By Derek Lawrenson for the Daily Mail
Published: 22:30 BST, 11 June 2019 | Updated: 23:00 BST, 11 June 2019
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The 450th major championship will be staged this week - and it's only appropriate that it will take place at the scene of the greatest display.
There have been more emotional majors - there was one just two months ago at Augusta - while the amount containing more drama would certainly run into three figures.
But the greatest performance in the history of the game? It really is beyond all argument.
Tiger Woods' performance at the US Open in 2000 was the greatest in the history of the game
Even now, 19 years on, the players who were there still struggle to comprehend the magnitude of Tiger Woods winning by 15 strokes at the 2000 US Open at Pebble Beach.
'I actually think I played well enough to win that week, and yet I got lapped,' said Ernie Els, who played with Tiger in the final round and ended up tied for runner's-up spot with Spaniard Miguel Angel Jimenez. 'Normally, you think you've done quite well when you're second, but it's kind of embarrassing when you're 15 shots back.'
How poetic that the man himself, after all that's happened over the past two decades, should return this week as the Masters champion. 'There's nothing like a US Open at Pebble Beach,' said Woods.
'When I look back on 2000, I know I didn't hit every fairway or hit every green but I missed in the correct spots and always gave myself the best angles to recover. And I putted so well.
