Scottie Scheffler’s dominance over the golf world continued Sunday at Royal Portrush as the world No. 1 won his fourth career major and first Open Championship with a four-shot victory in Northern Ireland. With the win, Scheffler is now a U.S. Open title away from becoming the seventh player to complete the career grand slam, joining Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Ben Hogan and Gene Sarazen.
It famously took McIlroy 11 years to complete his grand slam, which he finally accomplished this April with a thrilling Masters win. McIlroy’s pursuit of a green jacket became the most agonizing chase to watch in golf over the last decade, and demons were most certainly exorcised once that playoff putt fell at Augusta National.
Scheffler will aim to wrap his pursuit much quicker, and he seems to be well-equipped to handle the pressure that comes with chasing history. His first chance at the grand slam will come at Shinnecock Hills next June when the U.S. Open returns to the iconic Long Island course for the first time since Brooks Koepka won there in 2018.
Scheffler is currently the favorite (+320) to win the 2026 U.S. Open trophy and complete the grand slam, per DraftKings Sportsbook. And for those seeking a cosmic sign that Scottie will indeed make history that week, the Sunday of next year’s U.S. Open final round happens to be Scheffler’s 30th birthday: June 21, 2026.
A win there would further push Scheffler up the list of all-time greats. He is already knocking at the door of the all-time top 10, though he needs a few more major titles to get there. Joining the career grand slam club — particularly doing so on the day he turns 30 — is a fast track to becoming a golflegend.
The grand slam proves a player’s bonafides as a golfer capable of conquering every kind of test. Winning The Open showed Scheffler could summon his A-game across the pond on the links course, which coming into the week was the site of the weakest major effort of his career. The caveat there, of course, is Scheffler still had two top 10s at Opens and never missed a cut.
While he’s yet to win it the U.S. Open, the tournament has been extremely good to Scheffler, who has four top 10s in his last five starts, including a runner-up in 2022 and a third-place finish in 2023. He did not play in the 2018 event at Shinnecock, so this will be his first chance to play a U.S. Open at one of the rotation’s stiffest tests, but his game is unquestionably suited for the challenge of the U.S. Open.
The only question is whether Scheffler can capture the grand slam before it becomes a burden in the way it did for McIlroy. An especially happy 30th birthday celebration would simply be icing on the proverbial cake.