Tiger Woods has explained why his victory at The Open Championship in 2000 was unlike any other win from his illustrious career.
Tiger Woods completed the Career Grand Slam at The Open Championship during the 2000 season. Of course, it was also the second leg of what would become known as The Tiger Slam.
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Woods went to St Andrews having recently won the US Open by 15 shots at Pebble Beach. It was one of the most emphatic statements any player has ever made in a golf tournament.
But it seems that Woods would put what came next ahead of his incredible performance in California.
Tiger Woods reflects on his victory at The Open Championship in 2000
Woods won by eight shots in Scotland. He took the lead during the second round and did not look back. Poor Ernie Els finished in a tie for second once again, having been in the same position at Pebble Beach.
And speaking to Jordan Spieth in an interview on Golf Channel, Woods suggested that his performance at The Open was the most complete of his career.
“I get chills, winning the Career Grand Slam at St Andrews, at The Home of Golf is as good as it gets. I happened to win both Opens that year at two iconic courses, Pebble Beach and St Andrews,” he said.
“I had it on a string. There are certain times I really played well. ’97 at The Masters, on the back nine after the first nine holes where I shot 40. That week at St Andrews, I felt like I had it on a string. Whatever shot I wanted to play, I could play. Whatever trajectory, whatever window I saw, I hit. I could hit it to 56 feet because I knew I was going to lag it down to a foot.
“Everything was on a string, from tee to green. And I’ve never had any other tournament like that.
“I had days in which I could do whatever I wanted to do with the golf ball and shot low scores. Over four days, I didn’t have it like that. Nothing was like that. Not even Pebble in 2000 was like that. I had every shot on a string, and it just happened to be at St Andrews.”
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It would be impossible to argue with anyone who believes that Woods played the greatest golf of all time during that stretch when he won those two majors.
To win at Pebble Beach and St Andrews by a combined 23 shots is truly remarkable. So it is little surprise that Woods felt he had never had more control over the golf ball than he did that week at The Old Course.
Understandably, there was a sense of resignation in Els’ comments after he finished second to Woods at The Open.
“Even if I really played as good as I could I don’t think I would have got to 20 under like Tiger,” he said, as reported by BBC Sport.
“I’m playing a different tournament. I play the regular tour event and Tiger plays his own event.”
“It is incredible to watch a guy play so much better than the rest of the world and it is tough to sit down and talk about him every time. I might have to get used to it but that’s the way it goes.”
The game would have to wait nearly an entire year for another player to win a major, with Els’ countryman Retief Goosen winning the US Open at Southern Hills.
Els, meanwhile, would finally get his hands on the Claret Jug the following year.
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