Golf: Spieth races ahead of career plan

Jordan Spieth earned his first major title in historic style at Augusta National in April. Photo / AP

Two major triumphs in one year and a shot at the No 1 world ranking have Jordan Spieth rapidly recalculating his career goals.

Heading into the PGA Championship that tees off at Whistling Straits today, the 22-year-old Masters and US Open champion is closing in on Rory McIlroy's top spot much sooner than his meticulous career plan forecast.

"I did not have a timeframe set for that," Spieth said the world No 2. "Given everything that's happened, I believe now that I would like it obviously to be sooner rather than later - and then to be able to hold on to it," he said at a press conference.

"As I'm sure Rory knows, Adam Scott knows, Luke Donald knows, there's Tiger," he said. "There's a number of them that understand what it's like. I don't know what that feels like - yet."

Spieth earned his first major title in historic style at Augusta National in April, deftly holding off Phil Mickelson and Justin Rose to win the Masters by four shots.

He edged fellow American Dustin Johnson for the US Open title at Chambers Bay to arrive at St Andrews with the third leg of a possible calendar grand slam in his sights.

"Of course, after winning the first leg - let alone the first two legs - that talk, that noise, starts to come about, but it's still a whole 'nother animal just to win a major in general," Spieth said.

"I wasn't coming [to the British Open] trying to win a grand slam. I knew the history of it. I knew what we possibly could have done.

"But at the same time, my frustration was only that we were tied for the lead with two holes to go - with one of them being a birdie hole - and we didn't close it out. We didn't even get into a playoff."

That disappointment has fuelled Spieth's appetite for a PGA Championship win even more than knowing he could join Ben Hogan and Tiger Woods as the only golfers to win three major championships in a year.

But he's not getting ahead of himself. Before he can even hope to hoist the Wanamaker Trophy he'll have to scratch one more thing off his original 2015 to-do list - making the PGA Championship cut for the first time.

"I've got some work to do these first two days, and from there we'll adjust and work our butts off to try and get a third major this year - which would be a pretty cool place in history to be a part of."

- AAP