With 82 PGA Tour victories and 15 major championships on his resume, Tiger Woods has obviously put on a plethora of dominant performances throughout his Hall of Fame career, none more so than his record-setting victory at the 2000 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach.
At the time, nobody had ever finished a U.S. Open in double-digits under par. But Woods took care of that, shooting 65-69-71-67 on the par-71 layout at Pebble to finish at 12-under for the week, a full 15 shots ahead of second-place finishers Miguel Ángel Jiménez and Ernie Els, thus setting the new record for the largest margin of victory in a major championship.
The 12-under total has since been surpassed at the U.S. Open on several occasions, but it's a safe bet that the 15-shot win will be safe for quite some time.
What some may not know about that week, however, is that Woods was nearly at risk of getting disqualified, as he was down to just one golf ball on the final hole of his second round. Tiger's caddie at the time, Steve Williams, has told his story countless times over the last quarter-century, and it never gets old.
Tiger Woods nearly ran out of golf balls during the second round of the 2000 U.S. Open
With threatening weather affecting the first two days of the 2000 U.S. Open, Woods was forced to complete the final six holes of his second round early Saturday morning.
Normally, Tiger had six balls in his bag to start a round. But unbeknownst to Williams, Woods had taken three out to practice putting in his hotel room on Friday night and failed to put them back.
Williams finally discovered there were only three when they met playing partners Jim Furyk and Jesper Parnevik on the 13th tee. But with only six holes to play, he figured everything would be okay.
However, Woods, who had no idea of what was happening, yanked his opening drive into the left rough and was forced to slash it out for his second, thus scuffing his ball, which he gifted to a young boy once the hole was completed. Naturally, Williams was extremely nervous and later admitted he nearly asked for the ball back but didn't want to make a scene on national television.
But the nerves really kicked on the final hole of the round when Woods, as he himself later put it, "hit one halfway to Hawaii" off the tee on the par-5 18th, sending a sweeping hook with his driver sailing into the Pacific Ocean, at which point he looked at Williams and demanded another golf ball, which was now the last one in the bag.
Tiger was ready to once again hit driver, but Williams pleaded with him not to do so and eventually convinced him to use a safer club. After taking his penalty stroke, Woods hit what was now his third into the fairway, but Williams knew his golfer wasn't out of danger just yet, as there was still the cypress tree in the fairway with which to contend on the approach.
Given the circumstances, Williams wanted Woods to lay up down the left side, thus taking the ocean out of play. But Tiger, even with a sizable lead, wanted no part of it, insisting he hit a shot that started at the Pacific and looped from left to right toward the putting surface.
And with Williams watching nervously, that's the shot he hit...and pulled off, ultimately carding a bogey six to shoot a 2-under 69, giving him a six-shot lead going into the third round, which began a short time later that Saturday.
Williams was off the hook, but had Tiger put that last ball into the Pacific, there would have been consequences. Technically, he could have been disqualified, but it was never going to get to that point, as there were other options had things gone a different direction, although all of those options would've come with penalty strokes.
The Rules of Golf permit a player to borrow a ball from another player without incurring a penalty, provided the borrowed ball is of the same make and model. As Tiger was playing a Bridgestone-made Nike Tour Accuracy, that wasn't an option, as he was the only player in the field playing that particular ball.
As such, Woods could borrow a ball from one of those two but would have incurred a two-stroke penalty.
Williams also could've gone to the clubhouse to buy more, but that particular make and model was not for sale in any pro shop.
As Tiger was staying on property at Pebble, Williams also could've gone to his hotel room to grab the three he left behind. But with that option, Woods would've incurred a two-stroke penalty for slow play. So, he was dropping a pair of shots regardless.
But that obviously wasn't necessary, much to Williams' delight. As mentioned, Tiger shot 71-67 over the next two rounds to win by 15. So, it's not as if two strokes would've made much difference.
Nevertheless, it was a scary situation for Williams, who didn't tell Woods what had happened until roughly six months later, to which Tiger responded, "What the f--k?!"
The 2000 U.S. Open, of course, served as the first leg of the unprecedented "Tiger Slam," as Woods went on to win the 2000 Open Championship, the 2000 PGA Championship, and the 2001 Masters to become the only player in modern golf history to hold all four major championships simultaneously.