2026 U.S. Open scores: Wyndham Clark grinds out another great round to open up big lead at Shinnecock Hills

Wyndham Clark arrived at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club bright and early on Friday knowing he had 20 holes of golf ahead of him. After sleeping on a four-shot lead, Clark came back out at 6:35 a.m. ET to finish the final two holes of his first round before turning right back around to the 1st tee to begin his second round at 7:56 a.m of the 2026 U.S. Open. 

By the time he teed off on No. 1, Clark's lead had been trimmed to just two shots by playing partner Dustin Johnson after Johnson picked up two birdies to end the first round while Clark made a pair of pars. The 2023 U.S. Open champion couldn't get off the par train to start his round, as he was stuck in first gear early on with eight straight before a bogey on the 9th dropped him back to 5 under. 

Johnson birdied the 10th to cut his lead to just one, and it felt like suddenly we might have a battle on our hands going into the weekend. But that's when things changed dramatically. Johnson fell apart, going 8 over in his next five holes including a double bogey on the 11th and a quadruple bogey on the 15th to end his hopes. Clark, meanwhile, stayed steady and was able to finally breakthrough with his first birdie of the day on the 12th after a gorgeous wedge shot to just a few feet from the hole. 

Clark backed that up with a second consecutive birdie on the 13th, getting a great break with a good lie in the fescue left of the fairway that he could control and keep on the green. 

He continued flirting with disaster off the tee on the 14th and 15th holes, but his misses were wild enough to find trampled down lies that gave him clean looks at the back of the ball to salvage pars. He would finally get punished for an errant tee shot on the par-5 16th, going bunker-to-bunker and having to pitch out sideways with his third from a fried egg lie 172 yards away. He avoided real disaster to save bogey from there, but it was clear that he no longer had the same A-game he'd displayed late on Thursday. 

Clark's distance control with the irons wasn't as crisp and his putter cooled off from distance for much of his second round, but he was still able to conjure up a few moments of magic on the greens to keep his round moving forward. Much like his birdie on the 13th, Clark was able to pour one in from deep on the 18th after another mediocre iron left him 33 feet down the hill, putting an exclamation point on his round and sending him to the weekend at 7 under. 

As Clark signed his card, he held a four-shot clubhouse lead, with Matt Fitzpatrick and Xander Schauffele the closest to him from the morning wave at 3 under. While he'll wait to see the likes of Rory McIlroy, Ludvig Åberg or another contender can emerge from this afternoon's play, Clark seems destined to take a sizable lead into the weekend, where the challenge of Shinnecock Hills figures to stiffen. 

The USGA played it safe the first two days with water, speed and pin positions to avoid losing the greens in windy conditions -- which haven't materialized to the severe degree that was forecast. That presented players with more opportunities to attack than expected, and no one adapted to that opportunity better than Clark, who was more than happy to fire away and take advantage of softer conditions. 

That all could change on Saturday afternoon, though. The USGA could opt not to water the greens in the afternoon and allow things to firm up and get fast on the leaders as the winds kick up. Clark will have to be ready to adapt to a changing golf course on the weekend if he's going to capture a second U.S. Open trophy, but through 36 holes he has given himself a cushion that will force others to try taking on more risk to catch up to him. 

Going wire-to-wire would be uncharted territory for Clark, who is 0-for-7 in converting 18-hole leads into wins in his PGA Tour career. There'd be no better place to break that streak than a U.S. Open, but the margins are extremely thin at Shinnecock Hills and as he saw with Dustin Johnson playing alongside on Friday, things can turn the wrong way in a hurry if you don't keep your game and focus sharp.