Five skips close to completing career Grand Slams

Scotland’s Bruce Mouat joined an exclusive club when he captured the Co-op Canadian Open men’s title last season.

Mouat became the sixth men’s skip to complete a career Grand Slam having won all four major championships in the series. The original four events consist of the Co-op Canadian Open, KIOTI National, WFG Masters and Players’ Championship. Mouat joined Kevin Martin, Wayne Middaugh, Glenn Howard, Jeff Stoughton and Brad Gushue among men’s skips who have accomplished the feat.

Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg is the lone skip who has pulled it off on the women’s side. To be fair, while the Grand Slam of Curling has existed since the 2001-02 season in the men’s division, it’s only been since 2015-16 that the women’s division has been featured in all four majors.

Several skips are on the cusp of joining the list in both divisions. Let’s look at the five who are one title away and could pull it off this season.

KERRI EINARSON

Kerri Einarson is first up as she’s just missing the Co-op Canadian Open, which returns next week in Nisku, Alta. Einarson is carrying momentum having won the HearingLife Tour Challenge, the first Grand Slam of Curling event of the season, last month in Charlottetown. Dawn McEwen filled in at second with Shannon Birchard recovering from a knee injury. Birchard will miss the Co-op Canadian Open as well and eight-time Grand Slam title winner Joanne Courtney will spare at second.

Einarson’s Gimli, Man., team was running red hot heading into the Co-op Canadian Open in 2023 after winning the WFG Masters one month prior. Einarson came close but lost 5-3 to Japan’s Satsuki Fujisawa. It was also Einarson’s record sixth consecutive Grand Slam final.

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KEVIN KOE

Calgary’s Kevin Koe won his first career Grand Slam at the 2004 Players’ Championship while playing third for John Morris, but he finished runner-up five times before winning his first as a skip at the 2012 Masters. That includes back-to-back final appearances at the National. Oddly enough, the National was held in Port Hawkesbury, N.S., and Koe lost to Kevin Martin in the final on both occasions.

Koe is in a Slam slump missing the playoffs in eight of his past nine appearances in the series. You can never count him out though as the outlier from that stat is the 2023 Players’ Championship where he captured the title in typical Koe fashion: down to the last rock with barely any time left on the clock.

BRAD JACOBS

Brad Jacobs has come pretty close to checking off the Masters. Jacobs was up 4-2 in the 2016 final, however, Niklas Edin completed the comeback to claim the title by scoring two in the eighth and stealing the winning point in the extra end. The Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., skip was also ahead on the scoreboard heading into the eighth end of the 2021 final but again didn’t have the hammer in the last end and Mouat scored three to win 7-5.

Jacobs linked up with third Marc Kennedy, second Brett Gallant and lead Ben Hebert this season. Jacobs and Kennedy previously played together and won three straight Slams during the 2019-20 season capturing the Tour Challenge, National and Canadian Open. Could that reunion spark another streak?

MIKE MCEWEN

All three of Mike McEwen’s runner-up results in the Players’ Championship have come in heartbreak fashion. McEwen was up by one heading into the eighth end during the 2013 final, but Glenn Howard held the hammer and took two for the win. The Winnipeg skip had the hammer for the final frame in the 2015 final, all tied up, but his last rock was overswept and resulted in a steal for Jacobs. Steals also played a factor in 2017 as McEwen gave up back-to-back singles in seven and eight to lose 5-3 to Edin.

McEwen formed a new team last year joining third Colton Flasch, second Kevin Marsh and lead Dan Marsh and finished the season reaching the final of the Brier and the semifinals of the Players’ Championship. The team has kept it up this season winning the PointsBet Invitational in late September and reaching the semifinals of the HearingLife Tour Challenge the following week.

RACHEL HOMAN

Rachel Homan has won more Grand Slam of Curling women’s titles than any other skip (both majors and non-majors) with a total of 15, but a Players’ Championship title remains on the to-do list to check off.

Homan was a Players’ Championship away from completing a Grand Slam in a single season during 2015-16. Her Ottawa team reached the quarterfinals of the 2016 Players’ Championship and was up 6-2 against Einarson at the fourth-end break, but ended up losing 7-6 and was eliminated from the tournament.

Homan was flying through the Players’ Championship last year winning five consecutive games, but her team’s run came to a halt in the semifinals against Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni. Tied in the eighth end, Homan conceded a steal of two points to fall 5-3 to the eventual champion.

The reigning world champion is soaring again this season. Homan is sporting an impressive 26-2 record with three title wins and a runner-up result through four events.

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