Wyndham Clark wins the U.S. Open, withstanding fan heckling and a Sam Burns rally

SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. — It was never going to be easy. Shinnecock Hills would never allow it. Nor would the gods, nor the New York fans.

Wyndham Clark entered Sunday with a six-shot lead in the 126th U.S. Open — a number notable for both its certainty and its infamy. No one loses a six-shot lead. Well, no one except Greg Norman. Everyone of a certain age remembers Augusta in ‘96, right? But otherwise, a six-shot lead is safe to sleep on. Entering Sunday, others holding such an advantage had won 20 of 20 times.

Makes you wonder how Wyndham Clark slept on Saturday night.

The 32-year-old arrived at Shinnecock on Sunday at 7-under for the tournament. His closest competition: four players at 1-under, four more at even par.

The question was: might Clark’s second U.S. Open title come without complications?

The answer, resoundingly, was no.

Clark, who made his name with his 2023 victory at Los Angeles Country Club, would have to stare down fans openly cheering against him, a charging Sam Burns, and a final pairing alongside Scottie Scheffler, and the agony of bleeding out one bogey after another. Clark, to his credit, found a way. A final-round 73 proved enough for a one-shot victory over Sam Burns.

Clark’s lead shrank to as little as one shot — an advantage he held for a large swath of Sunday afternoon — but never vanished. With Burns on Shinnecock’s driving range after posting a final-round 67 and a 3-under final score, a defiant birdie on the par-5 16th pushed the lead back to two shots and gave Clark the breathing room necessary after a three-putt bogey on the next hole.

The win came despite fans shouting for his shots to find bunkers and roll into the rough, and maybe some greater forces seeking some vengeance for what occurred a year ago this week.

See, Clark’s win at Shinnecock does not come without some central complications. Shadows follow the man, most notably a hissy fit thrown at last year’s U.S. Open. Two years after a career breakthrough moment at the U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club, Clark missed the cut at Oakmont and took out his frustrations by caving in the front panelling of two 121-year-old lockers with a few violent kicks.

The lockers were repaired this past winter.

Clark’s reputation has taken longer.

After first going dark following the incident, Clark has offered up plenty of polished smooth apologies to try to get back in the game’s good graces. The latest came this week.

“I’ve gotten a lot of grief since last year, rightfully so,” Clark said Friday. “The thing that’s unfortunate is that’s not who I am, what happened last year. I’m hoping I can win back the fans that I had or some new fans because it was a terrible incident. You know, I really feel like I can show people that I’m fun and outgoing, I’m fierce, competitive, love the game, respect the game, and I just had a bad moment.”

For all Clark’s massaging of not only Oakmont and his low favorability ratings, nothing will ultimately silence critics like Sunday’s final image.

Hoisting a trophy over the Hamptons.

Of all the variables at play this week, the tournament offered one obvious opportunity for scoring conditions — the late-day window on a serene Thursday afternoon.

With the wind down and greens as receptive as they’ll ever be for an Open at Shinnecock, scoring averages were a full shot-and-a-half lower for the afternoon wave than the morning tee times. About half the tournament field had full opportunity to take advantage.

Clark never saw it coming. Originally hearing his tee time on Tuesday, he believed Thursday afternoon would be the toughest draw. Instead, the day played out like a Long Island postcard. Morning fog prompted a two-hour delay, pushing back tee times, and gave way to winds that gusted early before laying down over the course of the day.
By the time Clark teed off Thursday, treetops sat still, and flags hung like drapes. Following a bogey on No. 2, he reeled off birdies on Nos. 3 and 4 and tapped in a 3-foot eagle on the par-5 fifth.

Little did anyone know that would be the difference in the end.

Clark led by two shots at the end of Round 1, by four shots at the end of Round 2, and by six after Round 3.

On Sunday, everyone presumed that if a challenge were to be made, it would be by Scheffler, the world No. 1, playing in the final group alongside Clark. Sunday was Scheffler’s 30th birthday, and he’s missing only the U.S. Open for the career Grand Slam.

Instead, it was Burns, the 29-year-old from Louisiana seeking his first major championship. Burns started the day at even par but birdied the first hole … and then the third … then the fifth … and the eighth. He got to 4-under, dropped back with a pair of bogeys in Shinnecock’s most fearsome stretch of holes, and then found it again with a birdie on No. 16 to get to 3 under par.

Known as one of the better putters in the game, Burns cruelly missed birdie putts on both the 17th and 18th holes, the latter causing him to drop to his knees in anguish.

Those were the putts Clark relied on all week. He scrambled his way around Shinnecock with one nervy par putt after another. He blinked on No. 17 on Sunday, pushing an eight-and-a-half-footer wide right, but held his one-shot lead on 18 with a two-putt from 52 feet.

Before winning at LACC, Clark’s career major record was about as pedestrian as possible: four missed cuts and two finishes of T75 and T76. Since the win at LACC, it hasn’t been much different: five missed cuts, finishes of T33, T46, T50, T56 and an outlying T4 at last year’s Open Championship at Portrush.

And yet, Clark is a certified winner. Since his debut victory at age 29 at the 2023 Wells Fargo Championship, he’s captured a pair of U.S. Opens and victories at the 2024 Pebble Beach Pro-Am and this year’s CJ Cup.

Clark’s five wins since May 2023 rank only behind Scottie Scheffler (14) and Rory McIlroy (7). Not bad company.

And in Clark’s lifetime (born in 1993), the only other players to win two or more U.S. Opens is a list comprised only of Tiger Woods (3), Lee Janzen, Payne Stewart, Retief Goosen, Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau. Also not bad company.