Tiger Woods rapped in one last putt, the final stroke of his US Open masterpiece at Pebble Beach. No one had ever been more dominant in 140 years of major championship golf. Those who played with him that week doubt whether we will see such a performance again. The scoreboard behind the 18th green stood as a monument. Fans didn't just look at it. They were transfixed by it. Next to Woods' name at the top was a row of red numbers that stretched across the holes until it ended at 12 under par. The rest of the white board was filled with black numbers; everyone else was over par, no one within 15 shots.
Butch Harmon, his swing coach, rushed to congratulate Woods. Standing on the green, Harmon overheard Miguel Angel Jimenez, who shared second place with Ernie Els, put a question to a tournament official: "Excuse me, sir. Can you tell me where the play-off starts for the other tournament between me and Ernie?" That's what it felt like 10 years ago this month at the US Open - Woods might as well have been playing alone.He went 22 holes without a bogey to start the championship and 26 holes without a bogey at the end. No one had ever finished a US Open in double digits under par. His 15-shot margin was the widest ever in a major, breaking a record that had been set in 1862 by Old Tom Morris at the British Open. "At that moment in time, we thought we saw some of the best golf we'll ever see by any player," said Thomas Bjorn, who played with Woods in the third round that week.
Woods stopped to see Harmon in Las Vegas on his way to Pebble Beach. He played that Sunday at Rio Secco with one of Harmon's newest pupils, a 19-year-old Australian named Adam Scott, who planned to turn pro the following week. In 25mph wind, Woods set the course record with a 63. "He did things that I didn't know you could do on the golf course," Scott said. "What I saw was pretty amazing."
Woods and Mark O'Meara, one of his closest friends, played the previous week at Isleworth, their home course in Orlando, Florida, and practised together for three rounds at Pebble Beach. O'Meara was his usual practice partner at the majors. He had seen it all. This was different. "He hit every shot just perfect. He never missed a shot," O'Meara said. "He seemed calm, he seemed relaxed and he seemed in control Those were the three things that were different about him."
John Cook, another close friend from Isleworth, arrived from the Buick Classic and joined them for the final two practice rounds. "You could see his confidence building and building," Cook said. "Tuesday and Wednesday were so flawless in preparation and attitude. Everything was in sync. Every shot was the perfect trajectory." Driving to dinner with his wife, O'Meara made a prediction. "She said, 'How are you playing?' I said, 'I'm playing all right, but it doesn't really matter. The tournament is already over'," he said. "She said, 'How can you say that?' "I said, 'Tiger is going to win. And not only is he going to win, he's going to blow away the field.' And he proved me right."
Steve Williams began working as Woods' caddie at the beginning of the 1999 season. They won their first major together at the PGA Championship that year. The 2000 US Open was their sixth major, yet the preparations were vastly different in one area - putting. "Tiger spent an unusually longer amount of time practicing putts inside 10 feet than he would normally do," Williams said. "When the greens are fast and bumpy, it's difficult to chip it close. On the Wednesday night we were out there putting with the lights on, in the dark, trying to get a key, trying to dial in something that would help. "Obviously, he found a key. He started hitting the putts a little more up on the ball to get it rolling. It's not an uncommon thing, but it's something you would never think about if the greens are pure."
Of all the holes Woods played in practice, Wednesday at the par-three 12th was what got everyone's attention. The green was brick hard, typical of a US Open. There was no way to get it anywhere near the hole, much less keep it on the green. Or so they thought. "We were on the 12th tee, the pin was back right. He hit a four iron, this high cut about a yard-and-a-half that never left the flag and stopped about five feet away," O'Meara said. "Butch said, 'Good swing.' And I said, 'Really? Now I know why you're such a great teacher. What was your first clue, that he hasn't missed a shot all day?'"
Woods played the opening two rounds with Jim Furyk and Jesper Parnevik, in conditions so foggy that the first round on Thursday was suspended with 75 players still to finish. Woods teed off in the morning and shot a bogey-free 65, the lowest score ever at Pebble Beach in a US Open.
"He had complete control as far as drawing the ball, cutting the ball, hitting it high, hitting it low. Whatever the shot called for, he seemed to be hitting it right at the pin," Furyk said. "I just remember him rolling in eight-footers and 12-footers. Pebble Beach isn't the smoothest surface, and these eight-footers were going in with perfect speed. I was just shaking my head." Parnevik was doing more than that. He was laughing. "It almost became a joke," he said. "We could not figure out if he ever missed a putt from inside 20 feet. I remember we were on the 12th hole on Friday. We got called off because of darkness. Tiger had about a 40-footer and he decided to keep going and not leave it until the morning. And he holed it. If you watch the highlight reels, you can see me and Lance [Ten Broeck, his caddie] laughing. It was incredible. "I don't know if he's ever played that well," he said. "It was special to be there."
Returning to the 13th hole on Saturday morning to complete the second round, Steve Williams reached into the bag and noticed something wrong. There were only three balls in the bag. He was concerned at first, then figured they would be OK with only six holes to play. From the left rough, Woods hit a sand wedge with such force that it put a scuff mark on the ball. "He putts out for his par and gives it to a kid as he leaves the green," Williams said. "My first thought was, 'I've got to go get the ball off that kid. I'm watching this kid, and he's showing his dad the ball. It's got Tiger's name on it, he's all excited. How can I ask for this ball back? So we have two balls left."
Woods bogeyed the 14th, birdied the 15th and parred the next two holes, keeping the same ball. Then came the 18th, with the ocean down the left side of the hole and out-of-bounds well to the right. Woods was leading by seven. "My first thought was to hit iron off the tee, but he's driving fantastic," Williams said. "I can't say, 'Tiger, you can't hit driver here because we ain't got enough golf balls in case you hit it in the ocean.' It's the only time I can actually say I had butterflies in my stomach standing over a tee shot."
Woods hooked it in the ocean. One ball left. "I said, 'Tiger, you've got a seven-shot lead, take that iron out, hit it down the fairway, get it up there and let's go to lunch and not waste making a horror number,'" Williams said. "He said, 'Give me that driver.' I can't say, 'This is the last golf ball you've got.' I tried as best I could, as conservatively as I could, to talk him out of it." Woods hit the fairway, hit into the bunker and got up-and-down for bogey and a 69. He had a six-shot lead, a US Open record for largest 36-hole margin.
The first big blunder for Woods came on the third hole on Saturday afternoon when he took two swings to escape gnarly rough and made a triple-bogey seven. He birdied two of the next four holes, and that was the end of the suspense. "Yes, he made a triple bogey down the third," said Bjorn, who was paired with him that day. "But it was literally perfection all the way through. It was a different kind of golf to watch than anything I've ever seen. He was in full control of what he was doing. It was, looking back, one of the most special moments in the history of golf, to be honest." Woods shot 71, the only round he failed to break par. His 10-shot lead through 54 holes was another US Open record.
Els had a 68 in the third round that put him in the final pairing Sunday with Woods, 10 shots behind. It quickly became obvious that the only thing in question was Woods' margin of victory. "It wasn't easy for me," Els said. "The tournament is over, and you basically watch another guy just kill you. As I look back now, I was glad I was there, because it was obviously something very special." Woods opened with nine pars, then ran off four birdies in a five-hole stretch. Els said he never felt so alone playing before so many people.
"He wouldn't say a word to anybody," Els said. "I was kind of playing on my own with a circus around me. I was basically watching him play. It was his show. With that lead, I don't know what he had to prove. But he wanted to prove something. He never let up. He kept putting his foot on the gas. I'm sure he enjoyed it." Woods closed with a 67, the lowest score of the round for the third time that week.
After his final putt, Woods raised his right arm and smiled toward a gallery that was not sure what it had just witnessed. He set or tied six US Open records that week, but those are just numbers. No one had ever destroyed a championship field like that in golf. "I don't think we've ever seen anything like it before," Bjorn said. "And I find it difficult to believe we'll ever find anybody doing it again."
* AP
