When it comes to the GOAT conversation in golf, there are only two acceptable options: Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods. And one could undoubtedly make strong arguments for both.
That said, however, when you're talking about the greatest single season in golf history, Nicklaus simply doesn't have one that can compare to what Tiger did in 2000.
In 21 official starts that season—13 PGA Tour events, one European Tour event, three World Golf Championships, and the four majors—Woods won nine times, finished second four times, and only finished outside the top five three times, never finishing lower than 23rd.
Ridiculous.
The crown jewel of that campaign is the fact that Tiger won the final three majors of the year, becoming just the second player in history to take a trio of majors in a single season. Ben Hogan was the first to do so in 1953.
After finishing solo fifth at the 2000 Masters, Woods won the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach by an absurd 15 shots, a record one would think will never be broken. He then went on to complete the career Grand Slam for the first time, winning The Open Championship at St. Andrews by eight.
He completed the trifecta at the PGA Championship, surviving a memorable duel down the stretch with journeyman Bob May, ultimately winning in a playoff. Woods then, of course, went on to complete the famed "Tiger Slam" the following April with a win at the 2001 Masters, thus becoming the first ever to hold all four modern majors at the same time.
As for his six other victories in 2000, Tiger also took titles at the Mercedes Championships (now the Sentry Tournament of Champions), the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, the Bay Hill Invitational (now the Arnold Palmer Invitational), the Memorial, the WGC-NEC Invitational, and the Canadian Open.
His four runner-up finishes came at the Buick Invitational (now the Farmers Insurance Open), the WGC-Match Play, The Players Championship, and the Tour Championship.
In his 21 official starts, Tiger earned $9,339,400, which was easily the highest single-season total in history at that point. But let's now have a look at what that number would look like today.
Tiger Woods' 2000 season would result in more than $50 million today
Purses have obviously grown exponentially over the past 25 years, with Tiger being the main reason for that. And with the addition of the FedEx Cup and Signature Events, neither of which existed in 2000, the money up for grabs on the PGA Tour these days is bonkers.
Now, it does get a little tricky when attempting to calculate what Woods' winnings from 2000 would be in today's dollars, as a few of the tournaments he played back then no longer exist, most notably the World Golf Championships, the last of which was played in 2023.
These WGC events typically had larger purses than regular tournaments and were often comparable to what was being distributed at the majors. That's essentially what Signature Events are, but the difference is that the field wasn't comprised only of PGA Tour players.
But as these were elite fields, we're going to go ahead and use a blend of major/Signature money for these.
Then, you've got an event like the Buick Open, which was played on the PGA Tour in the state of Michigan from 1958 until 2009 and was usually contested right around The Open Championship. Sounds pretty similar to the Rocket Classic, doesn't it?
So, what we've done in these cases is to take our best shot at looking at a purse from what we believe to be a comparable event.
The Tour Championship gets a bit problematic as well, as the season finale has gone to a staggered-stroke format in which the No. 1 player in the FedEx Cup standings is given a two-shot lead before a single golf ball is struck.
Tiger would obviously have been the top seed in 2000, but as we mentioned above, he did not win that week, finishing second to none other than Phil Mickelson, who had three additional victories that year and would have undoubtedly been the second seed.
It gets really tricky because Mickelson beat Woods at East Lake by exactly two strokes, which would have meant a playoff between the two best players of their generation to decide the FedEx Cup and the $25 million bonus that now comes along with it.
Now, it's easy to think that Tiger may have won that playoff. But Mickelson was actually three shots better during the final round, shooting a 4-under 66 while Woods ended his day with a 1-under 69. It was actually one of the few times in Tiger's career that he failed to win when holding at least a share of the lead heading into the final round.
So, we're actually going to keep that result as is, giving Phil the $25 million winner's share and leaving Woods with the $12.5 million second-place prize.
Even so, just look at what Tiger's 2000 earnings would be today. We should note that we don't yet know the specific payouts for certain 2025 tourneys just yet. So, some of the numbers you'll see below are from 2024 events. But we think we're pretty close here.
Tournament | Finish | 2000 Earnings | 2025 Earnings |
|---|---|---|---|
Mercedes Championships | 1 | $522,000 | $3,600,000 |
AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am | 1 | $720,000 | $3,600,000 |
Buick Invitational | T2 | $264,000 | $827,700 |
Nissan Open | T18 | $37,731 | $252,286 |
WGC-Match Play | 2 | $500,000 | $2,200,000 |
Bay Hill Invitational | 1 | $540,000 | $4,000,000 |
The Players Championship | 2 | $648,000 | $2,725,000 |
The Masters | 5 | $184,000 | $840,000 |
Byron Nelson Classic | T4 | $176,000 | $427,500 |
Deutsche Bank SAP Open | T3 | $151,079 | $489,600 |
Memorial Tournament | 1 | $558,000 | $4,000,000 |
U.S. Open | 1 | $800,000 | $4,300,000 |
Western Open | T23 | $26,700 | $106,800 |
The Open Championship | 1 | $759,150 | $3,100,000 |
Buick Open | T11 | $57,240 | $197,340 |
PGA Championship | 1 | $900,000 | $3,330,000 |
WGC-NEC Invitational | 1 | $1,000,000 | $4,000,000 |
Canadian Open | 1 | $594,000 | $1,692,000 |
NCR Golf Classic Disney | 3 | $204,000 | $510,000 |
Tour Championship | 2 | $540,000 | $12,500,000 |
WGC-American Express Championship | T5 | $157,500 | $702,500 |
TOTAL | 21 | $9,339,400 | $53,400,726 |