SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. — Wyndham Clark walked onto the grounds at Shinnecock Hills on Sunday fully aware that history was waiting for him in one form or another. Holding a six-shot cushion over the field entering the final round, he was either going to secure his second U.S. Open championship in four years or become part of a far less flattering major-championship record: players who squandered a commanding 54-hole lead.
For Clark, there was never much room for a middle ground — and maybe that has been the defining theme all along.
Throughout the week, the focus was not only on Clark’s golf but on Clark himself as he carried the lead from Thursday night through Saturday. By Sunday evening, he would be going to bed with the U.S. Open trophy. Yet that kind of position brings intense scrutiny. It comes with the territory. When a player sits atop a major leaderboard, every action, word and reaction gets examined, amplified and debated.
There was the locker he smashed at Oakmont Country Club after last year’s U.S. Open. There was the driver he hurled at the PGA Championship, damaging a sponsorship sign and narrowly missing a volunteer. Add in a few controversial rulings, puzzling remarks and awkward attempts at apologies, and the discussion around him had plenty of fuel.
In other words, there has been no shortage of moments for critics to seize upon.
Together, those incidents pushed questions about Clark’s temperament and character to the center of the conversation. They also threatened to obscure what he was doing as a golfer while navigating a punishing Shinnecock Hills setup. That tension followed him all the way through his measured walk from the practice range to the first tee on Sunday afternoon.
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A long embrace with his mental coach and a deep breath ensued, and then Clark entered the arena knowing he’d be up against it, knowing it would all be used against him.
There was no mistaking who those lining the fairways of Shinnecock Hills were cheering for on a picture perfect New York summer day. It was not Scottie Scheffler. It was not Sam Burns. It was not Tom Kim.
It was anybody but Clark. Anybody who would make this tournament interesting.
“Man, they definitely didn’t want me to win,” Clark said with the trophy shining right next to him in the champions press conference. “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.
“That was tough, but sometimes being the underdog is nice. I was in ’23, and I kind of did the same thing. 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. 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. Things really could have gotten away from me. I stood tough. I would have liked to have won by more, but as long as you win, it doesn’t matter.”
Around every turn and in between every hole, those outside the ropes let him have it. A constant barrage of jeers, with cheers being produced only when he took a misstep. A tunnel of naysayers felt suffocating to walk through as excitement rose with the dust only when a ball would fall off line.
It reached the point on the back nine that fans summoned others away from the golf course to lend a helping hand. Those on site turned to their phone to FaceTime friends so that they could get in on the action. Additional insults were hurled from miles away.
Clark heard them all.
“I was kind of making jokes about it with Dave 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 light-hearted,” Clark said. “But it’s tough, man. I’ve played now a Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup on foreign soil, and it kind of had that atmosphere a little bit.
“I also got good prep last week in Canada. They were pretty harsh on me the last day, so I think that all of that combined kind of led to this moment where, all right, I’ve been in this position. 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, if you will.”
Clark took his fair share of punches on Sunday — some self-inflicted, others not. He made a horrible bogey on the par-5 5th and turned in 3 over on the front nine alone. He helped make this a golf tournament as much as Burns and the other pursuers.
But he also threw some, too.
Clark landed a body blow on No. 10 after Scheffler rolled in a birdie bid before him. Little applause it caused.
The fans countered a few holes later as it felt as if the grandstand behind the 13th hole willed his ball off the green. It stopped and started to trickle away from the pin only when the noise around the surface started to reach new levels. This back-and-forth was continuous.
It was relentless.
It was nonstop.
It kept coming wave after wave, hole after hole.
Groans for good shots. Claps and high fives for the bad.
But Clark had the last laugh as he threw the last punch in the form of an uppercut on the par-5 16th. Out of position off the tee and without the best look for a birdie, Clark summoned his putter again to drain a 24-footer, as he would a couple holes later for his championship-sealing two-putt par.
Clark emerged from the ringer and came out the other side as a two-time U.S. Open champion. Something only Tiger Woods, Bryson DeChambeau, Retief Goosen and Brooks Koepka have accomplished in the 2000s. Cheers and applause were muted for Clark’s addition to this list, but the few were more than hard-earned.
He climbed up the path towards the sun and the clubhouse and was greeted by his peers — players, caddies, members of the traveling circus that is professional golf. The respect was apparent.
All week, Clark has voiced his regret for his past actions. He has been peppered again and again about his past indiscretions.
On Friday, he said this:
“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.
“Hopefully I can win those people back. I definitely feel like I’m in a better place. Hopefully a great weekend and great rest of the year, maybe I’ll gain all those fans back.”
Whether you believe in his contrition is not really the point. You can like Clark. You can dislike him. You can wish that he did not win. You can hope it is his last major championship victory. This is sport after all. Opinions about those in the arena are half the fun. If everyone was vanilla, the game would lose its taste.
But after a performance like that in an environment like that — one few if any of his peers have experienced en route to a major championship — you have to respect him.
It’s the other part of the sports equation, and much like Clark himself, there’s no in between on that.
“I sure hope it closes the door on it,” Clark said. “I figured in my mind that this would maybe be the last time just because it’s one year removed. I’ll probably always get them, but I hope I don’t become the heel of the PGA [Tour].
“I guess if I am, any press is good press, right?”
