Winning a U.S. Open is never easy, even when holding a six-shot lead entering the final round. Wyndham Clark felt every bit of that pressure at Shinnecock Hills but nevertheless emerged victorious on Sunday afternoon after grinding out a final-round 73 to post 4 under, beating Sam Burns by one stroke to claim his second national championship.
With the victory, Clark became the 23rd man to win multiple U.S. Open titles and just the ninth to go wire-to-wire at a U.S. Open -- the first since Martin Kaymer in 2014. His major championship résumé now includes two victories and just one other top-five finish -- which is also his only other top 20 -- but his ability to convert his A-game into major trophies was on full display this week as he outlasted the field, the course and the crowd to hoist more U.S. Open hardware.
Clark knew he would be the villain on Sunday given the Oakmont locker destruction a year ago and being in the final pairing alongside Scottie Scheffler, who was trying to complete the career grand slam. However, the crowd wasn't just pro-Scheffler; it was actively anti-Clark with Shinnecock Hills emerging as a Ryder Cup-esque environment. Every Clark miss was cheered as the fans on Long Island hooted and hollered whenever he found a bunker or one of Shinnecock's many runoffs. When he produced a great shot or holed a key putt, he was met with crickets -- even his winning putt on the 18th was granted tepid applause.
"New York didn't really like me. I love you guys," Clark said. "I get it. Some of it's self-deserved. I did some unfortunate things last year that I really regret and I've been sorry multiple times and I'm still sorry, so hopefully I can win you guys over eventually. But I get it, they root for Scottie. Grand Slams only happen a few times. He's going to get it, he's the best player in the world. But today is my day."
Facing that kind of hostile environment, Clark stumbled through his front nine. His shaky ball-striking performance continued from Saturday, but his magical scrambling couldn't hold up, making three bogeys and failing to put a birdie on the card to shoot a 38 on the front side. That opened the door for someone to emerge from the chase pack to give him a challenge.
Most anticipated Scheffler would be the one to push him, but the world No. 1 never got out of first gear on Sunday, extending his grand slam pursuit for at least one more year. Instead, it was Scheffler's good buddy, Burns, who stepped up to the challenge, catching fire early to shoot a front nine 32 that trimmed Clark's lead to just one as they moved to the back nine.
The back side at Shinnecock Hills has been where Clark has thrived all week, and as he strode up the hill from the 9th green to the 10th tee on the other side of the clubhouse, he was able to reset and find his swing again. Clark laced a low, cutting driver all the way down to the bottom of the hill, leaving 60 yards in for his second. Facing the steep false front short and a huge runoff long, Clark did what few have been able to from that close all week and hit a hard-spinning wedge off the backstop to just a few feet for birdie.
That hole seemed to settle Clark down, while Burns cooled off in front of him. However, Shinnecock wasn't done producing drama. Burns found a key birdie on the 16th, while Clark made a bogey behind him on the 13th, and the lead dropped back to just one.
Burns, the 54-hole leader at last year's U.S. Open, produced two more great birdie looks with striped irons on Nos. 17 and 18, but the normally excellent putter could not cash in on either, collapsing to the green on the 18th as his birdie bid to post 4 under in the clubhouse slid by the right edge.
With Burns in at 3 under, Clark knew what he needed to do, but he was going to have to find some positivity on his own because no one else on the grounds at Shinnecock was going to lift his spirits. As was the case on Saturday, when he made an unbelievable eagle, the 16th hole proved pivotal.
Clark tugged his tee shot into the left fescue off the tee but drew a good enough lie to get a club on it and advanced it just over the bunkers on the left to find the fairway. From there, he again pulled a wedge to the left, finding the back edge of the green and leaving what seemed like a tricky putt up and over the hill. But on a week where Clark's putter bailed him out time and again, the flat stick had a little more magic left in it.
That gave Clark a two-shot lead going to the final two holes, and he needed each of those strokes. A three-putt bogey on the 17th put the stress right back on him, and he sailed a cut into the primary cut of rough on the right side of the fairway. After finding the front of the green, he needed a two-putt from 52 feet, 5 inches and once again leaned on his weapon of choice, the putter, to deliver the victory, cozying it up to a tap-in for par and the victory.
On a day where everything was working against him, Clark dug deep to produce just enough moments of brilliance to get the job done. That's what the U.S. Open demands more than anything else, and all week, he was the man up to that task better than anyone else.
"I played some ugly golf the last two days but my putter and short game kind of kept me in it, and, yeah, to make all the putts I did with my Ping putter that I love so much has been amazing," Clark said. "But honestly it comes down to just believing that good things will happen and you're gonna make the putt, and fortunately the ones that I needed to make I did."
Clark now makes it 10 American winners in the last 12 U.S. Opens, as the national championship stays on home soil once again. He joins Tiger Woods (3), Bryson DeChambeau (2), Brooks Koepka (2) and Retief Goosen (2) as the only men to win multiple U.S. Open titles since 2000, and he's one of four players alongside Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and Xander Schauffele to win multiple major titles over the past five years. That's quite the résumé boost for a man who entered this year's tournament with just two career top 20s in major championships, but he's proven that when he is at his best, his game can hold up to the toughest test in golf better than just about anyone else.
2. Sam Burns (-3): Burns will spend a long time replaying those missed putts on the 17th and 18th holes, and while the miss on No. 18 produced the bigger reaction, it was the weak effort from just inside 10 feet that may haunt him most.
Still, Burns continues to affirm his place as one of the best golfers in the world right now. After collapsing as the 54-hole leader a year ago at Oakmont, he got his revenge on a U.S. Open Sunday with a 67 that was one of the best rounds of the day under incredible pressure late. It will take some time to get over the final two holes when he had a chance to force a playoff or grab the win outright, but Burns should walk away from Shinnecock Hills with even more confidence that his game is major championship caliber.
3. Tom Kim (-1): Tom Kim is one of seven men in history to shoot under par in a U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills. That is not something anyone expected coming into the week, and while, like Burns, his tournament didn't end quite as he hoped, for someone who had to go through qualifying just to make the field, Kim has to feel like this was a huge week for him. It's been a rough couple of seasons on the PGA Tour for a player who burst on the scene with three wins early, but playing this well in this kind of test has to do wonders for his confidence going forward with his game.
T4. Scottie Scheffler (E): It was shocking how little juice Scheffler had on Sunday. He had a front row seat to Wyndham Clark's first nine collapse and in years past you would've anticipated the World No. 1 to pounce on that and make his attack. Instead, he stalled out right alongside Clark and the only pressure Clark felt was from a few groups in front. Sunday's round felt like a microcosm of the season for Scheffler, who hasn't been able to sync up many rounds where his ball-striking and putting are at their best. The result is another top 5 in a U.S. Open, but on a day where the career grand slam was certainly within reach, he didn't even give himself a chance to take a run at history.
Well, it's not over yet. After his unbelievable birdie on the 16th, Clark three-putted the 17th from the front right of the green to force him to make a par on No. 18 to win the U.S. Open.
Despite a big pull in the fescue off the tee and a tugged wedge with his third, Wyndham Clark bailed himself out once again with his putter, putting perhaps a fitting exclamation point on his week with a birdie on the 16th to reclaim a two-shot lead over Sam Burns.
Clark will now need to find at least one par on his way home to become a two-time U.S. Open champion, but he alleviated a ton of stress with an incredible recovery and birdie on the par 5.
There will not be a repeat of Clark's eagle from Saturday, which was never happening into the stiff wind today but he's now really in trouble after finding the fescue left off the tee, with a stressful layup into the wind to a fairway that snakes through bunkers and fescue.
He drew a good enough lie to get a club on it and hit an incredible shot to cover the left fairway bunkers and get back into the short grass, leaving himself a chance to make a crucial birdie that would alleviate a ton of stress on the last two holes.
Kim hasn't gone away today, and he's now back to 2 under and just two shots off Wyndham Clark's lead -- and one back of Sam Burns in the clubhouse -- after a birdie on the 16th that had him fired up.
Unfortunately for Kim, he'll have to scramble for par out of the bunker on the 17th to have a chance at catching Burns with a birdie on the 18th and then needs Clark to falter behind him.
Mitchell will get his best-ever finish in a major championship this week, as he's guaranteed a T5 finish at worst, but on top of that he becomes the first player in U.S. Open history to shoot four consecutive rounds of even par. Mitchell posted a 70 on all four days, which is especially remarkable given he opened his tournament with a 41 on his first nine holes. Mitchell's Thursday 41-29 was a bit of U.S. Open history on its own, as no one had ever shot in the 40s and 20s on nine holes in the same round before at a U.S. Open.
Sam Burns becomes the fifth player in history to post an under par score at a U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills after a 3-under 67 on Sunday that made the final round far more interesting than expected. It could've been even better as he missed two great looks at birdie on his final two holes, including a birdie putt on the 18th that slid just off the right edge after getting a read from Keith Mitchell.
Unfortunately for Burns, that might not be enough as he's a shot back of Wyndham Clark, who just parred the 15th, and he'll have to wait to see if Clark gives one back coming in. Still, it was a phenomenal effort from Burns either way and with the challenge of Shinnecock, there's a very real chance that he will have more golf to play on Monday in a playoff -- or, potentially, could end up hoisting the trophy tonight if things really go sideways for Clark.
The World No. 1 has been stuck in neutral all day. Even as his playing partner has opened the door for someone to make a charge, Scheffler has been incapable of doing so. He's made one birdie all day and added his second bogey of the afternoon on the 14th, ramming his birdie putt too hard off the right lip and then failing to make the comebacker.
It's a microcosm of Scheffler's year, where he just hasn't been at the level we're accustomed to and as much as we keep waiting to see 2025 Scottie show up, it just hasn't happened. Sunday felt like the perfect place for him to re-emerge, but with just four holes left facing a four-shot deficit, it looks like the career grand slam will wait at least one more year.
Burns is feeling it after his birdie on No. 16 and took almost no time at all to pull 9 iron on the 17th and flushed it over the left bunker, hitting on the backside of the hill and releasing out to inside 10 feet for birdie.
However, after hitting a great putt on the 16th, he hit maybe his worst putt of the day on the birdie roll, shoving it weakly out to the right and never sniffed the cup. Whether he got fooled by the read or was just never confident in it, when he needed it most, one of the PGA Tour's best putters put his worst stroke on it.
After his bogey on the 15th, Burns bounced back with a great birdie roll on the long par-5 16th to get back within one shot of the lead. It's all of a three-shot par 5 today, but Burns played it to perfection, leaving an uphill putt from the middle of the green that never left the center of the cup.
Burns will now deal with the tough closing stretch at Shinnecock, but if he can find another birdie on the last two holes -- or at least two pars -- he'll post a number that will have a very real chance at getting him in at least a Monday playoff.
After hitting what looked like a good wedge on the 13 that flew just a little too far and slowly rolled off the back edge, Wyndham Clark is back to 4 under after failing to make another 8-foot par putt. He's now back to 4 under, two clear of Sam Burns, who has a midrange birdie putt on the 16th to get to 3 under again and try to get in the clubhouse at a number Clark has to worry about.
What's been most surprising today is how Scottie Scheffler has done nothing to apply pressure to Clark while the leader has been struggling. Scheffler missed another birdie putt on the low side on the 13th ahead of Clark's par putt that would've pulled him within two.
The Burns train has run out of steam as his wedge play has let him down in the middle of his back nine. Twice he's had wedges from the fairway on No. 13 and No. 15 and come nowhere close to the hole. The latest was a big pull that went long, leading to a three-putt bogey from the back of the green that drops him back to 2 under, now three shots behind Clark.
Burns will have a chance to get one back on the par-5 16th -- which is not reachable today like it was on Saturday -- but he is running out of holes to apply pressure to Clark, who has settled in on the back nine after his struggles on the front side.
Jackson Koivun's 68 this morning put some heat on Ryder Cowan in the race for low amateur. The Oklahoma star finally looked like he was running out of gas after a great first three days and fell one shot behind Koivun going to the 17th. He stepped up and delivered his best swing of the day to setup a birdie to get back to 5 over. He couldn't add another on the 18th, and as a result he and Koivun -- in his last tournament as an amateur -- will split low am honors after a couple fantastic weeks.
After three straight 71s to open the tournament, J.T. Poston fired a Sunday 67 to get into the clubhouse at even par. That's always good work at a U.S. Open, especially at Shinnecock Hills, and while it'd take a lot of collapsing on the back nine from the groups in front for that to matter for the win, Poston is going to get a career-best finish in the U.S. Open and, potentially, match or better his T5 from the 2025 PGA as a career-best in a major.
For a player who wasn't in the field until his win at the Memorial a couple weeks back, Poston has made the most of his ticket to Shinnecock and will earn an exemption into 2027 at Pebble Beach with his top-10 finish.
The back nine has been good to Clark all week as he was -6 on the back nine over the first three days, and that's continuing to start his final round. Clark got aggressive and pulled driver on the short 10th, hitting a carving low cut that chased way down the hill to 60 yards from the front pin position. From there he needed to hit a perfect partial wedge and pulled off a beauty, creating a ton of spin from close range to throw it onto the backstop beyond the pin and rip it back to a few feet away for his first birdie of the day.
Scottie Scheffler matched him with a birdie of his own to reach 1 under, but Clark was able to keep a four-shot edge over the World No. 1 and extend his lead to two over Sam Burns with a fantastic birdie to get back to 5 under.
Wyndham Clark's six-shot advantage is down to one after his first nine holes today. After a great 1st hole things started to come off the rails on the 2nd, and while he's produced a few more great scrambling pars -- including on the 9th -- he has put far too much pressure on his short game and putting given the circumstances.
Clark will turn to the back at 4 under for the tournament and 3 over for the day, hoping to find something on the long walk to the 10th tee. The good news is he's been great on the back nine all week, but his swing has been out of sorts for eight straight holes and the 10th and 11th holes require two precision iron/wedge shots to avoid disaster.
Scheffler and Wyndham Clark both found the front left bunker on the 7th, but it took Scottie two tries to get it on the green, as his first attempt didn't clear the false edge and rolled back into the sand.
His second attempt barely crept high enough to stay on the green, but he did roll in a swinging bogey putt to avoid big damage.
Clark was able to get out on his first attempt, but left it above the hole which left a treacherous par putt. After holing another big one on the 6th, Clark's putter couldn't handle the stress of the ticklish putt on the 7th as he rammed it by the hole.
He made the comeback effort up the hill but dropped his third shot of the front nine to fall to 4 under, just one ahead of Sam Burns.
Sam Burns finally blinked on the 9th hole, making an unforced error from the fairway by coming up short and rolling back into the rough below the green. From there he compounded his issues by hitting his chip too hard and leaving a delicate 6-footer for par back down the slope, which he gave too much respect and missed low and right.
While the bogey was disappointing, he still makes the turn in 3-under 32, which has him two shots behind Wyndham Clark who looks like he's just holding on for dear life with his swing. Burns will need to navigate the tricky 10th and 11th holes to start his back nine, but the middle of the back presents scoring opportunities before the challenging final two holes.
The par-5 5th has been the easiest hole all week and after a great drive, Clark had to be thinking about getting back to 7 under -- if not making another eagle. Instead, he bounded his second shot long and left, rolling all the way into the trampled fescue beyond the shaved area. That left a brutal third that he couldn't get to climb the huge mound and rolled back towards his feet. On his fourth he jammed it 25 feet past the hole and after so many incredible scrambling pars the last few days, he couldn't produce another magical putt and walked off with a bogey 6 that dropped him to 5 under.
His lead has gone from six at the start of the day to just one over Sam Burns, who is trying to polish off a front nine 31 as he plays the 9th. The challenge for Clark is he just made bogey on the best opportunity he'll have for a birdie on the front side, and will need to dig deep to turn things around as he's looking tight in the moment.
I don't know if there has ever been an American at the U.S. Open treated like this. The fans at Shinnecock Hills are actively rooting for Wyndham Clark's demise. The tunnel of people from hole to hole is suffocating but he continues to do what he has been doing all week.
Multiple fans have been booted (or at least talked to) by law enforcement for heckling Clark, and cheers for when he has done something well have remained at a minimum. They are all willing Scottie Scheffler into this championship while his good pal, Sam Burns, is blitzing the front nine out in front of him.
The atmosphere honestly reminds me a little of a Ryder Cup except it's one man against the world.
The biggest threat to Wyndham Clark right now is Sam Burns a few groups in front, as Burns is suddenly -4 thru 8 on his day and 4 under for the championship, just two shots behind Clark. Burns buried a 49-footer at the 8th to keep his heater rolling and sent a roar rippling back towards the leader.
Coming into the day there were two ways for this final round to get interesting: a Clark meltdown or someone going nuclear. Right now it's looking like Burns is going to try and pull off the latter, and the next time Wyndham sees a scoreboard he will know that holding on with pars might not be enough to get him a second U.S. Open title.
After driving it in the right fairway bunkers, Clark caught his second shot heavy out of the sand and blocked it way right into the gallery -- which is probably the last play he wants to be right now given how aggressively pro-Scottie/anti-Wyndham the fans have been early on.
The good news for Clark was that he drew a clean lie in dry, cut down area, but he had to execute a delicate shot and pulled it off beautifully to give himself a chance at another incredible scrambling par.
As he did so many times on Sunday, he poured that in the heart despite a gallery begging for him to miss, and strode off the 4th still leading Sam Burns by three strokes.
The Burns heater continues with a third birdie in his first five holes, capitalizing on the par-5 5th to reach 3 under and cut Wyndham Clark's lead to just three early on Sunday afternoon. Burns had been playing some terrific golf of late and while he stumbled a bit on Saturday, he's taking advantage of a gettable day at Shinnecock Hills to make things interesting as Clark stumbles a bit out of the gates.
A big pull off the tee on the 255-yard par 3 led to a bogey for Clark, who drew a great lie in the rough but hit his flop shot too hard and rolled off the back of the green. He got up-and-down from there for his 4 to limit the damage, but he's dropped back to 6 under and his lead is down to just four over Sam Burns -- with Tommy Fleetwood, Tom Kim and Sahith Theegala now 5 shots back at 1 under.
Scheffler went long with his second on the 1st which is a big no-no and paid the price. He hit a quality flop shot to leave an 8-footer for par, but hit a fairly weak putt that missed well wide to the right and walked away with a bogey to fall back to even par. Wyndham Clark, meanwhile, hit a terrific approach to 17 feet and just slid his birdie putt by on the left side, tapping in for par to stay at 7 under, five clear of Sam Burns now in second alone.
The first player to show a threat of mounting a charge in the late wave is Sam Burns, who birdied the first after firing a dart at the flag and picked up another on the 3rd to reach 2 under, cutting Wyndham Clark's lead to 5.
Burns did find a little trouble in the bunker short and left on No. 4, but he splashed out a beauty to allow him a tap-in par to keep things rolling as he tries to reel in Clark.
17-year-old Miles Russell is the top junior in the country and showed why he's expected to be a future PGA Tour star this week, making the cut in his first U.S. Open start. All week others have raved about his maturity on the course and how he plays like a veteran, and on Sunday we saw that his recognition of the moment extends beyond the ropes.
Russell checked before the round with the USGA and got the go-ahead to have his caddie pass the bag off to his dad on the 18th hole for an incredible Father's Day surprise. Russell's dad didn't know it was coming, but put on the bib after his approach into 18 and enjoyed the closing stroll with his son in a touching moment.
Saturday's back nine seems to have taken all the wind out of McIlroy's sails and he's just trying to run out the clock on his week at Shinnecock Hills. After five bogeys on the back nine to close out his third round, McIlroy has made three more to start his fourth round and is back to 6 over for the tournament -- 8 over in his last 16 holes.
I often wonder what a player like McIlroy does to motivate himself for a final round in this kind of position where he's out of contention on Sunday in a major and, at this point, is only playing to continue winning. It seems the answer today for McIlroy has been "not a lot" as he has no juice out there after making a big front nine run on Saturday and having it all fall apart.
Åberg matches the low round of the day with a 4-under 66 to finish the week at 3 over, which is currently good for T20. Ludvig was in the mix on Thursday, but a birdie-less Friday and another tough Saturday dropped him out of contention. He bounced back with a quality performance on Sunday to leave Shinnecock on a high note as his quest for a breakthrough major victory will continue on to Royal Birkdale next month.
We've got a Peter Uihlein 66 in the house, a Ben James 67 and a number of nice rounds out on the golf course. With much calmer winds, Shinnecock Hills is opening itself up for some scoring with seven of the holes playing at par or easier.
The USGA sent out a notice to players last night to expect for faster green speeds — although they did not tell them the exact speed like Friday night — but still the greens are receptive, especially in the context of U.S. Opens.
Tyrrell Hatton hasn't had the most fun this week at Shinnecock Hills but he played the par-5 5th beautifully, leaving his second shot in the right spot just short of the green to chip straight back up the hill to the back pin. Hatton executed his pitch to perfection and walked away with a chip-in eagle to improve to 3 over for the week.
