Wyndham Clark won the US Open at Shinnecock Hills on Sunday, his second US Open title and second major. In his press conference, he acknowledged New York fans weren’t cheering for him after last year’s Oakmont locker-room incident—an episode that left him bann
Wyndham Clark knew how loudly a crowd can turn on you—then, on Sunday at Shinnecock Hills on Long Island, he made sure the scorecard didn’t. The US Open champion closed the week with the test on display and the answers on the course, winning after his Sunday run proved too clean for anyone else.
Clark’s win marked his second US Open title and his second major championship, following his first major triumph at Los Angeles Country Club in 2023. But the moment after the result carried an uncomfortable echo back to last year—because New York fans, at least early, weren’t fully behind him.
In his press conference, Clark addressed the crowd reactions directly, talking about the unusual reality of having fans cheer for what he called “bad shots.” Then he didn’t try to dodge the obvious: he said some of the hostility was earned.
“It’s pretty rare to have fans cheer for bad shots. That was tough. But some of it is self-deserved. I kind of brought it on myself,” Clark said, as relayed by The Fried Egg’s Kevin Van Valkenburg.
Clark linked the public reaction to the darkest stretch that followed his own behavior at Oakmont last year. He said after what happened there. he was in a “really dark place” for two or three days and that he felt everything slipping—his reputation. his world ranking. and the way he saw his place in the game.
“I was in a really dark place for two or three days. I felt everything — my reputation my world ranking — dwindling,” Clark added.
That Oakmont episode still sits at the center of why the cheers weren’t automatic. Clark missed the cut at the 2025 US Open at Oakmont Country Club in Pennsylvania. After his Friday round, he caused damage to a locker in the club’s historic locker room. The picture of that damage leaked to No Laying Up’s Tron Carter and spread quickly online.
The fallout came fast in the way golf’s public world tends to do now. Clark did not immediately apologize for the incident, and he was reportedly banned from the club.
By the time he spoke in his US Open press conference, Clark was still wrestling with how the label might stick. He said he hoped he wouldn’t become the “heel of the PGA,” but he also let the truth of the moment land: if that’s what it made him, he seemed to accept that attention follows controversy.
“I hope I don’t become the heel of the PGA. But if I am? Well… any press is good press, right?” Clark said, per Van Valkenburg.
On the course, redemption is supposed to look simple: hit the right shots, when they matter most. At Shinnecock Hills, that’s exactly the story his week turned into—even if his earlier years of headlines made the emotional backdrop heavier.
Clark didn’t start cleanly. He made three bogeys on the front nine, then steadied himself and kept it level from there. His back-nine response was sharp: he shot an even-par 35, and it carried him to victory by just one shot over Sam Burns.
The end result put Clark onto an elite list of two-time US Open champions. Brooks Koepka is also in that group after winning his second US Open at Shinnecock, and Bryson DeChambeau is the most recent addition.
The numbers can be remembered. The feelings are harder.
Clark’s US Open win came with the kind of crowd reaction that doesn’t fade because a trophy is finally lifted. He confronted that tension instead of brushing it aside. tying the noise back to Oakmont. to a missing cut at the 2025 US Open. to a leaked image from a damaged locker. and to the consequences that followed. Then he walked out of Shinnecock Hills with the shots he needed—this time. the ones that mattered most—proving that his redemption story still had room for anger. regret. and follow-through.
Wyndham Clark US Open Shinnecock Hills Oakmont PGA Tour Sam Burns Brooks Koepka Bryson DeChambeau golf news US Open champions