Tiger Woods did not simply win the 100th U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. He removed any sense of contest, finishing at 12-under-par 272 for a victory margin of 15 strokes, the largest in the history of major championship golf.
Alone below par
From the opening round, a bogey‑free 65 gave him a one‑shot lead over Miguel Angel Jimenez. In round two, delayed by fog, Woods produced a recovery shot from deep rough that prompted NBC’s Roger Maltbie to declare on air “It’s just not a fair fight.” A closing bogey after a tee shot into the ocean at 18 was a minor flaw; the six‑shot halfway lead was the largest in U.S. Open history.
The third round brought strong wind that pushed Pebble Beach’s difficulty up sharply. Woods carded a triple‑bogey seven on the third hole while playing partner Thomas Bjorn shot 82. He still ground out an even‑par 71 and arrived at Sunday ten shots clear.
A refusal to coast
On Sunday, Woods opened with nine straight pars and then turned sharper with birdies at ten, twelve and fourteen. A bogey‑free 4‑under 67 sealed a round no other player in the 156‑man field could match. Only Woods finished below par across 72 holes.
His dominance was built on precision. He led in driving distance, averaging 299.3 yards, and hit 70.8 percent of greens against a field average of 48.7 percent. He did not three‑putt all week.
Phil Mickelson later reflected, “It’s the greatest golf I’ve ever witnessed.” Ernie Els and Jimenez shared second at three‑over, fifteen strokes adrift. The tournament doubled as Jack Nicklaus’s final U.S. Open appearance and fell months after Payne Stewart’s death, but the week belonged entirely to the 24‑year‑old who had completed the career grand slam a month earlier at St Andrews.
A foundation ever widening
The Pebble Beach victory arrived inside a run that rewrote the record books. Woods had become the youngest man to hold all four professional majors at once, and the following spring he would claim the Masters to own the Tiger Slam outright. This U.S. Open placed a cold, statistical marker at the peak of that stretch.
No player has approached the margin since. The gulf that week was not a collapse of the field — it was the clearest expression of one athlete operating on a plane his sport had not yet mapped.
