Description:
The golfing planets seemed so aligned for the 2000 U.S. Open that even before Tiger tied his spikes you could hear the remarkable harmonies converging: the millennium, the majesty of Pebble Beach, the emotional absence of defending champion Payne Stewart, Jack Nicklaus's avowed swan song. Then, of course, there was Woods himself; a golfer on fire with 11 titles in his last 20 starts, he had staged a brilliant come-from-behind charge on Pebble's seaside track just a few months before. Something had to give. Did it ever. When the dust settled on the 72nd hole, Woods had outdistanced the field by an inconceivable 15 shots. His brilliant play, writes Brown in The Major, a pictorial scrapbook of the event, "catapulted him into an echelon where he could only compete against perfection--and ghosts." It was a performance for the ages, to be sure, and The Major neatly holds up for our admiration not only Tiger's masterpiece but also, through various sidebars woven into the narrative, the dramatic dimensions that contributed to it--the tributes to Stewart, the improbable play of qualifier Bobby Clampett, John Daly's crash and burn, and The Golden Bear's last hurrah. Beginning before the onset of the Woods era, The Major presents a compact history of previous Pebble Beach Opens and a visual exploration of how the course prepares for a championship of this magnitude. And then there's the invasion of the golfing fraternity, and the golf itself, which both text and photographs tee up with appropriate drama, perspective, and awe. It makes for a fitting album of one of the truly overwhelming sports achievements of any millennium. --Jeff Silverman
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