The extraordinary career of Tiger Woods has featured countless highlights, including 82 PGA Tour titles, 15 major wins, three victories at the Open Championship and an astonishing 683 weeks as the world No 1.
Since turning professional more than 25 years ago, Woods has repeatedly achieved feats of jaw-dropping brilliance, not least when he returned from career-threatening back injuries to claim that 15th major success at Augusta National in 2019.
Yet there can be little doubting the one individual season in which Tiger reached his zenith.
The year 2000 saw Woods at his brilliant, near-unbeatable best, as typified by the manner in which he secured his maiden victory in the Open at St Andrews.
The expectations of Woods could not have been higher ahead of the first Open of the new millennium.
Having ended the previous year with four PGA Tour victories in succession, Woods extended that stunning streak to six at the start of 2000, winning the Mercedes Championship in Kapalua and the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
Further triumphs soon followed in the Bay Hill Invitational and Memorial Tournament, before Tiger hit new heights on his return to Pebble Beach for the U.S. Open, cantering to victory by a scarcely believable 15-stroke margin.
As a result, few people expected anything apart from another Woods win when the 24-year-old arrived at St Andrews seeking to become only the fifth player in history – after Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player – to complete the career Grand Slam.
The overwhelming favourite for the Championship certainly did not disappoint.
To read about Woods’ victory, visit https://www.theopen.com/latest/how-tiger-woods-won-2000-open-championship.
The R&A