Wyndham Clark’s – Wyndham Clark entered the back nine after seeing a six-shot lead shrink to one following a turbulent front nine at the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills on Sunday. Sam Burns surged with a 50-foot birdie and closed the gap, while Clark fought off bogeys and a brief
SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. — Wyndham Clark walked off the front nine with his six-shot lead whittled down to one after just five holes Sunday at the U.S. Open, heading to the back nine trying to avoid U.S. Open history.
The climb down didn’t happen slowly. It changed in a New York minute, right as Clark struggled through the front nine in 3-over over 38, including a pair of superb par saves that kept him alive when the swing and the pressure both turned against him.
Clark’s fight wasn’t only against the course. The crowd was cheering for Scottie Scheffler and clearly against Clark as he played. and it felt woven into the way his round unraveled. The threat wasn’t Scheffler, even with his bid for the career Grand Slam. The real danger came from Sam Burns. who was seeking redemption from the chance that got away from him last year at Oakmont.
Burns charged through the front nine, and his biggest moment arrived on the eighth hole: a 50-foot birdie putt that produced a cheer loud enough to be heard all over Shinnecock Hills. That surge pulled Burns to within one shot of Clark.
Clark answered with a bogey on the par-5 fifth, the easiest hole on the course, and the gap began to swing fast. Burns then bogeyed the ninth and turned toward the back nine at 3-under par. Clark, meanwhile, clipped from a chip well short of the ninth green and saved par to stay at 4 under.
The trouble kept piling on for Clark after that. He missed the par-3 second green 40 yards to the left, chipped through the green, and had to scramble for bogey. On the fourth tee. he kept grinding through distractions too; one fan shouted. “Don’t choke. Wyndham.” Security removed the man from the course.
Even when Clark found trouble out on the course, he had flashes of survival. From a fairway bunker on the fourth, he flared his shot closer to the concession stand than the fourth green, under a pair of trash containers, but he still made a 15-foot par save.
Still, the biggest swing in the round came at the par-5 fifth. He went just over the back of the green into the light rough of the walkway toward the next tee. The shot troubled him. and he ultimately picked a bump into the hill—a dangerous choice because the grass was growing against his ball. The ball came up woefully short, back down the hill, and after that he chipped the next one too strong. Two putts later, he had a bogey.
By the time the front nine ended, Clark had lost five shots of his six-shot lead in five holes. No one has ever lost more than a five-shot lead in the U.S. Open—set in 1919—making Clark’s next stretch feel like a tightrope walk.
Scheffler didn’t glide through his own issues. He had a bogey on the first after going over the back of the green, and on the third he saved par from a bunker after missing the fairway. Scheffler’s lone birdie came on the par-5 fifth with a two-putt.
On the seventh hole, Scheffler faced trouble from a front bunker. He didn’t hit it hard enough, and the ball rolled back into the sand. He blasted out to just inside 15 feet and made that for bogey, keeping him in the game.
Scheffler made the turn at even par for the championship—four shots behind instead of six—still with three players between him and Burns.
Joaquin Niemann, meanwhile, closed with a 66. His week had already included a jarring moment earlier: an 11 on the sixth hole of the first round that also came with a conduct penalty for heaving his wedge.
As Clark headed to the back nine with only a one-shot cushion, the question wasn’t whether his lead could shrink—it already had. The question was whether he could stop it before the U.S. Open’s most daunting lead-collapse record came into reach.
Wyndham Clark Sam Burns Scottie Scheffler U.S. Open Shinnecock Hills golf lead shrinks back nine