The first eight editions, from 1979 to 1990, were played as a one-day, 18-hole stroke play competition before it became a two-day, 36-hole stroke play event, except for 1998 and 1999 when the format was match play. If a golfer won more than one major in a year or if somebody declined to participate, an alternative was appointed who was a former major winner with the best record in that year’s majors.

The competition actually had a forerunner between 1962 and 1975 when the World Series of Golf was a 36-hole annual contest comprising the winners of the four majors at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio. The field was increased and the event lengthened to 72 holes when it became an official PGA Tour stop in 1976. This tournament was last played in 1998 as it was replaced the following year at the same venue by the WGC-NC Invitational.

The first Grand Slam event was played at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, New York in 1979, with Gary Player (that year’s Masters champion) and Andy North (holder of the US Open) tied for first place. It would be the only time the tournament never had a clear winner among the four players taking part. Hazeltine National in Minnesota hosted the year after, followed by Breakers West then PGA National in West Palm Beach, Florida.

There was no tournament played in four of the next five years. Kemper Lakes, Illinois in 1986 was the only place to see any PGA Grand Slam action during that period, with Greg Norman claiming the first of his three victories in five appearances at the event. Kemper Lakes then staged three Grand Slams in a row, starting in 1988, and Andy North secured his second win in the competition in the 1990 edition, eleven years after his first success.

The 1991 staging was at the Kauai Lagoons Resort (now the Hokuala Resort) and this example of playing in Hawaii would be a little taste of things to come. After a short 2-year residency at PGA West in La Quinta, California, the event returned to the Pacific islands of Hawaii in 1994, where the next thirteen renditions of the tournament took place on the Poipu Bay Golf Course.

Tiger Woods won seven of the eight 4-man competitions that he contested here – capturing first place for five consecutive years, starting in 1998 – but his best 18-hole score of 64 on this layout was overshadowed somewhat by the thirteen under par 59 that Phil Mickelson posted in 2004. Vijay Singh teed it up four times during this Hawaiian phase of the tournament but he never managed to get his name inscribed on the trophy.

In 2007, the PGA Grand Slam competition underwent rather a long relocation when it moved more than five and a half thousand miles east from Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean to Bermuda in the Atlantic Ocean and the Mid Ocean Club. Two events were played here, with Jim Furyk winning the second one, giving him a record of two victories in four appearances overall.

The final port of call for the tournament was a mere twelve miles south of Mid Ocean at the Port Royal Golf Course and it’s here that the last six editions were held, starting in 2009. Ernie Els won his second title in 2010, thirteen years after his first in Hawaii, and Pádraig Harrington finally came good in 2012 at the fourth attempt. Germany’s Martin Keymer was the last man to lift the trophy in 2014 and we wonder if he still has it at home, giving it a little polish from time to time?