CHARLOTTE, United States - British Open champion Jordan Spieth could only share 28th in his first chance to complete a career Grand Slam at the PGA Championship, but the world number two wasn't too disappointed.
Caddie Michael Greller reminded him of his third career major victory last month at Royal Birkdale as he walked off the 18th green Sunday at Quail Hollow following a final-round one-under par 70 that left him on 286, 10 strokes behind winner and pal Justin Thomas.
"Michael is telling me walking off 18, 'Hey, just want you to know that's a great year in the majors,'" Spieth said. "I go, 'Buddy, we won one of the majors. I understand that's a great year in the majors.'
"He almost thinks I'm disappointed maybe with how this week went. But we won a major. We had a chance to win at Augusta, too. The US Open and here, I didn't have a chance to win, which is a downer.
"When I look back on the year in the major championships, it was fantastic. If I did this every year, I would go down as the greatest ever to play the game. I need to look at it that way and I am."
For Spieth, who also won the 2015 Masters and US Open, it comes down to contending in majors.
"If I didn't have a chance to win a major in a year then I would be disappointed at the end of the year," he said. "Winning them is so difficult to do that you can have a fantastic year without winning a major."
Spieth won't be second-guessing the reasons why he lost at Quail Hollow.
"I felt like I struck the ball well," Spieth said. "It was nothing other than just execution on the greens, I felt like."
Spieth, who shared 13th last week at a World Golf Championships event, is looking to take a break ahead of the US PGA Tour's season-ending playoffs.
"I'll definitely take at least a few days off," he said. "These two weeks take a lot out of you. It was hot. We had delays. They were long days. Definitely going to have some recovery going in."
When it comes to the four-event playoff series, Spieth is looking to put his game and point totals in prime position for the 30-man Tour Championship finale next month in Atlanta.
"I'm going to approach the first two events trying to obviously win, but looking to kind crescendo into East Lake and peak there and consider East Lake a major at this point as far as our preparation goes," Spieth said.