Wyndham Clark won his second U.S. Open on Sunday at Shinnecock Hills, but it didn’t feel like a celebration. It felt like a fistfight with the entire gallery.
Clark shot a final-round 73 to finish at 4-under par, beating Sam Burns by one shot. The win makes him just the ninth player in U.S. Open history to go wire-to-wire. Also, he joins Tiger Woods, Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau as the only guys to win multiple U.S. Opens since 2000. That’s good company. But the vibe around him right now? Not so good.
The crowd wasn’t exactly rooting for him. They cheered his mistakes. They pulled hard for Scottie Scheffler, who was trying to finish the career Grand Slam. One heckler got tossed. Clark admitted he woke up Sunday with a pit in his stomach, and it showed. He shot 38 on the front nine and let Burns climb right back into it.
“I sure hope it closes the door on it,” Clark said when asked about his reputation. “I hope I don’t become the heel of the PGA. I guess if I am, any press is good press, right?”
He knows what people are saying. Last year he kicked in some historic lockers at Oakmont after missing a cut at the U.S. Open. He had to pay for repairs, make a donation and go through anger-management counseling. Earlier that season, he threw a driver into a sponsor sign at the PGA Championship. So yeah, the crowd had their reasons to be cold.
One shot that flipped everything
The decisive moment came at the par-5 16th. Clark hit his tee shot into thick grass, but then he pulled off a ridiculous recovery — third shot from 24 and a half feet, drained the birdie putt. That put him back in control. He bogeyed 17 but parred 18, and that was it.
His numbers all week were solid: fourth in strokes gained putting, 14th off the tee, and he scrambled at a 66 percent clip. But the stat that really tells the story? His opening-round 64. That gave him a 54-hole total of 7-under 203, the lowest through three rounds in U.S. Open history at Shinnecock.
Burns finished second at 3-under after a 67. Tom Kim was third at 1-under.
So Clark has two U.S. Open titles in six appearances. Only John McDermott, Walter Hagen and Ernie Els got there faster. That’s wild when you think about it. But the guy is now stuck in this weird spot where his accomplishments are undeniable and his public image is a mess. He’s not Tiger. He’s not even Bryson, who leaned into the villain thing. Clark seems like he’d rather just be liked.
“I don’t want to be the heel,” he said. But he also made that joke about any press being good press. So maybe he’s learning to live with it.
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