At Augusta National in April, almost all eyes were on Rory McIlroy as he attempted to win the Masters to complete the career grand slam.

 

Last month at Chambers Bay, the spotlight initially shifted to Phil Mickelson as he attempted, after a record six runners-up finishes in the US Open, to win the one major title missing from his collection.

Now the focus is firmly on the man who won both those events and will try to claim the third leg of an unprecedented calendar grand slam at St Andrews by winning the Open Championship on just his third appearance - Jordan Spieth.

Just two men have ever won three major championships in the same year, with Ben Hogan winning all three he played in 1953 only to be denied the chance to claim all four due to a clash of dates.

Hogan won the Masters by five shots and the US Open by six, but with the US PGA Championship - then still a match play event - not finishing until July 7 in Michigan and the Open starting a day later, he opted to travel to Carnoustie and secured his only Open title by four shots.

In 2000, Tiger Woods won the US Open, Open Championship and US PGA before completing the 'Tiger Slam' in 2001 with victory in the Masters.

Spieth's victory in the Masters in April was impressive enough, the 21-year-old becoming the second youngest winner at Augusta National - behind Woods - and setting numerous records on his way to a wire-to-wire triumph.

But the world number two is not one to rest on his laurels, conquering a very different test at Chambers Bay in June to win the US Open as well, becoming the youngest winner since Bobby Jones in 1923 and the youngest two-time major champion since Gene Sarazen the year before.

At the start of the year the odds on Spieth - or anyone else for that matter - winning all four majors would have been generous to say the least. Now the American Ryder Cup star is just 25/1 to achieve something not even the likes of Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player came close to.

"I think it's in the realm of possibility," Spieth said. "I think that the grand slam is something that I never could really fathom somebody doing, considering I watched Tiger when he was winning whatever percentage of the majors he played in and he won the Tiger Slam, but he never won the four in one year.

"And I figured if anybody was going to do it, it would be him."

That looks a distinctly remote possibility given the trials and tribulations of Woods this season, but the 14-time major winner does have one major advantage over Spieth when it comes to the Old Course.

Spieth was four days away from his second birthday when Woods made his Open debut at St Andrews an amateur in 1995 and finished 68th. Five years later Woods won his first Claret Jug at the Home of Golf by eight shots and in 2005 won by five shots from Colin Montgomerie.

In contrast, Spieth has played just one round of golf over the Old Course - ahead of the 2011 Walker Cup at Royal Aberdeen - and will not arrive in Scotland until Monday morning of Open week after honouring his commitment to play in the John Deere Classic in Illinois, site of his first PGA Tour victory in 2013.

Whether that will leave enough time to get to grips with the subtle nuances of the course remains to be seen, and defending champion Rory McIlroy certainly has no such handicap.

McIlroy secured his European Tour card by finishing third in his second event as a professional in 2007 in the Dunhill Links Championship, which involves two rounds at the Old Course.

The 26-year-old has also finished runner-up in the same event three times in his last four appearances, not to mention carding the lowest opening round in Open Championship history with a 63 in 2010.

A second round of 80 followed in gale-force winds but McIlroy rebounded with scores of 69 and 68 to finish third behind runaway winner Louis Oosthuizen, who was joint runner-up to Spieth at Chambers Bay.

With McIlroy ninth in the US Open after missing the cut in his previous two events, it would not be a surprise to see all three men battling at the top of the leaderboard again at St Andrews.

And if Spieth can defy the odds to emerge victorious, August's US PGA Championship at Whistling Straits will be simply unmissable.

ends