After an incredible third day at Aronimink, the 2026 PGA Championship is perfectly poised on Sunday, with dozens of golfers still in with a chance of winning the tournament.
One of those players within touching distance of the lead is Rory McIlroy. Despite scoring 74 on Thursday, McIlroy has gone three-under and four-under in the past two days and started Sunday three strokes back of leader Alex Smalley.
After his monumental win at Augusta last month, another Major victory here for McIlroy would naturally help to elevate him in the pantheon of the greatest golfers of all time.
Adding the Wanamaker Trophy to his collection for a second time would see McIlroy surpass Sir Nick Faldo with seven Major titles.
But, it would also put him on the list of golfers who have previously won the first two Majors of the year — a list which currently only features six players.
No one has ever won the first three Majors in a row during a season, but here are the legends to have won the first two.
Which Golfers Have Won The First Two Majors Of Any Year?
Craig Wood was the first man to go back-to-back in the Majors at the start of a golfing season. That was way back in 1941.
Incredibly, before that, Wood had a horrible record at the Majors, having lost playoffs in all four events. His luck changed, though, when he won The Masters by three strokes over Byron Nelson, and then went on to win the US Open by three over Denny Shute.
Eight years later, Sam Snead matched that feat. He won the 1949 Masters by three strokes, having clawed back a one-shot deficit heading into the final day.
Snead then won the PGA Championship, which used the match play format at the time. He almost got the hattrick, too, but a birdie chance turned into a par on the final hole at the US Open and the opportunity for a playoff evaded Snead. He would never go on to win the US Open throughout his career.
Ben Hogan is the standout name on this already impressive list — he's the only man to have won the first two Majors in two separate years, doing the Masters-US Open double in both 1951 and 1953.
What's even more impressive is that, in 1953, Hogan actually went on to lift the Claret Jug to claim a third consecutive Major win that year. However, the PGA Championship and The Open schedule overlapped that year, with the former finishing just as the latter was starting.
Essentially, Hogan had to choose one Major or the other, and he often skipped the PGA Championship at that time.
The legendary Arnold Palmer was the first man to truly chase down the single-season Grand Slam. After winning The Masters and the US Open in 1960, Palmer decided to play The Open and try to make it three in a row — he ultimately fell just short, coming second at St. Andrews — but it was at this point that he insisted the Grand Slam should comprise of the four events we consider today.
It should come as no surprise that Jack Nicklaus is on this list.
In what was arguably his greatest year of golf, 1972, Nicklaus claimed The Masters title by three strokes, and later won the US Open at Pebble Beach by the same margin.
A rollercoaster ride at The Open had Nicklaus looking down and out by day three, but a blistering final round of 66 saw him take the clubhouse lead. He was trumped by long-time rival Lee Trevino in the end, and denied the hattrick of Majors.
Another far from surprising member of this elite club is Tiger Woods. What is surprising, perhaps, is that he only managed to win the season's first two Majors on one occasion.
That was in 2002, when he defeated Retief Goosen in the Masters by three strokes, and bested Phil Mickelson in the US Open. He ended up being nowhere near the third Major, though, shooting a career-worst 81 on day three of The Open to well and truly throw away the single-season Grand Slam dream.
It was probably some semblance of a consolation that, prior to The Open, Woods was the holder of all four Majors at the same time.
The most recent man to win the first two Majors in a single season was Jordan Spieth. 2015 was an immense year for Spieth, who sealed the Masters-US Open double to really announce himself as one of the best in the sport.
He very nearly made it three Majors in the same year, too, finishing T4th at The Open but just one stroke away from being involved in a playoff with Zach Johnson, Louis Oosthuizen, and Marc Leishman.
Rory McIlroy is already one of just six golfers to have completed the career Grand Slam thanks to his triumph at Augusta last year. He's undoubtedly one of the best to ever play the sport, but joining this list by winning the PGA Championship would really cement him as a true legend.
