The year was 2014, and at just 21 years old, Jordan Spieth became only the second UT alumnus to qualify for the U.S. Team’s Ryder Cup since 1999. His successful run at such a young age was partly due to his coach, John Fields. Under Fields’ guidance, Spieth contributed to the winning Texas Longhorns team in 2012, which achieved UT’s first National Championship win since the early 1970s. Having played a significant role in the golfer’s career, Fields has now shared one of Spieth’s big goals amidst his hope to mirror Rory McIlroy.

Almost a decade earlier, talking about the rising young star during an interview, John Fields said, “If Jordan accomplishes any sort of goal, he quickly moves onto another.” Ten years later, Spieth has changed a lot. For instance, although not his best performance, the Texan has been doing well recently. He has had two top-10 finishes and several top-20 finishes this season, beginning his major tournament with a tied-14th finish at Augusta National.

But when Fields sat down for an interview with Dan Rappaport on Skratch, he shared a similar belief in the 31-year-old golfer. “What I didn’t realize is every time he walked out of the locker room, there and walked past this [the major award winners’ list], he was visualizing his name on every one of these. And I know, you know, the probably the single most important thing to him right now is to win the PGA.”

“There’s only six,” Rappaport pointed out. “There’s only six,” Fields agreed. Golf has seen only six career Grand Slam winners in its history, with Rory McIlroy being the most recent. However, for Jordan Spieth, whose last major win came at The Open in 2017, achieving the career Grand Slam is proving to be as difficult as it was for McIlroy. Since that victory, Spieth has played in the tournament seven times but hasn’t won the title. His best chance came two years after his 2017 The Open win. At the 2019 PGA Championship, he finished tied for third, six strokes behind his Ryder Cup teammate Brooks Koepka.

“I believe he will do it. I really do, cuz I know he believes he will really do it. And then it will be up there, and God willing, we’ll continue to add other players there too,” Fields added. However, he isn’t the only one pinning hopes on the American to make history at the PGA Championship.

Jordan Spieth tasked to win the PGA Championship for an “astronomical” golf moment

For Jordan Spieth, who is looking for his first win since the 2022 RBC Heritage, the PGA Championship win has alluded him several times. In 2022, freshly off his win at the RBC Heritage, the golfer said in awe, “It’s an elephant in the room for me. It’s a goal of mine. If you just told me I was going to win one tournament the rest of my life, I’d say I want to win this one, given where things are at…So you feel like you kind of accomplished golf when you win a career Grand Slam, I guess.”

However, now that McIlroy has recently made his mark in golf history by winning his fifth major championship at the Masters, ending an 11-year dry spell, a fellow Tour player has challenged Jordan Spieth to do the impossible: help the world of golf witness two completed career Grand Slams in a single calendar year.“It would be astronomical for the game of golf. I really do believe that to be able to have two career grand slams in one year. We’ve only had — is it only five — is it six now? I think Jordan, again being such a big face of the game of golf, would be really good for us, for the PGA Tour. I think he’s seeing Rory do it for sure is going to motivate him more to get it done in Charlotte.” It would not be an easy task, however.

McIlroy, whom Tom Kim hopes will serve as Spieth’s “motivation,” might actually emerge as his biggest competitor. This year’s PGA Championship will take place at Quail Hollow, the course where McIlroy has won four times in his 11 career starts at the iconic venue for the Truist Championship (formerly known as the Wells Fargo Championship). Is Jordan Spieth’s feat possible? What do you think?