". Jordan Spieth is again bidding to complete a career Grand Slam of majors at the PGA Championship
Friday 21 May 2021 00:38, UK
Jordan Spieth insists the prospect of completing a career Grand Slam of majors is not a distraction for him at the PGA Championship.
Spieth knows he will be quizzed on the subject if he gets himself into contention over the weekend at Kiawah Island, but he is determined to focus on the job in hand and treat the event as he would any major championship.
The 27-year-old will have added attention on him this week as he arrives in South Carolina as one of the pre-tournament favourites following a magnificent run of form, culminating in his first victory for almost three years at the Texas Open last month.
But asked if talk of the career Grand Slam was on his mind this week, Spieth's answer was an emphatic "no, it's not".
"I think as we get into the weekend, if I'm able to work my way into contention, I think it's something that will obviously be asked and come up, and it's something that I certainly want.
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"You go to a major, and for me at this point, I want to win the Masters as badly as I ever have this year. Didn't happen. I want to win this one as badly as I ever have. Then you move on to the US Open, and it'll be the same.
"We're trying to peak for the majors. I feel like I'll have a lot of chances at this tournament, and if I just focus on trying to take advantage of this golf course, play it the best I can and kind of stay in the same form tree to green I've been in, all I can ask for is a chance."
Spieth was speaking to the media having not managed to play a practice round on the Ocean Course due to his late arrival at Kiawah Island due to bad weather in Dallas disrupting his travel plans.
But he is wary of the course playing the longest in major history, and with the final five holes all playing into the wind in the early part of the week, he believes the field could be "hanging on for dear life" towards the end of their rounds.
"I can't speak for other players, but for myself, I haven't looked at the length of a golf course since junior golf," he said. "Things change, and the wind will make 515-yard holes play driver, nine-iron if it's downwind and it gets firm.
"I've heard the back nine stretches to almost 4,000 yards, and then today Matt Jones came to the range and said 'Man, 14 through 18 was all you want today'.
"So it could be about taking advantage of the downwind holes and hanging on for dear life into the wind out here. The holes will play obviously much longer when you turn into the breeze and then much shorter downwind, more so than other golf courses when they can get firm and fast and the ball is going to chase out.
"I think picking clubs off tees, picking lines off tees, are going to be important, but I would have liked to have seen the golf course a few times. It just wasn't a possibility this year for me. Going to need to do a lot of good work the next two days.
"Controlling your tee shots in the wind with kind of some awkward-looking tee shots like hitting towards a tree when the fairway looks like it's somewhere else, that's kind of the gist of what I've heard off the tee.
"And then a lot of it being a second-shot golf course, having to really control your distances from 160 to 220 yards in the wind and being able to hit as many greens as possible with this paspalum grass. I think getting on to those greens in regulation is going to be very important this week, and inevitably windy conditions being on the water.
"This week I think it'll be more about hitting middle of greens and then taking advantage of par-fives."
