Tiger Woods' INCREDIBLE 2000 season | PGA TOUR Originals

It's a league that was never reached before, and I doubt we'll ever see anything that comes close to that. Tiger's as close as I've seen to not having a weakness early on in that stage in his career. He does everything he's supposed to do to separate himself. After that week, I'm like, I want to do this. This guy's a freak of nature, and I want to be him one day. He put himself in that mindset when he had to do it under the most pressure. Oh, no, you can't do that. What a gift he had mentally for winning golf tournaments. I was 24, 25, 99, 2000, so, you know, that athletically is generally when you peak. And fortunate for me, I was able to take advantage of my peak years. Tiger Woods' 2000 season is considered among the greatest in the history of golf. Nine wins. Three major titles. A new scoring record. Just to name a few achievements. I was just on a run. I was driving it good. Obviously, my irons were good. He's the only man on the planet that can hit that shot. This week, the Cut looks back and celebrates the 20th anniversary of that remarkable year and the impact it's had on the game. It was just an amazing year of control. It was an incredible start to the year, you know, going head-to-head with Ernie right there at Kapalua. That's just kind of started out. Tiger's battle with Ernie Ellison Maui came while he was in the midst of a historic streak. All attention on Tiger Woods looking to extend his consecutive starts with a victory to five. Tied through three rounds, the two would turn that Sunday into a match for the ages. To have a duel like that with a player of that caliber. And we didn't make a mistake. We were right there at each other's throat all day. Ernie has taken the lead twice. Tiger has taken the lead twice. They're all even waiting to play the last. That was so much fun. Let's do it again. That to me was really exciting because of the fact that we didn't back off. And if you're going to win, you're going to have to really do something spectacular. I felt at times that I played a little better than him from tee to green. But Tiger made those important putts and his short term was really a little bit better than mine. New season, same result. Another Tiger Woods win. That's five in a row. His fifth straight title to kick off the millennium added validation to a 1999 season that had seen him win eight times. He wins here at Memorial. And answered criticism he'd faced for the swing changes he had been working on the previous couple years. When Tiger was going through that first swing change, it was probably in 98 or early 99, I was talking to Earl. And he said to me, you know, he's not anywhere near as good as he's going to be. I kept saying to all of you that my game was better last year than it was in 97. I said, how could it be? You're not winning. Well, it is better. And this year, I'm starting to reap the dividends of a better game. Just a stupid game. His four win streak to close the season included two World Golf Championships and the Tour Championship. For someone of that ability to be number one ranked in the world and to still have the drive to improve is scary. And it doesn't scare him, it should scare the rest of us though. Well, we'll see. We'll see. A lot of hard work. You never know. The Tiger trying to win six straight. Ben Hogan the last to do that. Wood's next start at Pebble Beach would force him to dig deep on the closing stretch. He's coming into the event on the heels of five victories in a row. And it would be so easy to take your foot off the pedal. But he just was well back of the pace and all of a sudden just finds that gear, that Tiger Woods gear, and just went crazy. Seven back with seven to play. Tigerwood birdie 12 while your backhoe will falter. Reaching the 15th four back. That's right. Right back at it. He started that run with that incredible shot on 15 that he made for an eagle. And then a birdie on 16. You know, an easy par on 17 and then another birdie on 18. The streak continues. Two starts, two wins, and Tiger's 2,000 was gaining steam for the next title. I was going to do it again. If I won, I was going to do it again. It's just how soon I was going to do it. Bay Hill in Central Florida and what a spot to be this week for golf's annual gathering to honor the king. With wins already at the AT&T Byron Nelson and Jack Nicklaus' memorial tournament presented by Nationwide, a victory at Arnie's Place would complete the Legends Grand Slam. Tiger Woods going for his 11th win in his last 16 starts. Is it too optimistic to say that he can continue to ride this incredible zone he's in? After taking the lead with a 64 on Friday, Woods never faltered and earned his first of many victories at Bay Hill. Another successful close for Tiger Woods. 13 straight when he shared or had the lead after three rounds. It feels very nice to go out there and get a victory on this golf course because this golf course is not that easy. But to go out there and play a golf course that's demanding as solidly as I did feels pretty good. It is a lot of fun to go out there and compete and know that you have a chance to win a tournament. It's where you always want to be. And that's one of the reasons why I changed my golf swing from 97 to now. Gosh, whose swing do I wish I had? 2,000 Tiger Woods. Tiger Woods, 2,000. The greatest swing ever in my opinion. If I could ever have one swing, that would be my swing. How he drove the golf ball then was unbelievable. That's the pinnacle of hitting it long and hitting it straight. If guys could replicate that, golf would become a lot easier. The swing that is still desired by today's elite came together through Tiger's work and dedication after his historic 1997 Masters win. I felt like I couldn't be in contention every time I teed it up with the swing I used to have. I felt that I was not hitting the right direction for the long haul. Last year, right before the Nelson, I hit a few shots in the range just where I wanted to finally after about a year and a half of work and it came together. I think the main thing in those changes I've made is I've become more of a consistent player. My bad shots aren't that bad and my good shots are always going to be pretty good. But it's the bad ones that are the key to shooting good solid numbers. Nobody hitting the ball long would stand there with a driver and say, I'm going to hit the ball 305 yards and shape it the way he wants to shape it and put it in the side of fairway. He's the only guy that can do that. Following his win at Bay Hill, Tiger's next victory came in another Legends hometown at the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide. A 63-65 Friday and Saturday carried him to a 7-shot lead. Fasten your seatbelts. And look out, Tiger is making a charge. Tiger became the first player to successfully defend his title at Jack's Place. Back to back Memorial titles for Tiger Woods. It's pretty neat to finally defend a tournament. I've done it in amateur golf, I just haven't done it in professional golf until this week. With victory number four in the books, Tiger's eyes are now set on a return to Pebble Beach. This week I played really well. I just felt if I continue to play that way for the next few weeks, who knows. I think the way I putted at the US Open is something that I look back on as one of the bigger highlights of putting in a week. Woody did it payable. Some say, and I would probably agree, greatest performance in a major championship. Tiger Woods' first major victory of 2000 was done in dominant fashion. Tying or setting nine US Open records, he conquered the rest of the field with a 15-shot victory. First time in the history of the game probably where someone has been better than everybody at everything. Tiger winning by 15 shots at Pebble Beach was an inhuman accomplishment. I don't know if we'll ever see a performance as dominant as that again. Wow. That was the most impressive golf I've ever seen. There's not a question that it'll go down in history as maybe one of the best championships ever played in the game of golf. Just over a month after blowing away the field by 15 strokes at Pebble Beach, at only 24 years old, Tiger completed the career grand slam in a powerful performance at St. Andrews. I was fortunate enough to play with him at the British Open the first two rounds, and I can honestly tell you right now he didn't break into a sweat. He made it look effortless, finishing eight strokes clear of runner-ups Thomas Bjorn and Ernie Els. To win those tournaments and win them by the margins that he did was amazing. Bottom line is he's beating the hell out of everybody else, and he's not doing it by luck. He's just playing good golf. To win an Open Championship at St. Andrews, the homo golf, it doesn't get any better than that. Unlike his first two major victories in 2000, Tiger's PGA Championship win was a hard-fought battle. I had the lead going into the Sunday, and I didn't play the front nine as well as I'd like. Woods and Bob May engaged in an epic battle down the stretch, leaving Tiger with a must-make putt on the final hole in order to force a playoff. Never at any point did I think he was going to miss. He hit a great putt. David versus Goliath, and David nearly won again, but Goliath in the end was too strong. One thing you don't say about Tiger, you don't say the word can't, because it can be done. You expected it. He's been doing it for the last two years, making putts like that. With his record-shattering performances, Tiger Woods became the only man other than Ben Hogan to win three major championships in a single season. To have the opportunity to do something that only Ben Hogan has done, to win three majors in a year, and then doing the playoff against Bob, was nerve-wracking but tough. It's dark 30 right now. Daylight was fading at Firestone Country Club, but not Tiger's momentum. Leading after every round, including by nine shots through 54 holes. He played into the night that Sunday, in hopes of hoisting his eighth title of the season. It's pretty much dark. The camera irises are open pretty much and full, so it doesn't really do justice to how dark it was. Get a couple flashlights. Oh, he ain't lying. Oh, I heard that one go by like an F-16. I have no idea where it is. We basically hit every shot. It was basically running down the fairway, trying to get in. I knew that it was going to be about the right distance. I was just hoping it would be somewhere around 10, 15 feet. People were screaming. I had no idea it was that close, because we couldn't see. I think that may be one of the greatest shots he's ever seen. No doubt about it. You don't need any sunlight, do you? How about that, huh? He's left them in the dark again. But that night wasn't the curtain for Tiger's success. As he awed the golf world yet again, in a way only he can, to cap off his final victory of 2000. Not every turn that Tiger played in was pretty good. The most memorable golf shot definitely was Tiger hitting it out of the bunker on 18 at Canada. With only a one-shot lead on the 72nd hole, his competitor found the fairway, while Tiger was under pressure from the bunker. I took a good look at it. He's got a perfect line. He's going, right? Oh, absolutely. He's got 213 yards. This is right on line. I was laughing, because I think they said he hit a 6-iron and hit it right at the pin. I was saying, yeah, I'd have hit a 6-iron too, but I'd have been laying up over to the left. Tiger Woods, his ninth victory of the year, and the second man to capture the Triple Crown. A national Open of any magnitude is always special to win, especially with the history behind the Canadian Open. The victory in Canada was the final of Tiger's winning a season on the PGA Tour to date. He finished the year a combined 263 under par, and set the record for lowest scoring average in a season, topping Byron Nelson's in 1945. When you basically boat race the field by nearly four shots a day, that's a different league. It's a league that's never been matched. Tiger's almost 50% in the top five of his PGA Tour events. That's over-the-top ridiculous. In 2000, Tiger never finished outside the top 25. And at age 24, he completed the career Grand Slam, and would go on to become the sole player to hold all four major titles at one time in 2001. You look on that list, and you look at all the players that have won that, and these are legends on that list. And to be able to say I'm a part of that history is very rewarding. I know how much I bust my butt to become a better player. It was just a present, and he was in the present so much that he didn't realize that there was no more present to be in. And that shows, I think, what a gift he had mentally for winning golf tournaments. Just have the ability to be flexible and alter game plans, and find out what my strengths are for that one particular site, that one particular venue. Get it done, then move on to the next venue, and figure out what my strengths are going to be for this week. I've had a fantastic career so far, but even more satisfying to me is to be able to have more kids who traditionally wouldn't have thought about playing golf. I think golf is cool. The whole reason I'm playing golf is basically because of Tiger. Tiger made it cool to play golf. I saw the way he was fist pumping around the greens. Someone with a skin color like mine, watching him as a kid was a big deal to me. And so he drew me to the game. Getting to experience it on TV was something special, and definitely made me work really hard. Inspired me to play the game of golf. I loved golf, and I'd played it a bunch already, but after seeing that, I was like, this is what I want to do. That's when my competitive nature really kicked in. Hopefully when my career is all said and done, then I can look back and know that I made a positive difference in the game of golf. And hopefully it'll be one of the core sports in America.