The 2000 US Open marked the beginning of the greatest golf achievement in history.

Champion Tiger Woods would go on to win the other three majors consecutively, becoming the only golfer in history to hold all four at the same time.

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The run stretched across 2000 and 2001, meaning that while the ‘Calendar Slam’ has never been done, the ‘Tiger Slam’ remains the closest thing to it.

Scottie Scheffler’s dominance in recent years has led to speculation that the current world no.1 could match some of Woods’ absurd records in the game.

But as Scheffler heads to the AT&T Pro-Am at Pebble Beach to begin his 2025 season, we are once again reminded there is one Woods record that will probably never be broken.

That historic 2000 US Open at Pebble Beach saw Woods win by a margin of 15 shots.

It surpassed the previous record set by golf’s founding father Old Tom Morris at the 1862 Open Championship at Prestwick – 138 years prior.

Woods finished on 12-under-par, while his closest competitors were Ernie Els and Miguel Angel Jimenez on 3-over-par.

With treacherous weather conditions for much of the four rounds, the 24-year-old Woods was able to break 70 every day except Saturday – when he made a triple bogey and still finished at even-par for the round.

It remains the largest winning margin in major championship history – and nobody has come close to beating it since.

Woods himself won the 2000 Open Championship later that year by eight shots to complete the career grand slam.

Rory McIlroy has won two of his four majors by eight shots, the same margin of victory for Martin Kaymer at the 2014 US Open.

Biggest margins of victory in major championship history

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With advancements in technology and higher levels of competitiveness, Woods at Pebble Beach is a runaway victory unlikely to ever be repeated on the major championship stage.

Despite this, Woods bizarrely found himself one bad swing away from being disqualified midway through the tournament.

After fog delayed the start of the second round, Woods could only complete 12 holes on Friday before returning on Saturday morning for the final six.

And somewhere in the chaos of the reshuffled schedule, Woods almost ran out of golf balls.

This is usually a problem for the wayward hacker at your local golf course, not for the greatest golfer in history asserting unprecedented levels of dominance over the field at a major championship.

Nevertheless, Woods very much risked being booted out of the event, not because of waywardness, but due to an astonishing oversight.

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“I didn’t finish the night before [Saturday] until around 9pm,” said Woods in the August 2004 issue of Golf Digest.

“I hadn’t putted well that day, so I took three balls out of my bag and putted on the hotel-room carpet.

“I normally take nine to 12 balls to the course, but I only had seven left — I probably scuffed up a couple and gave them to kids. I left the three balls on the carpet, now I’ve only got four balls when I get to the course.”

Woods was unaware of the lack of golf balls in his bag and proceeded to give away two more on the closing stretch.

Unbeknown to him, he arrived at the 18th tee with two golf balls in his bag, and hooked his tee shot into Carmel Bay.

His caddie, Steve Williams, was acutely aware that if Woods lost the final golf ball – he would be disqualified.

“Stevie said, ‘I’d like for you to hit an iron, just to get it into play,’” Woods said.

“But I was swinging it so well, so I went with the driver. Obviously I didn’t know the complete situation: The only ball I had left was the one I teed up.

“I would have been disqualified with no balls. If you run out of balls, you’re out.”

Woods did manage to put the ball in play and save bogey, much to the relief of Williams, who was able to remedy the situation before round three began later that day.

And the rest, as they say, is history.