Talk:Grand Slam (golf)

Open names
There is a conflict between using the formal name "The Open Championship" for the British open tournament, and the term, "British Open," in common usage in reference to the tournament. "British Open" is favored as the primary reference to this tournament, since it's the less confusing/more descriptive. Carrying the formal title of the tournament is no more of a requirement than insisting the use of "Robert Trent Jones" throughout an article on that golfer rather than just "Bobby" or "Jones", and in this instance avoids confusion between U.S. tournament named, the United States Open Championship and the British tournament named, The Open Championship.

The Open Championship should be referred to as "The Open", not just because of the fact that that is its name, but also because "British Open" is a common misnomer since the championship has been held in Northern Island, which is outside the British Isles. I understand the reasoning of calling it the British Open, but I support the fact that The Open is its name, and it should be called that accordingly


 * The way I see it The Open Championship shortens to The Open, Masters Tournament shortens to Masters, United States Open Championship shortens to US Open and PGA Championship can't really be shortened without causing confusion with various associations and tours. I have made the names consistent in this article as there were many inconsistencies throughout. (BigTurnip (talk) 21:04, 17 July 2011 (UTC))

The Open Championship Pride
Every few months someone will get annoyed that The Open Championship is being referred to as the British Open through this article. They do not seem to have the same outrage to bother with the looseness used in reference to the other major tournaments, such as United States Open Championship or the Masters Tournament, being referred to as the US Open and The Masters. My take is that particular author has a particular fondness for The Open Championship and wishes to, above the others, make sure it's treated with the utmost formality. Such formality should not be carried through the article, but if it were, it should at least be consistently applied throughout.

Read my above comment and stop being so ignorant. The US Open is a simple shorthand for United States Open, since U.S. is the accepted initials for United States. By your same logic, prehaps the "Masters Tournament" should be called the "Georgia Masters" so we dont get it confused with the British Masters, or the European Masters or the Scandanavian Masters.


 * Looky here my dear: Talk:The_Open_Championship


 * The way I see it The Open Championship shortens to The Open, Masters Tournament shortens to Masters, United States Open Championship shortens to US Open and PGA Championship can't really be shortened without causing confusion with various associations and tours. I have made the names consistent in this article as there were many inconsistencies throughout. (BigTurnip (talk) 21:04, 17 July 2011 (UTC))

The PGA Championship can be shortened to the PGA. Kevinskogg (talk) 23:32, 16 November 2020 (UTC)
 * The link is to PGA Championship, so it seems best to keep to the linked name. Randy Kryn (talk) 02:41, 17 November 2020 (UTC)

Men's Golf?
The article makes reference to "Men's Golf". Is this strictly true, since women are free to participate in most, if not all, "men's golf" events? Should the categories be just "Golf" and "Women's Golf"?


 * Strictly speaking, maybe so, but there's no need for the change until Michelle Wie starts winning majors :-) Wasted Time R 17:55, 12 August 2005 (UTC)

Officially defined?
Anon 66.188.225.202, please give a reference as to where the Grand Slam is officially defined. Wasted Time R 17:55, 12 August 2005 (UTC)


 * Here's one reference:
 * A sweeping success or total victory, as in This presentation gave us a grand slam-- every buyer placed an order. This term originated in the early 1800s in the card game of whist (forerunner of contract bridge), where it refers to the taking of all thirteen tricks. It later was extended to bridge and various sports, where it has different meanings: in baseball, a home run hit with runners on all the bases, resulting in four runs for the team; in tennis, winning all four national championships in a single calendar year; in golf, winning all four major championships. In the 1990s the term was used for four related proposals presented on a ballot at once.


 * Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
 * Copyright © 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.


 * To continue the question, what's "The American Heritage® Dictionary" source and can it be considered any more authoritive? There is no official definition of Golf's grand slam, which is why there is no concensus on whether Tiger Woods achieved it.


 * The wording of this reference is ambiguous – does the "in a single calendar year" clause of the tennis definition extend to the golf definition? I guess so, but it could be clearer.  But as you state, this is not authoritative in any case.  Some ruling body of golf such as the R&A, the USGA, or the PGA TOUR would have to give a definition of the Grand Slam, and they don't.    Wasted Time R 13:02, 9 October 2005 (UTC)

It seems to me that it's inaccurate for the article to state definitively that Tiger Woods did not win a Grand Slam. There is some controversy over this. At least some people, myself included, think it's reasonable to define a Grand Slam as being achieved when a player holds all four major championships simultaneously.

It's defined by the media, so they can change it to '4 at once' if they want. Considering that the media never talked about a golfer trying to get a grand slam with a starting point other than The Masters outside of Woods' single instance, I don't think the controversy exists.

It's really 4 in the same season, not calendar year. If the seasons were August-June, it wouldn't be by calendar year.

Super Grand Slam
Hey, you know what, instead of calling Grand Slam as such, let's call it "Super Grand Slam" instead.

Oh but wait, pretty soon, marketing weasels and sport agents of lesser pros will start bastardizing "Super Grand Slam" again like they did to Grand Slam and start calling their clients "career Super Grand Slam".

People, Grand Slam is reserved exclusively for people winning all four majors in the SAME YEAR, no if's, and's, or but's.

There is no such thing as a "Grand Slam" event, nor career Grand Slam.

Grand Slam is like Jackpot, you have to have all 3 bars, one in each column, all on the SAME pull. You can't say you got bar on the 1st colume only, and then on the other two columes on the next try, that is not a jackpot, and the casino will tell you so.

Grand Slam means you win EVERY majors in that year, w/o loosing a single one -- an amazing feat. Now how does that compare to somebody who lost 36 majors in 10 years, but managed to win 4 during the same period? That make "career Grand Slam" so TINY compare to a real Grand Slam.

So stop using words like "career Grand Slam" and "Grand Slam" event, they mean NOTHING! And I am talking to all sports commentators on TV, idiots, sellouts.

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.196.198.85 (talk) 00:09, 31 July 2008 (UTC)


 * I 100% agree but it doesn't matter what I think, it matters what is in print in major newspapers and publications around the world. They use the term career slam and grand slam event because it sounds good and now even the tournaments use them. It is now a fact that the terms exist and are well known. Tennis has the same problem. Plus I see in wiki that the term "career slam" is something you can win more than once... like you can have more than one career? Ridiculous. Multiple career slams should be dumped as it cheapens the term Grand Slam even more. Fyunck(click) (talk) 18:37, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

Reference to Tiger Woods actually pulling off a Grand Slam
"Tiger Woods and Jones remains the only men to have achieved the grand slam"

This is invalid, right? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dondello (talk • contribs) 18:25, 9 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Yeah. The bit above about how the media never discussed anything but The Masters as the starting point until recently says it all. Tradition established the definition and the media ended up settling on other terms to describe Woods' feat.  THe final nail in the coffin is it contradicts the rest of the article.--68.126.28.93 (talk) 02:58, 22 April 2009 (UTC)

No such thing as multiple career grand slams
I have removed the column for multiple career slams since it is not possible by definition. If you can find a few reliable sources in golf by all means put it back in. I found [] where it says Woods has won the career Grand Slam with four wins at the Masters, four at the PGA Championship, three at the British Open and two at the U.S. Open. Note it does not say he has won multiple career grand slams. Fyunck(click) (talk) 05:34, 4 October 2010 (UTC)
 * Here are a few contemporaneous cites:


 * 1971 PGA Championship = second career grand slam for Nicklaus
 * "Champ Becomes First Golfer To Record 2 Grand Slams"
 * PGA Victory Gives Nicklaus Double Grand Slam
 * 1978 Open Championship = third career grand slam for Nicklaus
 * "It as the third British crown for Nicklaus, allowing him to complete a third slam ...
 * 2005 Open Championship = second career grand slam for Woods
 * Tiger's Grand victory; Gets 10th major, 2nd career slam at British Open
 * "...win each of the grand slam events at least twice."
 * "Woods and Nicklaus are the only players to win the career Grand Slam two times over..."
 * 2008 U.S. Open = third career grand slam for Woods
 * "... Woods needed the rally to complete his third career Grand Slam ..."
 * "And he joined Nicklaus with his third career Grand Slam."

Just because the term isn't used in tennis, where you edit frequently, doesn't mean it isn't used in golf. You may think "it is not possible by definition", but others have a different "definition". Tewapack (talk) 21:15, 4 October 2010 (UTC)


 * It is still not possible as it is a misuse of the term but language changes and I stand corrected on the multiple sourcing for Golf. Good researching by you. Fyunck(click) (talk) 21:30, 4 October 2010 (UTC)

South African flag
The flag next to Gary Player's name is the old SA flag, which hasn't been in use for decades.
 * But it was used when he won the garnd slam. Tewapack (talk) 13:20, 5 April 2016 (UTC)

One Win Away list
I think the article could benefit from a "one-win-away" list of players who still need one more major or never got their last to complete a career grand slam. I plan to add this when I have time but if someone else has an idea on the best formatting and wording for this topic I hope they add it before me! CuddleChamp (talk) 15:30, 8 November 2023 (UTC)


 * I'm not sure we need it. I think we'd some source for it, otherwise it just looks like we're making up an arbitrary stat, per WP:NOTSTATS. Doesn't List of men's major championships winning golfers have the same sort of information, albeit in a different form. Or even Chronological list of men's major golf champions. If it is to be added I see no reason for it to be table. A paragraph of text would be sufficient. Nigej (talk) 15:52, 8 November 2023 (UTC)