The ‘incredible’ performance where Tiger Woods produced the greatest putting display in major championship history

Add as preferred source on Google

With Tiger Woods facing questions over what his future on the golf course looks like, many will be desperately hoping that the 15-time major champion can still get back to something like the level which allowed him to win the Masters in 2019.

Tiger Woods will rightly be remembered as arguably the greatest golfer to have ever played the game. Had it not been for injuries, it is hard to imagine that Woods would not have overtaken Jack Nicklaus‘ tally of 18 major titles.

Certainly, he appeared to be well on his way to reaching that number in the first five years of his professional career, with Woods completing the Tiger Slam by winning the Masters in 2001.

And it was perhaps his victory at the 2000 US Open which was the best of the lot. Not only was Woods the only player to finish under par at Pebble Beach, his score of 12 under par left him 15 shots clear of second place. He was 19 shots clear of those rounding off the top 10.

When Tiger Woods produced arguably the greatest putting performance of all-time

And according to writer Jaime Diaz on Golf Channel, it was on the greens where Woods produced perhaps the best performance golf has ever seen.

“At Pebble especially, where he won by 15, that’s probably the greatest putting of his career and maybe the greatest putting ever in a major championship,” he said.

“He didn’t three putt, didn’t miss anything under 10 feet. Those greens were so bumpy and so small with such great break in them, but he handled them like nobody else. He was just an incredible finisher as well, because on Sunday he has a 10 stroke lead and he’s just so determined not to make a bogey. The focus was incredible, everything was peak Tiger at that moment.”

How Woods rewrote the record books in 2000

It is hard to imagine anyone enjoying anything like the year Woods had in 2000. Of course, Scottie Scheffler won eight times worldwide in 2024. But he did not win three majors as Woods did. Meanwhile, Woods also won at Pebble Beach earlier in the year, Bay Hill and at the Memorial.

His cumulative margin of victory for the events he won in 2000 was a staggering 46 strokes, and that was with play-off victories at the Mercedes Championship and the PGA Championship.

Golf is a sport where true perfection is basically impossible, but it does seem that no-one has got closer to achieving it than Woods did 24 years ago.