SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. — Wyndham Clark joined the two-timers club on Sunday night. Among active players, there are now three with two U.S. Open wins: Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau and the new guy, crowned here at Shinnecock Hills on a gorgeous night when the light was blah-blah-blah. Nobody cares.

Yes, all three are very similar golfers, immensely strong players through the chest, able to make huge upper-body turns against tree-trunk-stable lower bodies. All three are able to kill par-5s and long par-4s with fade drives followed by fade irons to middle and right pins. Aaron Rai these guys are not. Not in any way.

Few would describe these three players as lovable. (Except, of course, by those who love them — they would.) And none of them is afraid to play the villain role. Not at all. Clark won his first Open over Rickie Fowler. (How dare you!) Koepka won his second U.S. Open over Tommy Fleetwood. (How could you?) DeChambeau won his second over Rory McIlroy. (Why, the nerve!) All three are bro golfers in an age of bro everything in golf: bro fans, bro caddies, bro creators, bro players. Please don’t read that as playahs. So not cool.

Li’l Corey Pavin won his lone U.S. Open here in 1995, hitting a 4-wood into 18 on Sunday. It was not possible for him to win another one. He didn’t know it. Nobody could. But his win marked the end of an era.

News

Wyndham Clark had the world against him. He won the U.S. Open anyway

By: Josh Berhow

Tiger Woods turned pro in 1996, Bill Coore and Tom Doak and Gil Hanse became famous for a less-is-more approach to their design-and-reno work right about then, the USGA fell in love with wide open spaces — and nothing has been the same.

The stage was set for Woods, who won his Opens at Pebble Beach in 2000, at Bethpage Black in 2002 and at Torrey Pines in 2008. In the middle of the Woods era, Retief Goosen — a monstah, in his own unassuming way — won his two U.S. Opens, at Southern Hills in 2001 and at Shinnecock Hills in 2004. He cleared the stage for Koepka, who won at Erin Hills in 2017 and Shinnecock Hills one year later. For DeChambeau, who won at Winged Foot in 2020 and Pinehurst in 2024. And for Clark, who won at the Los Angeles Country Club in 2023 and here on Sunday night, amid the familiar and ancient sound of a diesel commuter train whistling in the—

Dude — nobody cares!

So far, there have been more courses cited in this report than there are trees on any of the courses mentioned here.

Part of what made the 126th U.S. Open, and the sixth at Shinnecock Hills, sort of anti-climactic is that Clark’s scores got progressively worse: 64 and 69 (catching the better sides of the weather on Thursday morning and Friday afternoon), followed by an even-par 70 on Saturday and a Sunday 73. That’s kind of weird, right? You’re wondering: Has that ever even happened before?

Yep.

In 2023, when Wyndham Clark won the U.S. Open with scores of 64, 67, 69 and 70.

Maybe you were rooting for Rickie Fowler that weekend. Or Rory McIlroy. Well, Wyndham Clark did not care. (And why should he?)

Bryson and Brooks went to LIV. Maybe you were appalled, these two Herculean golfers turning their backs on the institutions (the USGA, the PGA Tour) that made their lives possible, splitting the scene in the name of… Saudi oil money! These bash brothers did not care.

Let’s not even get into Wyndham Clark’s initial response to the Oakmont thing because nobody (understandably) wants to get into that whole thing again, but it is fair to say that it took Clark a while to realize it was kind of a thing, and it did have legs.

On Sunday afternoon at Shinnecock Hills, here on the South Fork of the Eastern End of Long Island, thousands of well-mannered and appropriate fans, to say nothing of the men at work between the rope lines, were subjected to the most boorish fan behavior on display since … last year’s Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black in Bethpage, another stop on the Long Island Rail Road. That event was almost ruined by a small number of overserved fanboys and Sunday’s U.S. Open finale could have suffered a similar fate.

Clark became Public Enemy No. 1, among a modest number of way-too-loud and singularly obnoxious fans at this famously genteel club. They were all lathered up for one reason above all others. Clark was playing in the day’s last twosome with Scottie Scheffler on a day when Scheffler, in victory, could have become the seventh player to win the career Grand Slam. It was also Father’s Day, and Scheffler is the father of two, and his 30th birthday. So a lot going on.

Clark had to play through a chorus of repulsive so-not-golf commentary that included “It’s yours to lose” (Clark had a six-shot lead through three rounds) and “Get in the pond!” at a course that has no water at all except in chic Dasani cans. You could make the case that all of this comes out of the decision to play U.S. Opens with no trees, the 460cc driver and the aspirational themes underlying “Entourage” and “Billions” and “Neighbors and Friends,” all of which loved to use ye olde game.

When Clark played the 18th hole with Sunday night closing in, the leader in the house was Scheffler’s close friend Sam Burns. Burns was at three under and Clark at four. When Sam Burns, the 54-hole leader at last year’s U.S. Open at Oakmont, blew up in the last round (78), Scheffler was in pain for him. They’ve logged hundreds of rounds together over the past 15 years. Scheffler of course knew that Clark was one bogey away from a playoff with his close friend. And Scheffler revealed… absolutely nothing about his rooting interests. He’s a golfer. He knows how golfers are supposed to behave. He congratulated Clark and Clark’s caddie, David Pelekoudas. He made the media rounds. He told reporters this:

“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 the crowd today as well. He is a deserving champion.”

That is a perfect statement. That is the underlying spirit of golf. But statements don’t win U.S. Opens. Wyndham Clark won this 126th U.S. Open with a 345-yard tee shot on the par-4 10th, the most beautifully flighted 60-yard wedge a golfer can play into a wildly sloped green, and a nothing-but-net slicing 4-footer. His ship had been listing. He righted it. That’s not bro golf or modern golf or get-lucky golf. It’s getting-it-done golf. He’s done it twice now. He earned his place in the club.

Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@Golf.com

The post It was not easy or linear. But Wyndham Clark earned this win appeared first on Golf.

Check in every week for the unfiltered opinions of our writers and editors as they break down the hottest topics in the sport, and join the conversation by tweeting us at @golf_com. This week, we discuss Wyndham Clark’s U.S. Open win, the week at Shinnecock and more.

Wyndham Clark won the 126th U.S. Open, taking a commanding six-stroke lead into the final round and ultimately besting Sam Burns by one stroke at Shinnecock Hills. How did Wyndham run away from the field so easily the first three days and then hang on, even when it looked grim, on Sunday?

Josh Sens, senior writer (@joshsens): Clark’s putting was deadly all week. But in those opening rounds, he himself said that the driver was key, that when the big stick is going well, he’s tough to beat. It probably helped that Shinnecock, like Los Angeles CC before it, was set up with wide fairways. Clark found a lot of short grass in those opening rounds. And then, when his tee-to-green game got sloppy in the closing rounds, his putter remained en fuego. 

Zephyr Melton, associate game-improvement editor (@zephyrmelton): He had a red-hot putter, got some fortunate breaks when he hit it astray, and hit some seriously impressive shots when things got tight. Winning wire-to-wire is always impressive, but to do it in U.S. Open conditions at Shinnecock is on another level. 

Josh Schrock, associate news editor (@schrock_and_awe): He took advantage of the good end of the wind draw on Thursday, and did the same late Saturday when it died down. He built his lead that way and then leaned on a ridiculously clutch putter to bail him out when needed. To win a U.S. Open, especially wire-to-wire at Shinnecock, you’re going to need everything working in your favor; that includes making a number of par and bogey saves. Wyndham did just enough to keep the train on the tracks on Sunday and get it in the house. 

Due to some past unsavory headlines — a rules controversy, club-throwing incident and damaging an Oakmont locker — Clark has had to work to reshape his image. Although some argue lots of golfers have tempers. Do you think the criticism of Clark is fair? And will this help turn it around?

Sens: It’s one thing to have a temper. It’s another to trash someone else’s property. Clark earned his reputation. He acted like a toddler on more than one occasion. But this week, he said and did all the right things, and he was gritty as all get out when it mattered. Sports fans like that, and I’m sure Clark earned some admirers along the way. Whether he’s actually changed, who knows? But since when has the American public ever demanded that its celebrities/athletes actually be the people they present themselves to be?

Melton: The criticisms after locker-gate are definitely fair, especially considering his lack of accountability and passive apologies. But in the world of sports, winning cures everything, and adding another trophy to his resume won’t hurt.

Schrock: How do we define fair? Sports and sports fans, by and large, are not rational or fair. Golf has lacked villains since most of them left for LIV, and if Clark can somewhat fill that void, then that’s good for the sport. It wasn’t just about him smashing a locker or almost hitting a volunteer with a driver at the PGA or mashing the grass down behind the ball at the API. It’s all of it. The fans went a little overboard cheering against him Sunday. But fans don’t like runaway winners, for the most part. They either want drama or a massive win from a superstar. Add in Clark’s transgressions, and you get a guy who isn’t exactly a fan favorite and a New York crowd that will try and will a train wreck into existence. Will a wire-to-wire win at Shinnecock help change that? Does it really matter? Probably not. 

Scottie Scheffler, who turned 30 on Sunday, came up short in his first attempt at the career Grand Slam. What gives you optimism he won’t have to wait long to complete the slam, and what gives you pause?

Sens: The only thing that gives me pause is that it’s very hard to win majors. Beyond that, nothing. He’s the best player in the world. He’s healthy. And unlike some other generational talents, he does not seem prone to sabotaging himself on or off the course. If it’s not next year, it will be soon enough.

Melton: He’s got the highest floor of any player in the game, and even when he’s got his C+ game (like he did this week), he keeps himself in contention. It’s only a matter of time before he knocks one off.

Schrock: He’s just always around the top of the leaderboard. He hasn’t had his A game all year and is always in the mix on Sunday. As long as he continues to have the highest floor in golf, he’ll have more chances to get this done. But while we can all sit here and say that Scheffler should have many more chances to win the career Grand Slam, sometimes things aren’t that neat. We don’t know what the future holds, where his game will be at each time this tournament comes around, whether or not he’ll get the bad side of a draw here or an unlucky bounce there. These opportunities actually don’t happen all the time. It felt like Sunday was a big missed opportunity. 

Joaquin Niemann received a two-shot penalty for throwing a golf club during his first round at Shinnecock Hills. No video has surfaced, although The Athletic reported Niemann was angry he didn’t get free relief from fire ants after hitting two balls out of bounds, kicked a flag used to mark his ball and some nearby sand before throwing his club approximately 50 yards. The penalty falls under a new code of conduct policy to police such things. But without any video, do you think the penalty was too severe? Why not just a warning?

Sens: Let’s not fall into the Instagram-era trap of thinking that if it wasn’t captured on video, it didn’t happen. Clearly, there were witnesses, and Niemann didn’t deny what he did. If anything, he should be happy the rules didn’t call for him to be booted from the tournament.

Melton: The act must have been particularly egregious to warrant a penalty without prior warnings. Unfortunately, without any video evidence, we’ll never know exactly what happened. 

Schrock: I don’t have a problem with the penalty as much as I do with the arbitrary nature in which it’s given out. Niemann didn’t deny any of the reported parts of the incident. On Sunday, he joked it was a pretty good throw while also saying he felt the USGA was being intentionally harsh on him. Frustration happens, but there has to be a line. The problem is that we don’t have a clear idea of where that line is and what constitutes crossing it. Jon Rahm drop-kicked his driver down the fairway without penalty. Niemann threw his club away from people and got dinged two strokes. I think the way punishments are given out and the lack of transparency about why they are or aren’t given is a bigger issue than Niemann’s individual incident. 

Features

How the heir to a U.S. Open dynasty found his legacy on a Sony camcorder

By: James Colgan

What was your most memorable takeaway from the 126th U.S. Open?

Sens: That as tough as Shinnecock is to play, it might be even tougher to set up. A lot of agony and effort went into getting this one right, both in maintenance practices and in public communications about the conditions. No one wanted the course to become the story. But to some extent, it became anyway. To the point where I heard a superintendent say that if it takes so much sweat and stress to get the course right, it might not be a suitable modern U.S. Open venue.

Melton: That even when Shinnecock is “easy,” it’s still damn hard. With all the complaining we saw on social media, you’d think the winning score was 30 under! Despite being gettable, only three players finished the week in the red. What a test that place presents. 

Schrock: Going to go off the wall here. With Wyndham putting the tournament in a chokehold from basically Thursday evening on, my biggest takeaway is what a bad time it was for LIV to have a dud of a week. As the league pitches outside investors to get money to exist in 2027, its two biggest stars completely no-showed from the good side of the draw. The 78 Jon Rahm shot on Friday was shocking and Bryson DeChambeau quickly exited the proceedings on Friday morning. Bad time to have a bad week. 

Who won the week without winning the week?

Sens: Tom Kim. He qualified his way in, then guaranteed himself a spot in next year’s U.S. Open. Not bad for a guy who’d all but vanished from the radar.

Melton: Keith Mitchell. He opened the tournament with a 41 on his opening nine, bounced back with a 29 coming home, and then turned in three more rounds of level-par play. Pretty solid week, I’d say.

Schrock: Jackson Koivun and Miles Russell. The future of U.S. golf both made the cut and played the weekend together for both rounds. Koivun, who will now turn pro, tied for low amateur, and Russell, who is 17 (!), acquitted himself much better than a number of golf’s big names. The future is bright. Put them out first at Adare Manor, Furyk. 

The post Tour Confidential: Unpacking Wyndham Clark’s wire-to-wire U.S. Open win at Shinnecock appeared first on Golf.

SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. — Six golfers have won the career Grand Slam and on Father’s Day 2026, on the day he turns 30, Scottie Scheffler has the chance to become the seventh. Through three rounds of this 126th U.S. Open, here at Shinnecock Hills, Scheffler is one under par and in a four-way tie for second, six shots behind the 54-hole leader, Wyndham Clark.

Should Wyndham Clark win this tourney? Of course he should. But there’s something not-quite-right about the word should, and there’s something not-quite-right about big leads on Sundays at majors. They can get in the leader’s head. They’re unreliable.

Clark, winner of the 2023 U.S. Open, has led after the first, second and third rounds here. Leads get heavier and heavier. Big leads get heavier yet. Three days of windblown golf can make your head rattle. The leader’s long wait for a mid-afternoon tee time can lead to wayward thinking.

This is all a ’round-about way of saying that Scottie Scheffler’s chances of winning his first U.S. Open on Sunday, and completing the career Grand Slam, are not totally remote. Would a win from him be a longshot? Of course. But not an impossible-shot. A Sunday 66 could be enough. Golf is a numbers game, and, of course, a head game. You can’t separate the two.

“I think it’s appropriate to understand what’s at stake,” Scheffler said early Saturday night, with Clark still on the course. The sentence is such an insight into how his mind works, about his ability and desire to take things straight on. “I’ve worked really hard for a long time to have a chance to win golf tournaments and to win major championships. I think understanding the moment, and giving it your best shot, is all part of the process.”

The man was faking nothing. The man fakes nothing.

Ernie Els was watching from home, in South Florida. In his World Golf Hall of Fame career, Els won two U.S. Opens and two British Opens. He loves Shinnecock Hills, with all its rattles and rolls, with all its nods to “Golf in the Kingdom.” He likes Shinnecock’s deep beach-sand bunkers and its grasses that present in every shade of brown and green. Shinnecock brings two Open rota courses, or two in particular, to mind for Els: Royal Portrush, where Scheffler won the Open last July, and Muirfield, where Els won the 2002 Open.

Els knows something that Scheffler may find out on Sunday: the mindset, and the skillset, that paves the way to a British Open win can pave the way for a U.S. Open win. Not any U.S. Open win. A U.S. Open win at linksy Shinnecock Hills.

News

The bizarre U.S. Open irrepressibility of Wyndham Clark

By: James Colgan

“I think the Sunday setup will favor Scheffler, I think it’s better for his higher ball flight,” Els said. The Sunday pin positions are likely to be far more demanding than they have been so far, and the course is likely to be, by far, its firmest. The harder the course, the better for Scheffler, and any chaser. The prospect of completing the career Grand Slam, Els said, will be a positive for Scheffler.

Tiger Woods needed three years to win the career Grand Slam. Jack Nicklaus needed four. Gary Player needed seven. Ben Hogan needed eight. Gene Sarazen needed 13 years. Rory McIlroy needed 14. If Scheffler wins on Sunday, he will have completed the career Grand Slam in four years — four years and two months, to be precise — and he will have done it on his first chance. He won the Masters in 2022 and ’24, and he won the PGA Championship and British Open last year.

“It may look like a links golf course because there are no trees and you have that kind of grass, but I don’t think it necessarily plays like [a links course],” Scheffler said. “You can hit a few linksy-type shots, but overall, the ball is still played in the air on this golf course. The ball needs to be hit up in the air, especially to hold these greens.”

So, in conclusion, combining Els’s commentary and Scheffler’s: On Sunday at Shinnecock, we’re going to get some of both, British golf and American golf.

Scheffler and Clark are in the day’s last twosome on Sunday, off at 2:30 p.m. Clark will be playing, on some level, to make us all forget about how he bashed in that locker at Oakmont last year.

Scheffler is playing for something far more glorious.

Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@Golf.com.

The post Wyndham Clark can see U.S. Open finish line. But he still has to cross it appeared first on Golf.

SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. — Here it is: The Moment.

The sun is setting on U.S. Open Saturday, the people are growing just a little restless, and Wyndham Clark’s ball is in hell. A U.S. Open is in our midst. It’s touching our fingertips. We can FEEL it.

Clark has a 15-footer for par here on the 13th. He hit his approach high and soft and straight into a bunker. And then hit his bunker shot to 15 feet. And now he’s a low-percentage miss away from a bogey that would open the door just far enough for the size 13 shoes of one Scottie Scheffler. All Clark has to do is miss.

And then, bam, Clark’s right arm is extended in front of him in a moment of quiet exhalation. He’s walking to the next tee box and writing a number 4 with his small pencil. He’s drained what feels like his 12th (but is really like his fourth) back-saving par of the afternoon … and sucked all of the air out of Shinnecock in the process.

It was an unusually quiet walk down the back nine for Wyndham Clark on U.S. Open Saturday, the same day he emerged with a six-shot 54-hole lead and a vice grip on his second major championship. Only a few dozen fans were walking along the ropes as Clark finished his journey up the 18th — a scene so unusual in the history of this famously egalitarian tournament that not even the leader could believe it.

“It was unfortunate it got a little flat,” said Clark, who leads a group of four players by six (one being Scheffler). “Sometimes it made it tough to stay really focused because it seemed like everyone was leaving, and it was like the tournament was over, and I had to keep myself really focused and in the present.”

Of course, to the throngs of fans headed toward the exits after that putt fell on the 13th — and frankly much before it too — the tournament already was over. Ever since Clark started this U.S. Open with a 64 in mostly listless golden hour conditions, he has held the tournament by the throat. On Saturday, you didn’t need to stay to the bitter end to see that reality had not changed.

“Oh my gosh,” one fan said, exasperated, when the eagle putt fell into the hole on 16 to briefly bring the lead to seven. “It’s over!”

Technically, not yet. We have seen too many of these major championships to know that a 54-hole lead means about as much as the leaderboard it’s stapled to. The tournaments are 72 holes. The U.S. Open is 72 holes on the high wire over a snake pit.

And yet, not even Clark could deny that. If you watched all 50-plus feet of par putts fall on Saturday evening, you did not leave Shinnecock with the feeling that you were witnessing the loser.

“Yeah. Scottie is the best player in the world, and he’s going to play probably really good,” Clark said. “But it’s nice to have a six-shot lead on him.”

Should Clark close things out in casual fashion on Sunday, it will be tempting to frame the win as a career-altering moment for an unusually gifted player, particularly after Clark’s high-profile locker room debacle at Oakmont a year ago. But it feels more accurate, even to the man himself, to call it for what it is: the latest extreme high of a very volatile career.

“Today was very volatile. Hopefully tomorrow it can be definitely a little more low-key, and hopefully I can play some boring golf,” Clark said. “But I don’t disagree with [the suggestion I’m a volatile player.]”

For the few dozen fans who caught all of his back nine on Saturday evening, there was something oddly charming about this side of that volatility. Clark would not be denied. He would not be stopped. He would not yield an inch of ground even as nearly everyone and everything around him seemed to be rooting for the slightest retreat.

He was, in a word, irrepressible — and that is a very difficult thing to be at a U.S. Open.

So now, here we are, on Saturday evening, preparing for — and some of us hoping for — a Moment.

The U.S. Open has not truly broken out yet, and Wyndham Clark is the reason why. That’s mighty impressive.

The post The bizarre U.S. Open irrepressibility of Wyndham Clark appeared first on Golf.