SOUTHAMPTON, NY – Wyndham Clark joined the two-time club on Sunday night. Among active players, there are now three with two US Open wins: Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau and the new guy, crowned here at Shinnecock Hills on a great night when the light was blah blah blah. Nobody cares.
Yes, all three are LOT similar players, extremely strong players through the chest, able to make huge upper body turns against stable lower bodies like a tree trunk. All three are capable of killing long par-5s and par-4s with fade drives followed by fade irons to the middle and right pins. Aaron Rai these guys are not. Not in any way.
Few would describe these three players as lovers. (Except, of course, for those who love them — they would.) And none of them are afraid to play the villain. Not at all. Clark won his first Open over Rickie Fowler. (How dare you!) Koepka won his second US Open over Tommy Fleetwood. (How could you?) DeChambeau won the second over Rory McIlroy. (Why, nerves!) All three are golfers in the era of everybody golfing: bro fans, bro caddies, bro makers, bro players. Please don’t read it like that playahs. So not cool.
Li’l Corey Pavin won his one and only US Open here in 1995, hitting a 4-wood on 18 on Sunday. It was not possible for him to win another. He didn’t know. No one could. But his victory marked the end of an era.
Tiger Woods turned pro in 1996, Bill Coore and Tom Doak and Gil Hanse became famous for a less-than approach to their design and reno work right then, the USGA fell in love with the open spaces – and nothing has been the same.
The stage was set for Woods, who won Opens at Pebble Beach in 2000, Bethpage Black in 2002 and Torrey Pines in 2008. In the midst of the Woods era, Retief Goosen — a monsterin his humble way — won two US Opens, at Southern Hills in 2001 and at Shinnecock Hills in 2004. He set the stage for Koepka, who won at Erin Hills in 2017 and Shinnecock Hills a year later. For DeChambeau, who won at Winged Foot in 2020 and Pinehurst in 2024. And for Clark, who won at Los Angeles Country Club in 2023 and here Sunday night, amid the familiar and ancient sound of a diesel passenger train whistling on —
Dude – nobody cares!
So far, there have been more courses cited in this report than trees in any of the courses mentioned here.
Part of what made the 126th U.S. Open and the sixth at Shinnecock Hills kind of anticlimactic is that Clark’s scores got progressively worse: 64 and 69 (catching the best of the weather on Thursday morning and Friday afternoon), followed by a par 70 on Saturday and a 73 on Sunday. Is that so? You’re wondering: Did it ever happen? event money?
Yes.
In 2023, when Wyndham Clark won the US Open with scores of 64, 67, 69 and 70.
Maybe you were rooting for Rickie Fowler that weekend. Or Rory McIlroy. Well, Wyndham Clark didn’t care. (And why should he?)
Bryson and Brooks went to LIV. Perhaps you were horrified, these two Herculean players turned their backs on the institutions (USGA, PGA Tour) that made their lives possible, sharing the stage in the name of… Saudi oil money! These brothers didn’t care either.
Let’s not even get into Wyndham Clark’s initial response to The Oakmont thing BECAUSE NOBODY (understandably) wants to get back into the whole thing, but it’s fair to say that it took Clark a while to realize that he was KIND of a thing, and it had legs.
On Sunday afternoon at Shinnecock Hills, here on the South Fork of Long Island’s East End, thousands of well-behaved and fit fans, to say nothing of the men at work between the rope lines, were subjected to the strangest fan behavior seen since … last year’s Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black in Bethpage, another stop on the Long Island Road Rail. That event was almost ruined by a small number of overworked fans, and Sunday’s US Open final could have suffered a similar fate.
Clark became public enemy no. 1, among a modest number of very loud and extremely obnoxious fans at this famously good club. They were all frothy for one reason above all others. Clark was playing the final doubles of the day with Scottie Scheffler on a day when Scheffler, in victory, could have become the seventh player to win a career Grand Slam. It was also Father’s Day, and Scheffler is a father of two and his 30th birthday. So there’s a lot going on.
Clark had to play through a chorus of obnoxious, un-golfing comments that included “It’s yours to lose” (Clark had a six-shot lead through three rounds) and “Get in the pond!” in a course that has no water at all except in elegant Dasani cans. You might think it all stems from the decision to play the US Open without trees, the 460cc driver and the aspirational themes underlying Entourage and Billions and Neighbors and Friends, all of which loved using the old game.
When Clark teed off the 18th hole Sunday night, the leader at home was Scheffler’s close friend Sam Burns. Burns was three under and Clark in four. When Sam Burns, the 54-hole leader at last year’s US Open at Oakmont, blew a final round (78), Scheffler was in pain for him. They have logged hundreds of rounds together over the past 15 years. Of course, Scheffler knew Clark was a guy away from a playoff run with his close friend. And Scheffler revealed … absolutely nothing about his rooting interests. He is a golfer. He knows how golfers should behave. He congratulated Clark and Clark’s caddy, David Pelekoudas. He made the media rounds. He told reporters this:
“Being in the arena isn’t for everyone, and I think it says a lot about Wyndham, how he handled not only this golf course, but the crowd today. He’s a well-deserved champion.”
This is a perfect statement. This is the basic spirit of golf. But statements don’t win US Opens. Wyndham Clark won this 126th US Open with a 345-yard putt on the par-4 10th, the most beautiful 60-yard wedge a golfer can play on a wildly sloping green, and a 4-footer that clipped nothing but the net. His ship had been on the list. He corrected her. This is not golf, or modern golf, nor lucky golf. It’s golfing. He’s done it twice now. He earned his place in the club.
Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@Golf.com
“>
