SOUTHAMPTON, NY – Just an hour or so after he finished up a stellar opening round 64, Wyndham Clark turned around and posted a solid 69 to lead the 126th U.S. Open at 7-under. Among the other early finishers among the leaders are a gaggle of former major winners, including Xender Schauffele and Matt Fitzpatrick at 3-under, Colin Morikawa and 2-under and Justin Thomas at 1-under. Meanwhile 2016 U.S. Open winner Dustin Johnson and back-to-back winner in 2017-18 Brooks Koepka bith shot themselves out of contention with disastrous rounds
“I'm tired,” Clark quipped after the round. “I Didn't get to bed until 10:30. Had to wake up at 4:00. So, not much sleep. I'm going to really be looking forward to a nap and watching USA hopefully win a game.” (They did, 2-0 over Australia to advance to the knockout phase after just two games…)
Post round Clark once again groused that he missed some short putts, but for the second day in a row, anyone else would gladly have taken his stat score before the round: 10 of 15 fairways, and 15 of 18 greens. The greens in reg stat is especially important, as is putting, and although Clark’s 32 putts Friday round looks mundane on paper, on the course he drained a stupefying 214 feet of putts...214 feet.
That is really annoying to the players behind you. Especially when you’re leading.
He made four putts of over 20 feet including a 35-foot exclamation point on 18 for birdie, his third of the day against a mere two bogeys.
“My goal was to try to get to 10 or 11. Unfortunately some missed putts, short one on 9, and didn't birdie 7, and unfortunate bogey on 6,” he said frustratedly. “I mean, I really felt like I could be in double digits, but you know, the great thing about that is I didn't feel like I had my best, and I still am leading as of right now. Hopefully I can bring my A-game on the weekend.”
Of all his pursuers, Xander Schauffele and Matt Fitzpatrick seem most poised to put the most pressure on Clark as we go to press. Schauffefe, who bagged the 2024 Open Championship at Royal Troon and the 2024 PGA Championship at Valhalla fired a sizzling 66 to post 3-under for the tournament.
“I played great today. Pretty motivated after last night. Winds are laying down, and being in that easier wave and not taking advantage of it was a big bummer. Pretty pumped to come out and shoot something low,” Schauffele remarked briskly. It's just a lot of patience and good golf shots, for the most part. I feel like U.S. Opens, the championship itself just wears you out. It's a long way, and you really feel it after.”
Schauffele sizzled all day, carding five birdies, including three in four holes at 15, 16, and 18. That will sure boost his confidence coming down the stretch on the weekend. He was solid in every statistical category: 11 or 14 fairways, a spectacular 15 of 18 greens and a stingy 30 putts. But for the blemish at 16, his card would have been clean…and at Shinnecock, that’s a marvelous accomplishment. Nevertheless, Schauffele issued a war4ning to us all.
“Over-par will win this golf tournament again, sitting at whatever all these guys are under par now,” he predicted darkly. “I do believe this course can be that way. Really the cliche ‘You grind on every single shot,’ really matters when you think of it…and when someone tells you ‘Even-par is going to win,” you are, like, ‘Oh, well, that's kind of crazy, but it goes without saying.’ You try to focus as much as you can for the six hours you're out there, five and a half hours you're out there to really hit every shot, whether it's a driver, a 2-foot putt with full attention.”
It was a loss of focus and attention that bedeviled Dustin Johnson, who followed a sterling 66 with a ghastly 77, including a five hole stretch where DJ went 8-over including a snowman: a horrible quadruple-bogey eight on the par-4 15th. He actually went bunker-to-bunker-to-bunker greenside before blading one over the over the green like it was my old Aunt Sally playing and not a former U.S. Open winner.
Similarly Brooks Koepka has only hit 59% of his greens for the week and has foundered below the cut line, in the dim nether-reaches of the leaderboard for the week. Look for him to leave Southampton earlier than he - and Jenna – wanted with a trunk slam, a sour grunt, and a screech of tire.
Instead, the round of the day belonged to Collin Morikawa. The winner of the 2020 PGA Championship and the 2021 Open Championship at Royal St. George’s scorched mighty Shinnecock to the tune of a 5-under 65, putting him at 2-under, five shots behind Clark.
“I chipped it a lot better than I did yesterday. I mean, I went through my round yesterday, and I had at least four, probably five, maybe six up-and-downs, pretty basic up-and-downs, that I just flubbed. Then that's the difference of kicking yourself out of a tournament, keeping yourself in it, he admitted, kicking himself mildly for a moment. Typical of Morikawa, he was honest and talkative. “Thankfully today, you know, got off to a good start, hit a couple of good iron shots, but at the same time, made the up-and-downs. Then that was kind of the big change, I think, for today.”
Right now, though, Clark is in the driver’s seat. Granted, four strokes is just one bad swing and one bad decision. But Clark is fierce and precise on the course. More importantly he won the Open before and that gives him a leg up on any player who hasn’t. That mental calm is crucial in the crucible of a U.S. Open back nine battle.
“I just think with the mental game there's ebbs and flows. If you think of it as climbing Everest, sometimes you go up, sometimes you have to go down to go back up,” he confided earnestly. “I think that's kind of what happens both on the golf course and off the golf course. Right now, I'm trending back up, which is nice.”
