SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. — At 7:30 p.m. on Sunday way out on Long Island, Wyndham Clark marched into the interview tent at Shinnecock Hills. An entourage of TV cameras, photographers, USGA staffers, volunteers and media members followed.
There was a medal around his neck and a spring in his step. He hopped up a couple of stairs, took a seat and plopped an 18-inch, sterling silver trophy on top of a table. He looked relieved.
“Man,” he said a few minutes later, “they definitely didn’t want me to win.”
EVERYONE KNOWS IT’S NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE to blow the kind of lead Wyndham Clark built at the 126th U.S. Open. Six strokes? Please. It had happened 21 times before, and only one player — Greg Norman at the 1996 Masters — had lost a 54-hole major lead of six shots or more. The photos of a crumbling Norman have been seared into our brains. And those images — and the Shark’s name — come up every time a seemingly insurmountable lead like this surfaces.
Clark dominated the first three days of this U.S. Open. Sixty-four on Thursday. Sixty-nine on 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 be celebrating not just Father’s Day but his 30th birthday on Sunday. Oh, and if he were to win this tournament, he would have been 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 that’s a story people wanted to see. Clark was simply in the way of the fairytale ending, and not for the first time.
Three years ago, at the 2023 U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club, a relatively unknown Clark was tied for the lead with uber-popular Rickie Fowler through 54 holes. They were in the final pairing; Rory McIlroy was one back. Clark was far from the favorite then — McIlroy was trying to snap a lengthy major drought and Fowler, one of the most beloved golfers 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 all on Fowler, who perhaps needed the victory more than anyone. And every time Clark heard someone cheer Fowler’s name, Elion told him to have that simply trigger Clark him to remember his goals, which was to be cocky.
“Now maybe they’ll be chanting my name in the future,” Clark said that night, after he shot 70 to win by one.
Well, not quite.
In the years since, Clark has found himself embroiled in controversy. It’s not necessarily on the Patrick Reed level, but in a sport with so few villains, sometimes it takes only a few notable transgressions to qualify.
Clark was scrutinized for how 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 bashed in historic Oakmont Country Club lockers after he missed the cut at this tournament and issued an apology some thought was both half-hearted and much too late.
The difficult thing about changing public perception is that it can be hard to change public perception. One thoughtful press conference or public-relations campaign usually isn’t enough. Opinions are stubborn and fans not easily fooled.
These “lows,” as Clark, now 32, has referred to them, recently come to light as his game turned a corner. 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 U.S. 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 tournament. He got a good draw, scrambled well, putted like Loren Roberts and made nearly every crucial 7-foot par save he faced. He had the tournament by the throat, although Scheffler worked his way into the final pairing and created the storyline the fourth round needed.
But even Clark wasn’t prepared for Sunday at the U.S. Open and the one-sided nature of it. When Clark and Scheffler arrived to the first tee at 2:24 p.m., they received a nice ovation; it even seemed nonpartisan. But that did not last.
Fans sang “Happy Birthday” to Scheffler and waited patiently for this final group to put balls in the air. Scheffler hit first, then Clark. Then someone yelled before Clark’s ball had even reached its apex.
“Crash and burn, Wyndham!”
On Clark’s approach from the 1st hole, someone in the Founder’s Club, the luxe balcony hospitality tent left of the 1st fairway, yelled for the leader’s ball to get in the fescue. On the par-3 2nd, Clark missed well left and then had his chip roll slightly over the green. Some fans urged it to keep rolling.
“It’s brutal,” said one volunteer, looking behind him at the grandstands in disgust. “Cheering like that for a bad shot?”
It didn’t stop.
Before Clark teed off on 4, a fan yelled, “Don’t choke, Wyndham!” and was promptly removed by security. A couple more fans were reportedly sent home during the day as well. When Clark hit his approach, he seemed to receive a nice applause. It was such a rarity up until that moment that this reporter — who did not see where the ball landed — made note of it, only to find out the ball had landed 20 yards right of the green. That’s what they cheered for.
Near 5 green, two fans got into a shouting match when one told the other he didn’t care for his aggressive, anti-Clark remarks. While not everyone yelled directly at Clark, it seemed largely a collective effort as fans tried to will Scheffler shots closer to the hole and urge Clark’s to keep rolling, catch a ridge and plummet toward the abyss.
“It’s pretty rare in an Open championship or a major to have fans kind of boo against your shots or cheer for bad shots,” Clark said. “That was tough, but sometimes being the underdog is nice. Anytime someone said something negative to me, I replaced it with something positive.”
On 6, one fan yelled for Clark’s approach to “splash!” in the sand. On 7, the tricky par-3 Redan hole, a fan yelled for Clark’s ball to “get in the bunker!” It did. One fan thought the heckle was so humorous he even whipped out his cell phone, called a buddy and relayed just how funny it was that someone had yelled such a thing.
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In situations like this, it’s sometimes unclear how they evolve. Do they really dislike Wyndham Clark this much? Or is it simply they want Scottie Scheffler to win that badly? Or perhaps they want to be a part of history. Wouldn’t it be a thrill to see Scheffler capture the career Grand Slam in person? (“And he even did it on his birthday!” they’d tell their friends.)
“Some of it’s self-deserved,” Clark said. “I kind of brought it on myself, but I also get it, too. Scottie was going for the career Grand Slam, and it hasn’t happened very often. It was tough, but I’m proud of myself that I battled through.”
It got to the point where if Clark heard someone cheer for him, he’d joke with his caddie, “Oh, there’s one person that likes me!” He said his prep in Ryder Cups and Presidents Cup, as well as playing in the RBC Canadian Open a couple of weeks ago — where he trolled diehard Canadian hockey fans by wearing a USA jersey during one hole — had helped.
“They were pretty harsh on me the last day [in Canada], so I think all of that combined kind of led to this moment where, alright, I’ve been in this position,” Clark said. “It sucks being the underdog or getting rooted against, but I can pull through, and there’s nothing like winning kind of an away game.”
Those with tickets to sporting events are allowed to cheer for favorites and even against their rivals, but when it gets ugly they can be removed (it says so on the back of their ticket badges). Sixty miles away from here, at the Bethpage Black Ryder Cup last fall, Rory McIlroy received a significant amount of hatred from American fans and PGA of America executives even apologized to him. This today was not that kind of ugly, but it was still odd, especially with two American golfers facing off in a final pairing as they played for America’s national championship.
And while they rooted against Clark and cheered for his ball to fall into bunkers and laughed when it didn’t stop on greens, fans yelled “Happy Birthday!” and “Happy Father’s Day!” and “Hook ’em!” to Scheffler, who is logical enough to think it all might have felt a little uncomfortable.
“I think sometimes it can get a little too much when balls are kind of going off greens and you start hearing cheers; that felt a bit much to me,” Scheffler said. “Being in the arena is not for everybody, and I think it shows a lot about Wyndham, how he handled not only this golf course but I think the crowd today.”
Through it all, Clark limped to the turn. He made bogeys on 2, 5 and 7 and failed to make a birdie. But his biggest competition was no longer Scheffler, who shot one over on the front and eventually tied for 4th. Three pairings 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 16, and after he missed makable birdie tries on 17 and 18 he signed for 67 and took the clubhouse lead at three under.
Clark shot 38 on the front and dropped 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 messy three-putt bogey on 17 added to the drama.
Clark walked to the 18th tee box; he needed to make a 4 to win a major title. 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 kids chased each other and rolled down the fairway. The tournament was nearly complete and the rest of the course mostly deserted. A crowd started to emerge a couple hundred yards away on 18, although it still wasn’t on Clark’s side. There was another call from the grandstands for Clark’s approach to get in the bunker, but it instead stayed on the front of the green, 53 feet away. The crowd swelled around him, up in the stands and on the surrounding hillside. He was in the arena.
“Two putts to win the U.S. Open,” one fan said to his buddy.
Clark, you know by now, won this 126 U.S. Open. He nestled his birdie try to 9 inches, and the tap-in was all but 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 scoring. The 8-year-old was still playing with a wedge Alex Fitzpatrick had given him, but his father tried to get his attention as Clark approached.
“Hey,” the father said, nudging his son’s shoulder. “Pay attention to this.”
The boy looked up as a two-time major champion walked by, his detractors be damned.
You can reach the author at joshua.berhow@golf.com.
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