Everyone in golf seems to have a story about Tiger Woods but for people like Brandel Chamblee who witnessed him in his prime, the stories are even more impressive.
Woods was an utterly dominant presence in golf in the early 2000s and beyond as he took the game of golf to whole new levels.
Indeed, it was the year 2000 where Woods really went off as he completed his memorable ‘Tiger Slam’ winning the US Open, PGA Championship and The Open in 2000, before capturing The Masters in 2001.
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All four of those wins had special moments but when it came to the US Open at Pebble Beach, Woods went to a level that nobody in golf had ever seen.
So much so, that Brandel Chamblee has been recalling just how dominant Woods was before a club had even been swung.
What Tiger Woods did before the US Open that left Brandel Chamblee stunned
Commenting on what happened at the 2000 US Open after being happy with his own game, Chamblee recalled how he realised he’d no chance of winning.
“So I was on the range and Butch Harmon is there and he’s working with Tiger, and I was just oblivious at this stage, working on my game,” Chamblee said.
“But my friend Jack was watching Tiger, not me. And Butch kept looking at him like ‘can you believe what we are watching’ and Jack came over and said ‘hey, if you don’t stop what you’re doing right now you’re going to miss the greatest show on earth’.
“Jack and I just sat there, and Butch wasn’t saying a word he was just looking at us. But every single shot he hit was absolutely flush, murdered, every single one flew through the same window. He had this real, like slow back swing, then gathered at the top and the biggest violence at impact but he’d finish so gracefully but what would happen between his backswing and impact was pure violence.
“So he’d played a practice round with I think Mark O’Meara and John Cook and shot 64. And they came in the locker room and said nobody in this field had a chance, it is over. We’re all playing for second. Jack and I sat that night and were like have you ever seen anything like it. He shot 65 the first round, but it was over before it had even begun.”
Adding a comparison to Scottie Scheffler in rounding out his comments, Chamblee suggested there is still a huge chasm between 2000 Tiger and the current world number one.
“It’s the greatest golf the game’s ever seen. We talk about what Scottie Scheffler is doing right now and it’s the closest thing to Tiger. But there’s as much difference now between what Scottie is doing right now and Tiger at his best, as there is between what Scottie is doing right now and everybody else. That’s how much better Tiger was, at his best, in 2000 and 2007 to Scottie Scheffler.”
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Tiger Woods’ remarkable four rounds at the 2000 US Open
Tiger Woods in 2000 is something we simply won’t ever see again.
The example from Chamblee here spells it out well enough but even then, what we saw at Pebble Beach in this specific event was simply incredible.
In tough conditions, Woods went out and simply blew the field away. His opening round of 65 was impressive but didn’t put him clear. What did, though, was his performance from round two onwards.
Woods went out on the second day and fired in a 69 to go six clear of nearest challenger, Thomas Bjorn.
Round three saw his lead extend further, albeit he could only muster a round of 71 but still saw his lead extend by another four shots to Ernie Els.
Then, in round four, Woods played beautifully, scoring a 67 to finish up at -12 and a whopping 15 shots clear of the second placed Els and Miguel Angel Jimenez.
Put simply, we will never see this again and those who were there will never forget it either.
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