Wyndham Clark holds on grimly to win 2nd US Open title
A second US Open trophy, three years after his first – image Jeff Haynes USGA
Wyndham Clark took a six-shot lead into today’s final round of the US Open at Shinnecock Hills and would eventually emerged as the one-shot winner over Sam Burns, with another two shots back to Tom Kim, while Scottie Scheffler, J.T Proston and Keith Mitchell tied for 4th, one shot behind Kim.
Leading wire to wire (leading after each of the four rounds), Clark becomes the ninth player to do so in the history of the US Open. Martin Kaymer, Rory McIlory, and Tiger Woods (twice) are the only other players to do so in the last 55 years.
“Man, I mean, the first one was amazing, and this one seems even better,” said Clark, referring to this being his second win in the championship. “I think especially after such a sour taste last year in this championship, to have some redemption and win this again is — I mean, gosh, it’s almost surreal.”
“To be honest, I was really frustrated that I made some bogeys coming in,” said Clark, referring to his slow finish on Saturday. “I did everything I could to get over that because I thought I could have been, you know, at 9-, 10-under, which would have been a little better of a cushion with the best players in the world right behind me.
“Then this morning it’s just the anticipation. You have a pit in your stomach, and you just can’t wait to get out there. So it’s nerve-wracking, but once you get inside the ropes, you kind of get into your business. I kind of took care of business a little bit.”
Large margins can be problematic for a leader, as Clark would quickly find out on an increasingly firming layout. With dropped shots by him at the 1st and 5th holes, he found himself just two clear of Burns, who was seeking redemption from losing a 54-hole lead himself twelve months ago and made a fast start today.
The margin was reduced to just one when Clark bogeyed the 7th, but Clark hit a stunning approach to the 10th and holed from 4 feet to move two clear again.
Ahead on the golf course, Burns was seemingly the only danger to Clark as challenges from those further behind came and went, but when Burns bogeyed the 15th, the margin had increased to three before Clark bogeyed the 13th for the lead to be just two.
Burns birdied the par-5 16th from 18 feet, and the margin was just one. Burns great final round effort continued with excellent shots to both the 17th and 18th, but he was unable to convert putts from 10 and 15 feet at both, and when Clark, after an extraordinary escape from the rough at the 16th, holed a 25-foot downhill for birdie, he led by two.
Clark found the green at the 17th but was left with a lengthy 65-foot birdie putt. He ran his first putt to 5 feet, and when he missed his par-saving attempt, the margin was just one ahead of Burns, who had completed his round more than 30 minutes earlier.
Clark teed off at the 72nd hole with a one-shot lead but found the right rough. The lie was, however, good enough for him to find the green, albeit 60 feet from the hole. He needed a two-putt par to secure his second US Open Championship title, and when he ran his approach putt within a foot of the hole, the job was all but done.
Clark will move from 34th in the world ranking to inside the top ten perhaps as high as 8th when the revised rankings are announced later today but not only is it this win that signifies his return to the level of golf which has seen him as high as 3rd previously, it has been an excellent run of foirm generally in recent weeks which has seen him win the Byron Nelson and finish 3rd in the Memorial in recent starts.
Clark’s accidental meeting with new coach Pat Coyner earlier this year has yielded some very special results and guarantees the 32-year-old yet another Ryder Cup appearance after first being on the US team in 2023.
Clark not only had to battle a fast-finishing Sam Burns but also a rather hostile New York crowd, and he had this to say on the matter.
“Man, they definitely didn’t want me to win. 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.
“Yeah, I mean, that was tough, but I also like — I mean, 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.
“Yeah, it was tough, but I’m proud of myself that I battled through. I mean, things really could have gotten away from me. I stood tough. Yeah, I would have liked to have won by more, but as long as you win, it doesn’t matter.”
The performance of the week outside that of the wire-to-wire winner, Clark, was undoubtedly that of Chilean Joaquin Niemann, who, after a round of 78 on Thursday, which included two balls out of bounds and a two-shot penalty for club throwing at the 6th hole, he finished with rounds of 65, 72 and 66 to eventually finish in a share of 7th place. Simply stunning.
“I was not trying to offend anyone,” said Niemann, referring to his club throwing penalty. “I think it was something more — it was more something kind of like against me. I was frustrated. I had my expectations, which are always super high. I was playing good golf. I knew it was going to be a tough week, a long week, a challenging week.
“After seeing that and knowing that the best score I could do was an 8, it kind of frustrated me a lot. I’m not happy doing that. I’m not proud about throwing a golf club. I get I deserve it in a way; I don’t know. But there’s nothing I can do. I feel like I learned from it.”
“The only Australasian to make the cut was Ryan Fox, whose final round of 68 saw him leap 24 places to finish in a share of 23rd. A bogey at the last after a missed 9-foot par putt cost Fox his best US Open finish (previous best 19th), but it was an impressive effort all the same.
