Tiger Woods’ 15-Stroke U.S. Open Win: The Most Dominant Golf Performance Ever

Pebble Beach. June 2000. The 100th U.S. Open.

Most of the field struggled just to keep their rounds above water — literally and figuratively. And then there was Tiger Woods.

He didn’t just win. He obliterated the competition. Outdrove, out-putted, outplayed. By Sunday evening, it felt less like a golf tournament and more like a solo exhibition with a few dozen confused spectators holding clubs.

Tiger finished 12-under. No one else broke par. The runner-up? Three-over. That’s a 15-shot margin — a record that still stands untouched. To this day, it’s considered the most dominant performance in golf history. Maybe in any sport.

Even Old Tom Morris, who set the previous major margin-of-victory record back in 1862, couldn’t believe what he was seeing — probably from the afterlife clubhouse.

A Beatdown from the First Tee

Woods opened with a bogey-free 65 while others were battling dense fog and Pebble’s brutal setup. That gave him a one-shot lead. Then came a second-round 69 in tougher conditions, pushing his lead to six — a U.S. Open 36-hole record.

Round 3 included a rare triple bogey on the third hole. Most players would spiral. Tiger? Still shot 71. Still led by 10.

He closed with a 67 on Sunday — bogey-free, of course — while paired with Ernie Els, who looked like a man being forced to witness his own professional undoing in real time.

NBC’s Roger Maltbie summed it up after Tiger’s outrageous 7-iron from the rough over a tree and the Pacific Ocean:
“It’s just not a fair fight.”

This Wasn’t Your Local Muni

Pebble Beach was tricked out for carnage. The USGA narrowed fairways to under 30 yards. Greens were running at 13–15 on the Stimpmeter. One hole got converted from a par 5 to a 4. And the course stretched over 7,000 yards — long by 2000 standards.

Yet Tiger played it like a Sunday round with friends. Everyone else? Looked like they were trying to escape a haunted house — one shaved runoff and bad bounce away from disaster.

Jedi Putting and Obsessive Detail

Tiger didn’t three-putt once all week. That’s absurd. Especially on Pebble’s Poa annua greens.

Jesper Parnevik, who played with Tiger the first two rounds, didn’t hold back:
“He had some Jedi powers; he could pretty much will the ball in the hole.”

He one-putted 34 of 72 greens. He hit 51 greens in regulation — seven more than the next guy. He played the first 22 holes without a bogey… and the final 26 the same way.

That kind of consistency? It wasn’t luck. Tiger reportedly practiced lag putting for nearly two hours the night before the tournament started. The man was a machine.

The Stats Still Don’t Feel Real

Final score: 65-69-71-67 — a 12-under-par 272.
Only player under par.
Beat the field average by 29 strokes.
The rest of the field had 32 total sub-par rounds. Tiger had three of them.

Even decades later, it feels more like mythology than scorekeeping.

What It Sparked: The Tiger Slam

This win wasn’t just history — it was the first leg of the Tiger Slam. After Pebble, Tiger went on to win:

• The 2000 Open Championship
• The 2000 PGA Championship
• The 2001 Masters

Four straight majors. Four.

He also became the PGA Tour’s all-time leading money winner at just 24 years old and set a new scoring average record: 68.17.

Even he later said he “hit it better” at St. Andrews.
That’s… terrifying.

What They Said

Phil Mickelson, who tied for 16th:

“What he did at Pebble Beach is still the greatest performance in golf of all time.”

Ernie Els:

“Thinking back now, the golf I watched that day was still some of the best I’ve ever seen… The ball striking from Tiger that day was just phenomenal.”

Mark O’Meara:

“That kid right there? He’s the greatest player I’ve ever seen.”

Even Rory McIlroy, who was a teenager at the time, remembers watching in awe:

“That’s a once-in-a-lifetime sort of performance. I don’t think something like that’s going to happen again.”

One Week, One Man, One New Standard

The U.S. Open is designed to expose every weakness a player has. Tiger had none. He was untouchable.

So the next time you’re standing on the first tee, sweating over your pre-shot routine, just remember: For four days in June 2000, Tiger Woods was perfect.

And that week?
That wasn’t just golf — it was a seismic shift in what greatness could look like. It was the gold standard.

And honestly?
It might stay that way forever.