US PGA Championship: Milestones not on Spieth’s mind ahead of 2019’s second major

Former world number one Jordan Spieth says that he is focused on regaining form from the tee and not on completing a career grand slam at the US PGA Championship.

Spieth’s best finish at the tournament was his 2015 second place but a horror start to 2019 has him focused more on the basics of his game than completing the set of Major wins.

“It has been an adjustment being in a bit of a slump,” Spieth said.

“I’m doing a better job of being patient on the frustration side and letting my game come back in the time it needs to take.”

The Bethpage Black course won’t offer much leeway for Spieth’s errant driver, with dense rough and wet conditions making the 7,459-yard course play even longer.

“It has just been my driving. My set up got a little bit lazy,” Spieth admitted.

“It’s getting there. I’m working on one swing feel now instead of changing it up each round, which allows me to be more consistent.”

Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Ben Hogan and Gene Sarazen are the only five men in the history of golf to have completed the career grand slam.

Spieth said that joining that elite group would be something special but he hopes to have plenty of opportunities to do so.

“Would be a pretty unique fraternity to be in there. That would be a dream come true for me,” Spieth said. “But I also recognize that if I continue to stay healthy and play well, I’ll have 30 chances at it. One of them is bound to go my way, right?”

Spieth played down such lofty goals in favour of a shot-to-shot approach.

“It’s going to be very in the moment for me every PGA Championship,” he said. “I’m more patient in majors with letting courses come to me.

“This course offers a really tough test. I’m going for as much consistency as possible. If I can continue to make the amount of birdies I’ve been making and just limit the mistakes a little bit, should be right in it.”