SOUTHAMPTON, NEW YORK | Wyndham Clark stood in the edge of the right rough on Shinnecock Hills’ 18th hole late Sunday, needing one more good swing to secure his second U.S. Open victory and put a joyful end to a torturously long day.
Backlit by the sinking summer sun, Clark took a final slash, sending a cloud of Shinnecock dust into the air with his golf ball as a voice from a spectator along the gallery rope shouted, “Be the wrong club.”
It was the right club, setting up a two-putt par from 52 feet, just down the hill from Shinnecock’s famous clubhouse, making Clark the 24th player to win multiple U.S. Opens while leaving Sam Burns a single stroke short on Father’s Day.
What Clark’s final-round 73 lacked in elegance, it glistened instead with tenacity, not just for battling the ragged edge in his swing and the broken-glass danger Shinnecock presents but for handling the weekend as the man to beat but not the man of their dreams.
“Man, they definitely didn’t want me to win,” Clark said early Sunday evening, the trophy sitting at his right hand, having finished at 4-under-par 276.
He willingly admits he has acted like a jerk at times, bashing in a metal locker at Oakmont during the U.S. Open among other transgressions, but he has apologized multiple times, willingly answering questions about a subject he would prefer to go away.
The etching in that silver trophy will show Clark as the 2026 champion but what it won’t show is all that entailed, including Clark’s sometimes turbulent backstory, his golf resurrection and the almost smothering pressure of starting the final round with a six-stroke lead, understanding no one had ever lost such a large lead with 18 holes remaining in the national championship.
When Clark won the 2023 U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club, denying Rory McIlroy by one stroke, it cemented Clark’s status as a new star, a muscular embodiment of the modern game. But his ascendence stalled and, one year ago at Oakmont, Clark had disgraced himself with temper tantrums, staining his reputation to the point that many fans cheered his mistakes on Sunday at Shinnecock, not just because they were hoping to see Scottie Scheffler make history by completing the career Grand Slam but because they couldn’t or wouldn’t wrap their arms around Clark.
It’s difficult, if not impossible, to separate Clark’s Shinnecock victory from the character narrative attached to him. He willingly admits he has acted like a jerk at times, bashing in a metal locker at Oakmont during the U.S. Open among other transgressions, but he has apologized multiple times, willingly answering questions about a subject he would prefer to go away.
Clark has been contrite and apologetic and it’s time to move on. He has been the best player in the world for the last couple of months and though he may have the kind of game that runs hot and cold, Clark deserves to be recognized more for what he’s done on the golf course, not to a golf course or its property.
There was little reason for Clark to feel blue on Sunday, even when things tightened up.
christiAN PETERSEN
Burns, who probably saw the U.S. Open trophy flash before his eyes when his birdie putt burned the edge on the 18th hole Sunday, brought his own backstory to the final round. He led on the final nine holes last year at Oakmont only to be undone by the rain and denied a request for relief from casual water that keyed his eventual unfolding.
But Burns, along with Scheffler, played the role of protagonist to Clark’s antagonist.
“I was kind of making jokes about it with [caddie] Dave [Pelekoudas] where if we heard someone cheer for me, I’d go, ‘Oh, there’s one person that likes me.’ So we would kind of make jokes and make it maybe a little lighthearted,” Clark said.
“But it’s tough, man.”
There is a further discussion to be had about crowd behavior in general and in golf, in particular. This was nothing like the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black last year but it had an edge that went beyond the New York stereotype. The game has always had its favorites but fans have become more aggressive in identifying their antiheroes.
“Anytime someone said something negative to me, I replaced it with something positive. You know, some of it’s self-deserved. I kind of brought it on myself, but I also get it, too,” Clark said, acknowledging he wasn’t the popular alternative when he won in Los Angeles.
If Clark caught a good twist of fate by playing in the most benign first-round conditions, leading to a 6-under-par 64 that forced everyone else into chase mode, he was left to finish it off on a grinding Sunday that not everyone might have been able to handle.
“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 as well and is a well-deserving champion,” said Scheffler, who tied for fourth, four strokes behind.
Nothing about getting to the trophy presentation Sunday evening was easy for Clark but U.S. Opens are never easy. The USGA did an admirable job keeping the teeth in Shinnecock Hills without allowing it to maul players.
Two things happened Sunday that redirected the storyline. Burns birdied four of the first eight holes, forcing Clark to respond. Nine holes into the final round, all but one stroke of Clark’s overnight lead had evaporated and the buzzards were gathering.
A three-putt bogey on the 15th hole was a self-inflicted gut punch for Burns and when Clark matched his birdie at the par-5 16th, escaping from a sandy tangle of trouble with his second shot, it became finding a path up the hill toward the cedar-shingled clubhouse and the trophy.
Burns might have been the more popular champion given what happened to him a year ago but he spotted Clark seven strokes entering the final round, a testament to who was the better player over the first three days.
Waiting for a playoff that never came, Burns – a young father himself – embraced his dad, Todd, who told his son how proud he was regardless of how it ended, a moment that brought Burns to tears as he talked about it afterward.
“I would say last year at Oakmont I felt more I lost the golf tournament. I certainly don’t feel that way today,” Burns said.
Without getting into specifics, Clark has talked through the years about his personal challenges, including his work with performance coach Julie Elion, whose recent book detailed her approach with Clark. Other players have their own battles but Clark has willingly shared the essence of his.
Clark has worked through personal challenges, but it was all about the golf at Shinnecock.
MIKE MULHOLLAND, GETTY IMAGES
When he wore an American hockey jersey at the RBC Canadian Open earlier this month – an attempt to engage the crowd – it backfired on Clark. After winning the CJ Cup Byron Nelson last month, Clark’s comment that he planned to enjoy “some grape” became a thing, evidently exposing fans who aren’t wine drinkers.
Forgiveness, or perhaps acceptance, is hard earned.
Nothing about getting to the trophy presentation Sunday evening was easy for Clark but U.S. Opens are never easy. The USGA did an admirable job keeping the teeth in Shinnecock Hills without allowing it to maul players. Clark hit just 20 of 36 greens on the weekend but he summoned the spirit, the short game and the putting to keep going.
Almost one year ago to the day, Clark was in “a really negative, dark place” and could feel his career melting away. At Shinnecock, he was playing against Burns, against Scheffler’s quest for immortality, against the windblown golf course, against much of the crowd and against a narrative he has rewritten again.
It’s worthy of a proper celebration, not just for the golf but for who did it and how he did it.
“We are definitely going to open up some grape. A lot of grape,” Clark said.
“I will tell you, it will be [filled] up to the brim.”
Top: Wyndham Clark chalks up U.S. Open victory No. 2.
