The Legend Grows

No player on Earth was going to keep Tiger Woods from his anointed round, so all bets were on the weather.

A gale-force wind might knock history off course.

Could not a tsunami affect play on the coastal holes?

Who was anyone kidding?

The wind didn’t blow and Woods didn’t blow it.

This was not France’s Jean Van de Velde at the 18th tee box--mon dieu!--staring a three-shot lead at the British Open in the face.

This was Tiger Woods, a gale force in his own right, who turned the final day of the 100th U.S. Open into the biggest runaway since Secretariat in the 1973 Belmont Stakes.

What else could the world say after the 24-year-old Woods fairway-greened his way to his third major title Sunday with his wire-to-wire win at Pebble Beach?

Woods shot four-under-par 67 in the final round, the best score of the day, and posted a tournament scorecard--65-69-71-67, 272--that should be forwarded to the Royal and Ancient with a carbon copy to the Smithsonian.

Woods had this tournament sewn up since Friday, but he said he didn’t take his first deep breath until his tee shot on No. 18 safely found the fairway.

“I let down a little bit,” he said. “I said, ‘I won the championship, just stay alive.’ And that’s all I had to do.”

There were others in the field, but they serve only as historical footnotes.

For “I-was-there-when” verification purposes, Miguel Angel Jimenez of Spain and Ernie Els of South Africa finished tied for second at 287, 15 vapor-trail strokes behind the winner.

John Huston was fourth at 288.

“It’s kind of embarrassing to finish 15 shots behind the guy,” Els said. “I told [Woods] in the scorer’s trailer he’d better check his card or else me and Jimenez might be in a playoff.”

Saturday, because the cut worked out to the odd-number 63, South Africa’s Retief Goosen played the third round by himself, without a marker.

In a sense, Woods played the U.S. Open by himself, without a marker.

What, other than concession speeches, could be offered after Woods played one of the toughest courses in the world as if it were a pitch-and-putt?

Not since Jack Nicklaus has golf been engulfed by such a shadow.

“Jack caught golf with its pants down when he came out and could overpower a golf course,” said three-time major winner Nick Price, who finished 24 shots back of Woods, said. “And we’ve seen the same thing with Tiger.”

Price has never been happier about being past his prime.

“I feel sorry for the young guys,” he said. “Basically, I’ve had my day. I’m 43. Whatever I win from here on in is a bonus. The young guys are taking a pounding from this guy.”

Sunday had the feel of a landslide election.

Although votes at all precincts had not been counted, NBC projected Woods the winner before he teed off on No. 11, flashing a graphic of Woods now having three major titles.

Recorders of history put copying machines on overload as they cranked out the stunning statistical data.

Woods posted the most lopsided win in U.S. Open history, his 15-stroke win bettering Willie Smith’s 11-stroke victory in the 1899 championship.

Woods’ margin of victory was also the largest in major championship history, breaking Old Tom Morris’ 13-stroke win in the 1862 British Open.

He was the only player in the 156-man field to finish under par. His 272 total tied the lowest score posted in U.S. Open history.

He played bogey-free Sunday and did not have a three-putt in the tournament.

He hit two bad drives Sunday and ended up with good lies both times.

“Things that just go your way,” Woods tried to explain.

He became the 14th player to win three major titles (Masters, PGA, U.S. Open), and is the only player to have won the U.S. Open, U.S. Amateur and U.S. Junior Amateur titles.

Woods is the fifth wire-to-wire U.S. Open winner and the first since Tony Jacklin in 1970. He picked up a check for $800,000, boosting his career earnings to a record $16.264 million.

The victory was Woods’ 20th on the PGA Tour and he has won 15 of 16 PGA Tour events in which he has held or shared the 54-hole lead.

Woods did not immediately know what to make of his accomplishment.

“You have to let things go on a bit for all of us to understand what transpired,” Woods said.

He said it took him two to three years to comprehend the import of his 1997 Masters victory.

“I’m too close to the moment,” Woods said Sunday. “It’s been a great week, but I can’t tell you historically what it means. I’ve been told I set a few records, but I really don’t know what they are.”

Let the world fill you in, Tiger.

There will come a day when Woods makes his way back to the pack; some may live long enough to see it.

“The truth is the truth,” Rocco Mediate said. “He’s the best. Yeah, he can be beat. But over 11, 12 years the rest of us have no chance. Once in a while we can beat him. Not that he’s going to win every week--just nine, 10, 11 times a year. There are still 40 other tournament we could win when he’s not there. . . . “

Tom Kite is a pretty good player--winner of the 1992 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach.

He wonders what will become of golf.

“You need competition, otherwise it gets boring,” he said. “Kind of like Texas in the old Southwest Conference. You knew who was going to win. It was fun if you were pulling for Texas, but it wasn’t real exciting.”

Good players, professionals all, see the writing on golf’s scorecard. It’s drenched in red ink and signed by Woods.

Jesper Parnevik: “The only thing that can stop Tiger from winning is Tiger.

Fred Couples: “When the best player in the world wins on the hardest course and laps the field, there is no question who is by far the best player.”

Darren Clarke: “He’s playing a different game than the rest of us.”

Woods started Sunday with a 10-shot lead over Els and seemed to switch his game on cruise control, tapping in for pars on the first four holes.

He flirted with disaster on the par-five sixth when he knocked his second shot into the rough and then flew his chip over the green back into the thick rough.

The prelude to a collapse, perhaps? The start of a slide?

Arnold Palmer blew a seven-stroke lead to Billy Casper at the 1966 U.S. Open and lost in a playoff.

Gil Morgan was 12 under in the third round in the 1992 Open, lost eight strokes in a seven-hole stretch and finished out of the top 10.

And John Daly proved only this week that it was possible to shoot a 14 on No. 18.

But those guys didn’t play with ice in their veins.

Woods ended up saving par on No. 6 and played the front even at 35 before kicking it into a gear only he knows.

He went to nine under with a birdie putt on No. 10, drained a 15-foot putt for birdie on No. 12, then knocked his second shot on the par-four 13th to within two feet en route to a birdie to go to 11 under.

Woods’ eight-foot birdie putt on the par-five 14th hole moved him to 12 under, tying Morgan’s record for the lowest score under par at any point in a U.S. Open.

At the par-four 16th, he missed the green on his second shot and appeared headed for a bogey, but he made a 14-footer to save par.

On the par-three 17th, Woods drove his tee shot into a sand trap, but blasted his second shot to within a foot of the pin.

Is there a shot this guy can’t hit?

“We all felt for the longest time that someone was going to come along who could drive the ball 300 yards and putt like [Ben] Crenshaw,” Price said. “Well, this guy drives the ball better than anyone I’ve seen and putts better than Crenshaw. So, I mean, when you put that together, it’s hard to beat. He’s a phenomenon.”

He is golf’s present and future leader in the clubhouse.

How great?

“That’s not exactly easy for me to answer,” Woods said. “I can tell you one thing, this is something I’ve said, and will continue to say. I’m going to try to get better.”

Is there a scarier notion?

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FINISH LINE

272 (-12)--$800,000

Tiger Woods: 65-69-71-67--272

287 (+3)--$391,150

Miguel Angel Jimenez: 66-74-76-71--287

Ernie Els: 74-73-68-72--287

TIGER IN 2000

Tournaments: 11

Victories: 5

Second-place finishes: 3

Top-10 finishes: 9

*Earnings: $5,149,731

*Single-season record

TIGER’S CAREER

Tournaments: 95

Victories: 20

Second-place finishes: 7

Top-10 finishes: 52

*Earnings: $16,464,859

*All-time record

OPEN SCORING RECORDS

Evolution of U.S. Open scoring:

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Total Player (Score) Year 173 Horace Rawlins (91-82) 1895 152 James Foulis (78-74) 1896 328 Fred Herd (84-85-75-84) 1898 315 Willie Smith (77-82-79-77) 1899 313 Harry Vardon (79-78-76-80) 1900 307 Laurie Auchterlonie (78-78-74-77) 1902 303 Willie Anderson (75-78-78-72) 1904 295 Alex Smith (73-74-73-75) 1906 290 George Sargent (75-72-72-71) 1909 286 Charles Evans Jr. (70-69-74-73) 1916 282 Tony Manero (73-69-73-67) 1936 281 Ralph Guldahl (71-69-72-69) 1937 276 Ben Hogan (67-72-68-69) 1948 275 Jack Nicklaus (71-67-72-65) 1967 272 Jack Nicklaus (63-71-70-68) 1980 272 Lee Janzen (67-67-69-69) 1993 272 Tiger Woods (65-69-71-67) 200

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