PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – It was not a day, or U.S. Open, for high drama. Or frankly, any drama.
Tiger Woods carried a 10-shot lead into Sunday, which was impressive enough. Then, for the fourth straight day, Woods turned treacherous Pebble Beach Golf Links into a casual 18-hole walk by the sea.
He won by a major championship-record 15 shots. He finished a U.S. Open-record 12 under par. On a Sunday in which no one else in the field climbed to under-par for the tournament, Woods shot a bogey-free, 4-under 67, the lowest score of the day.
"I wanted to have a day where I made no bogeys," Woods said. "That was my goal from the beginning of the day. No bogeys."
Woods resorted to playing an inner tournament, himself against Pebble Beach, because no other challenges existed. No one drew closer than eight shots Sunday. Second-place Ernie Els and Miguel Angel Jimenez finished 3 over.
Perhaps the greatest tribute to Woods' talent is that by Saturday, just like his 12-shot victory in the 1997 Masters, he had sucked all the suspense and most of the intrigue from a major tournament. This isn't supposed to happen in golf.
"Give me a nine-, 10-shot lead every single time," Woods joked. "Now realize why most of the golfers out here are balding and gray."
That is because other players are doing well just to squeeze out a one-shot victory or two every few years. Sunday's victory was Woods' 20th. He has won 12 of his past 21 PGA Tour starts, a winning rate of 57 percent.
No wonder, then, that veteran Tom Kite wondered which sensation was more unusual during his morning round Sunday: the still Pebble Beach air or the absence of major championship, final-round anticipation.
"It's almost disappointing," Kite said. "You can feel it in the air. There's no excitement with the gallery . . . It's almost like the tournament's over and it's not even an exciting day."
Kite predicted, "one of the most boring U.S. Open finales of all time if Tiger plays the way everybody expects him to play."
Sure enough, for a while Sunday it seemed Woods would add nothing to the script he had fashioned during the first three days. He parred eight of the first nine holes. But with playing partner Els struggling and his lead over Jimenez a seemingly-safe eight shots, Woods took his game to a higher gear after the turn.
He made a 15-foot birdie on No. 10, an 18-footer on No. 12, a one-footer on 13 and an 8-footer on 14. Suddenly, a new challenge loomed: breaking Tom Morris' record for margin of victory in a major: 13 strokes, set in the 1862 British Open.
For a young man who already had broken the U.S. Open records for 36-hole lead and 54-hole lead, Woods' back-nine 32 was a finishing kick that said much about his competitive nature.
"For some reason, things just flowed," Woods said. "And no matter what you do, good or bad, it really doesn't get to you. Even the days when you wake up on the wrong side of the bed, it doesn't feel too bad. It's just all right."
"And to have those weeks just happen to coincide with two major championships is even better."
For the second time in his career, Woods produced a major championship week that left peers, fans and media racking their brains for suitable superlatives.
Perfect. Dominant. Unbeatable. Is this a 24-year-old human or golf's ultimate machine?
Was this what it was like when Jack Nicklaus was his most dominant?
"Jack caught golf with its pants down when he came out and could overpower a golf course," veteran Nick Price said. "And we've seen the same with Tiger. Whether we played 7,400- or 7,500-yard golf courses remains to be seen.
"The guy is learning to manage his game properly, and he's got such a great short game, my hat's off to him."
Now Woods has become the 14th player to win at least three legs of golf's modern grand slam. Anyone who thinks he isn't the overwhelming favorite to complete the career slam at next month's British Open in St. Andrews obviously hasn't been watching golf.
The question in the aftermath of golf's greatest major championship blowout is whether Woods at his best is this good, or whether his peers simply can't rise to his level.
"Well, you need competition," Kite said. "Otherwise, it gets to be boring. Kind of like Texas in the old Southwest Conference. You knew who was going to win. It was fun if you were pulling for Texas, but it wasn't real exciting."
