Grand Slam
A grand slam in golf is the achievement of winning all four of the sport’s major championships. The term is used two ways: a career grand slam means winning each major at least once over a career, while a calendar-year grand slam means winning all four in a single year.
What is a grand slam in golf?
In men’s professional golf, a grand slam refers to a single player winning all four major championships: the Masters, the PGA Championship, the U.S. Open, and the Open Championship. It is an unofficial term rather than a trophy or a tournament a golfer enters. Instead, it describes one of the rarest accomplishments in the sport.
The word has two meanings, and mixing them up causes most of the confusion. A career grand slam counts wins gathered across a whole career, in any order and across any number of seasons. The calendar-year version is stricter, requiring all four titles inside the same twelve months. Six men have cleared the career bar. None has ever managed the calendar-year one in the modern game.
Because the four majors are played on different continents and on different kinds of grass, a player has to master every style of golf the sport can throw at them. That difficulty is what gives the grand slam its weight.
The four majors that make up the grand slam
The grand slam is built on four tournaments, played in order between April and July. Each one is run by a different body and has a character of its own.
| Major | When | Where | Character |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Masters | April | Augusta National, Georgia (same course yearly) | Fast, sloping greens; an invitational field |
| PGA Championship | May | Rotates among U.S. courses | Deep professional field, run by the PGA of America |
| U.S. Open | June | Rotates among U.S. venues | Narrow fairways and thick rough, set up by the USGA |
| The Open Championship | July | Links courses in the UK | Coastal wind and firm links turf, run by The R&A |
The Masters is the only major held at the same course every year. The Open Championship, often called the British Open outside the UK, is the oldest of the four and the only one played outside the United States. Since 2019, the PGA Championship has been played in May, having previously closed the season in August.
One tournament sits just outside this group. The Players Championship draws arguably the strongest field in golf and is sometimes called the “fifth major,” but it is not a major, and winning it has no bearing on a grand slam.
Career grand slam vs calendar-year grand slam
Almost every question about the grand slam comes down to this distinction. The two versions describe different feats, and only one of them has ever been done in the modern game.
| Career grand slam | Calendar-year grand slam | |
|---|---|---|
| Requirement | Win each of the four majors at least once | Win all four majors in the same year |
| Time allowed | An entire career | Twelve months |
| Modern men’s achievers | 6 | 0 |
| Status | Rare but achieved | Never done in the modern game |
A career grand slam is the more attainable of the two, though “attainable” is relative when only six men have managed it in roughly a century. The calendar-year grand slam is golf’s great unclaimed prize. It asks a player to peak four separate times, on four kinds of course, inside a single season, and no man has done it since the majors took their modern shape.
Golfers who have won the career grand slam
Six men have won all four modern majors during their careers. Rory McIlroy became the most recent when he won the 2025 Masters, completing a set he had chased for eleven years. He was the first to join the club since Tiger Woods in 2000.
| Golfer | First major | Final major to complete slam | Years |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gene Sarazen | 1922 U.S. Open | 1935 Masters | 13 |
| Ben Hogan | 1946 PGA Championship | 1953 Open Championship | 7 |
| Gary Player | 1959 Open Championship | 1965 U.S. Open | 6 |
| Jack Nicklaus | 1962 U.S. Open | 1966 Open Championship | 4 |
| Tiger Woods | 1997 Masters | 2000 Open Championship | 3 |
| Rory McIlroy | 2011 U.S. Open | 2025 Masters | 14 |
Gary Player, a South African, was the first non-American to complete the set, sealing it at the 1965 U.S. Open. Woods finished his in just three years, and he was only 24 when he did it. Several active players now sit one major away from joining them. Jordan Spieth needs the PGA Championship. Phil Mickelson needs the U.S. Open, a title he has finished runner-up at a painful six times. Scottie Scheffler moved within one leg by winning the 2025 Open Championship, leaving only the U.S. Open between him and the set.
Women’s golf has its own grand slam, and seven players have completed the career version by winning four different majors: Pat Bradley, Juli Inkster, Inbee Park, Annika Sörenstam, Louise Suggs, Karrie Webb, and Mickey Wright. Webb is the only golfer, man or woman, recognised for a “super career grand slam,” having won five different major titles.
The calendar-year grand slam: golf’s unclaimed feat
No man has won all four majors in one calendar year since the modern majors were established. The closest anyone came was Ben Hogan in 1953, and his story shows how hard the feat is to pull off.
Hogan won the Masters, the U.S. Open, and the Open Championship that year. He could not attempt the fourth. The PGA Championship, then a match-play event, overlapped with the qualifying and travel needed for the Open at Carnoustie in Scotland, so entering both was impossible. Hogan chose Scotland, won, and finished the year with three of four.
The one name attached to a calendar-year sweep belongs to an earlier age. Bobby Jones won all four majors of his day in 1930, but those majors were the U.S. Open, the Open Championship, the U.S. Amateur, and the British Amateur. Jones played as an amateur his whole career, and the Masters did not yet exist. Sportswriters called his 1930 sweep the “impregnable quadrilateral.” It remains the only four-major calendar-year slam in golf history, even if its lineup differs from the modern one.
What the Tiger Slam means
The Tiger Slam is the name given to Tiger Woods holding all four major titles at the same time, though not within a single calendar year. Woods won the U.S. Open, the Open Championship, and the PGA Championship in 2000, then added the Masters in April 2001. For a stretch of that spring, he was the reigning champion of all four majors at once.
This was not a calendar-year grand slam, since the wins spanned two seasons. Whether it should count as a “true” slam has been debated for years, yet the achievement was singular enough to earn its own name. No one else has held all four modern majors simultaneously.
Related Golf Terms
- Rules official — An on-course authority who interprets and applies the rules.
- Pro-am — An event pairing professional golfers with amateurs.
- Gallery — The crowd of spectators watching a tournament.
- Local rules — Course-specific rules supplementing the standard Rules of Golf.
- Qualifying school — The series of tournaments players use to earn tour status.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the four majors in golf?
The Masters, the PGA Championship, the U.S. Open, and the Open Championship. They are played in that order from April through July each year.
Has anyone won the grand slam in golf?
Six men have won the career grand slam. No man has won the modern calendar-year grand slam. Bobby Jones won a four-major calendar-year slam in 1930, though two of those events were amateur championships no longer classed as majors.
Who was the last golfer to win the career grand slam?
Rory McIlroy, who completed the set at the 2025 Masters. He became the sixth man to do it and the first since Tiger Woods in 2000.
Is the Players Championship a major?
No. It is often called the “fifth major” because of its strong field, but it is not one of the four majors and does not count toward a grand slam.
What is the difference between the grand slam and the Tiger Slam?
A calendar-year grand slam means winning all four majors in one year. The Tiger Slam describes Woods holding all four titles at once across 2000 and 2001, which spanned two calendar years.
Sources
- Wikipedia. “Grand Slam (golf).” Accessed July 2026.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Slam_(golf) - PGA of America. “The Golf Career Grand Slam Explained.” Accessed July 2026.
https://www.pga.com/story/the-golf-career-grand-slam-explained-history-winners-and-whos-closest - ESPN. “Which players have won a golf career Grand Slam?” Accessed July 2026.
https://www.espn.com/golf/story/_/id/44658200/which-pga-lpga-players-won-golf-career-grand-slam - Golf Channel. “Career Grand Slam winners in men’s professional golf.” Accessed July 2026.
https://www.golfchannel.com/news/players-who-have-won-the-career-grand-slam-in-mens-golf - Golf Monthly. “Golf Career Grand Slam Winners.” Accessed July 2026.
https://www.golfmonthly.com/features/players-won-golf-grand-slam-154520 - Topendsports. “Golf Grand Slam.” Accessed July 2026.
https://www.topendsports.com/events/golf-majors/grand-slam.htm - LPGA. “Grand Slam.” Accessed July 2026.
https://www.lpga.com/tournaments/major-championship-records/grand-slam
