SOUTHAMPTON, NY – At 7:30 p.m., Sunday ORDER out on Long Island, Wyndham Clark marched into the interview tent at Shinnecock Hills. A bevy of television cameras, photographers, USGA staff, volunteers and members of the media followed.
He had a medal around his neck and a spring in his step. He walked up a few steps, sat down, and dropped an 18-inch, clean silver trophy onto a table. He looked relieved.
“Man,” he said a few minutes later, “they definitely didn’t want me to win.”
EVERYONE KNOWS THAT IS NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE to blow the kind of lead that Wyndham Clark built at the 126th US Open. Six shots? Please. It had happened 21 times before, and only one player — Greg Norman at the 1996 Masters — had lost a 54-hole lead of six shots or more. Images of a ruined Norman are seared into our brains. And those images — and the shark’s name — come up every time a seemingly insurmountable bullet like this comes up.
Clark dominated the first three days of this US Open. Sixty-four on Thursday. Sixty nine Friday. The course got tougher on Saturday, but so did Clark. He shot 70.
He entered Sunday seven under and with a commanding lead over four others at one under, a group that included world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who also happened to celebrate not only Father’s Day but his 30th birthday on Sunday. Oh, and if he were to win this tournament, he would be just the seventh player to complete the career Grand Slam, joining Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.
now this is it a story that people wanted to see. Clark was just on the way to the end of the tale, and not for the first time.
Three years ago, at the 2023 US Open at Los Angeles Country Club, a relatively unknown Clark tied for the lead with the much-heralded Rickie Fowler through 54 holes. They were in the final pairing; Rory McIlroy was one behind. Clark was far from the favorite at the time – McIlroy was trying to snap a long major drought and Fowler, one of the most beloved players of this generation, was still after that elusive first major title.
But Clark and his mental game coach, Julie Elion, had a plan. Clark said the pressure was on Fowlerwho probably needed the win more than anyone. And every time Clark heard someone chant Fowler’s name, Elion told him to just make Clark remember his intentions, which was to be cocky.
“Now maybe they’ll be singing my name in the future,” Clark said that night, after shooting 70 to win by one.
Well, not quite.
In the years since, Clark has found himself embroiled in controversy. It’s not necessarily Patrick Reed level, but in a sport with so few villains, sometimes it only takes a few glaring infractions to qualify.
Clark was scrutinized for the way he handled a rules situation at the 2024 Arnold Palmer Invitational and blasted on national TV by analyst Brandel Chamblee. A year later, he threw a club at the PGA Championship and issued a public apology. A month after that he went inside the historic Oakmont Country Club lockers after missing the cut in this tournament and issued an apology some thought it was half-hearted and too late.
The difficult thing about changing public perception is that it can be difficult to change public perception. A thoughtful press conference or public relations campaign is usually not enough. Opinions are stubborn and fans are not easily fooled.
Those “lows,” as Clark, now 32, has referred to them, surfaced recently as his game took a turn. He won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in February 2024, but didn’t win again until last month, when he shot 30 under at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson. He finished third a week later and tied for 11th in his last start before the US Open, the RBC Canadian Open, making him a semi-trendy pick heading into this week.
And in three days on Long Island, Clark sucked the life out of this tour. He got a good draw, shuffled well, set up like Loren Roberts, and made almost every important 7-footer he faced. He had the tournament by his throat, though Scheffler got into the final pair and created the history that the fourth round needed.
But even Clark wasn’t prepared for Sunday’s US Open and its one-sided nature. When Clark and Scheffler reached the first set at 2:24 p.m., they received a standing ovation; it even seemed non-partisan. But that didn’t last.
The fans sang “Happy Birthday” to Scheffler and waited patiently for this latest group to throw balls in the air. Sheffler struck first, then Clark. Then someone shouted before Clark’s ball had reached its peak.
“Crash and burn, Wyndham!”
On Clark’s approach from the first hole, someone at the Founders Club, the luxury balcony hospitality tent to the left of the fairway, yelled for the leader’s ball to go into the fescue. On the par-3 2nd, Clark missed well left and then rolled just over the green. Some fans asked him to keep spinning.
“It’s brutal,” said one volunteer, looking behind him at the stands in disgust. “Cheering like that for a bad shot?”
It didn’t stop.
Before Clark finished at 4, a fan yelled, “Don’t choke, Wyndham!” and was immediately removed from insurance. Two other fans were reportedly sent home during the day as well. When Clark hit his approach, he looked to get a nice round of applause. It was a rarity until that moment that this reporter – who didn’t see where the ball landed – pointed it out, only to find that the ball had landed 20 yards in right field. For this they cheered.
Near the 5th green, two fans got into a shouting match when one told the other they didn’t care about his aggressive, anti-Clark comments. While not everyone was yelling at Clark directly, it seemed mostly a collective effort as fans tried to get Scheffler to shoot closer to the hole and urge Clark’s to keep rolling, catch a ridge and tumble toward the abyss.
“It’s very rare in an open championship or a major championship to have fans yelling at your shots or cheering for bad shots,” Clark said. “It was hard, but sometimes being weak is good. Every time someone said something negative to me, I replaced it with something positive.”
On the 6th, a fan yelled about Clark’s approach to “splash!” in the sand. On the tricky par-3 Redan 7th, a fan yelled for Clark’s ball to “go in the bunker!” He did. One fan thought the heck was so humorous, he even took out his cell phone, called a friend and shared how funny it was that someone had shouted such a thing.
Wyndham Clark and Mike Tirico, minutes after Clark’s win.
Getty Images
In such situations, it is sometimes unclear how they develop. Do they really dislike Wyndham Clark so much? Or do they just want Scottie Scheffler to win so bad? Or maybe they want to be part of history. Wouldn’t it be exciting to see Scheffler capture the career Grand Slam in person? (“And he even did it on his birthday!” they used to say to their friends.)
“Some of it is deserved,” Clark said. “I kind of brought it on myself, but I also understand that. Scottie was going for a career Grand Slam, and that doesn’t happen very often. It was tough, but I’m proud of myself for fighting back.”
It got to the point that if Clark heard someone cheering for him, he would joke with his caddy, “Oh, there’s a person I like!” He said his preparation at the Ryder Cups and Presidents Cup, as well as playing in the RBC Canadian Open a few weeks ago – where he shocked die-hard Canadian hockey fans by wearing a USA jersey during a hole – had helped.
“They were really tough on me the last day (in Canada), so I think all of that combined led to this moment where, well, I’ve been in this position,” Clark said. “It’s bad to be weak or rooting against, but I can come out and there’s nothing like winning an away game.”
Those with tickets to sporting events are allowed to cheer for their favorites and even against their rivals, but when it gets ugly, they can be kicked out (so it says on the back of their ticket badges). Sixty miles from here, at the Bethpage Black Ryder Cup last fall, Rory McIlroy received a significant amount of hate from American fans, and PGA of America executives even apologized. It wasn’t as ugly today, but it was still strangeespecially with two American players facing off in a final pairing while playing for America’s national championship.
And as they rooted against Clark and cheered for his ball to hit the bunkers and laughed when he didn’t stop on the greens, the fans shouted “Happy Birthday!” and “Happy Father’s Day!” and “Stick them!” for Scheffler, who is logical enough to think that it all might have felt a little uncomfortable.
“I think sometimes it can get a little too much when the balls are leaving the green and you start hearing cheers; that feels a little bit to me,” Scheffler said. “Being in the arena is not for everybody, and I think it says a lot about Wyndham, how he handled not only this golf course, but I think the crowd today.”
Through it all, Clark limped toward the turn. He bogeyed 2, 5 and 7 and failed to make a birdie. But his biggest competition was no longer Scheffler, who hit one on the front and eventually tied for 4th. Three pairs ahead of them, Sam Burns was making moves. The 29-year-old – who is Scheffler’s best friend and housemate this week – birdied 1, 3, 5 and 8. His final birdie came on the 16th, and after missing birdies on the 17th and 18th, he closed for 67 and took the clubhouse lead at three under.
Clark shot a 38 on the front and fell to four under. He birdied 10 and bogeyed 13, but his lead moved to two when he drained a 25-footer for birdie on 16. A three-putt flurry on 17 added to the drama.
Clark went to the 18th tee box; he had to make a 4 to win a major. Burns waited on the range, just in case.
At 6:30 Sunday evening, the gallery ropes along the first hole were on the ground. A handful of children chased each other and rolled down the fairway. The tournament was almost over and the rest of the course mostly abandoned. A crowd began to emerge a few hundred yards away at 18, though it was not yet on Clark’s side. There was another call from the stands for Clark’s approach to go into the bunker, but he stayed on the front of the green, 53 yards short. The crowd grew around him, up in the stands and on the surrounding hillside. He was in the arena.
“Two shots to win the US Open,” one fan told his friend.
Clark, you already know, won this 126th US Open. He put his birdie attempt at 9 inches, and the tap was just a formality. The crowd’s reaction was muted.
Up ahead on the hill near the clubhouse, two parents watched with their son as Clark and the storm around him marched toward the score. The 8-year-old was still playing with a wedge that Alex Fitzpatrick had given him, but his father tried to get his attention as Clark approached him.
“Hey,” the father said, nudging his son’s shoulder. “Pay attention to this.”
The boy looked up like a two-time major champion passing by, his detractors be damned.
;)
