The Greatest Golf Performances Of All Time

This station is portion of a larger database looking astatine immoderate of nan apical individual performances successful each of sports history. Check retired nan afloat database here.

When two-way awesome Shohei Ohtani turned his slugging slump into nan top crippled successful shot history successful Game 4 of nan National League Championship Series, it started a chat successful nan Sports Illustrated newsroom: What are immoderate of nan different apical individual performances successful sports? And really do they comparison to Ohtani’s 10 strikeouts and 3 location runs?

Here are our picks from men’s and women’s golf.

The 2000 U.S. Open was nan astir mind-blowing triumph of Woods’s storied career. / Robert Beck/Sports Illustrated

Tiger Woods group a awesome title grounds erstwhile he was nan only subordinate nether par, shooting 12-under astatine Pebble Beach to triumph nan 2000 U.S. Open by 15 strokes—eclipsing nan erstwhile people of 13 by Tom Morris Sr. successful 1862 group astatine a British Open contested by 8 players. Woods had 2 bogey-free rounds while nan different 155 players successful nan section mixed for one; he had nary three-putt greens; he deed 51 greens successful regulation, 7 much than anyone else. And he made conscionable six bogeys aliases much complete 72 holes. “It’s conscionable not a adjacent fight,” NBC expert Roger Maltbie famously said during nan 2nd round. Woods eclipsed his ain modern grounds for triumph separator group successful a awesome erstwhile he won nan 1997 Masters by 12. Afterward, Ernie Els, who played pinch Woods connected nan last time and tied for 2nd pinch Miguel Ángel Jiménez, quipped: “If you put Old Tom Morris pinch Tiger Woods, he'd astir apt hit him by 80 shots correct now. Hey, nan feline is unbelievable, man.”

Greater than Ohtani? Like baseball, play has been astir for 150-plus years, and while Woods holds nan awesome title grounds of triumph margin, location person been 4 times erstwhile a subordinate exceeded it successful a regular tournament—all winning by 16. So we’ll spell pinch Ohtani topping Tiger—but barely. —Bob Harig

Women’s Golf: Karrie Webb’s wire-to-wire triumph successful Palm Springs

Webb’s triumph astatine nan 2000 Nabisco Championship made a awesome connection astir her rivalry pinch Sorenstam / Tom Hauck/ALLSPORT

Annika Sorenstam and Karrie Webb were nan header rivals of nan LPGA arsenic nan almanac turned to 2000, pinch nan Aussie (Webb) making her strongest lawsuit complete nan older and much dressed up Swede pinch a 1999 play that included Player of nan Year honors and a 6–2 separator successful wins. At nan first awesome of nan 2000 season, Webb put a impermanent extremity to nan statement wholly pinch a 10-shot triumph astatine nan Nabisco Championship (once informally nan Dinah Shore, now nan Chevron)—her 5th triumph successful six starts, prompting John Garrity to constitute successful SI that “the Justice Department is targeting her arsenic a monopolistic enterprise.” Webb went wire-to-wire astatine Mission Hills Country Club, opening pinch a 5-under 67, owning an eight-shot lead aft 54 holes and, to put a headdress connected it all, making a Sunday hole-in-one connected nan measurement to her coronation. Webb vanished astatine 14 under, defending champion Dottie Pepper was runner-up astatine 4 under, and Sorenstam, successful a uncommon well-down-the-leaderboard week, was 18 shots backmost astatine 4 over. Webb would adhd different awesome successful what would beryllium a seven-win Player of nan Year season, but obscurity was her power amended connected show than during that March week successful Palm Springs, Calif.

Greater than Ohtani? Tough to comparison 4 rounds vs. 1 night, but let’s conscionable opportunity some sports knew who their very champion was astatine that moment. —John Schwarb

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