Wyndham Clark maintains a dominant lead entering the weekend at the 126th U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills.
The 2023 U.S. Open champion was only 1 under for his second round, but his 6-under 64 from Round 1 was enough to carry him through Friday, maintaining a four-shot lead ahead of Round 3.
Clark’s rounds of 64 and 69 are a 36-hole scoring record for a U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills.
“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,” Clark said. “Hopefully I can bring my A-game on the weekend.”
Chasing Clark is a group of four at 3 under, including 2022 U.S. Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick, 2024 PGA and Open champion Xander Schauffele, Sam Stevens and Tom Kim.
“It’s once a year you get to see some carnage, and it’s at a U.S. Open,” Schauffele said. “Try to embrace it as much as you can. On days like today and even last night, you know, take what the course can give you. But Shinnecock is — they’ve made it very fair, the USGA, and it can be as crazy as they want it to be, for sure.”
The carnage Schauffele mentioned has failed to materialize in Southampton as of Friday. While there have been glimpses of Shinnecock old, the USGA has chosen to “syringe” the greens — this week’s buzzword that means a light application of water — to keep the course playable despite high wind gusts in the forecast.
For perspective, Jon Rahm carded a bogey-free 2-under 68 in Round 1 — the first bogey-free round at a Shinnecock-hosted U.S. Open in 22 years. The previous six U.S. Open rounds at Shinnecock had zero bogey-free rounds: all four rounds in 2018, plus the last two rounds in 2004. (Rahm went on to miss the cut after an 8-over 78 on Friday.)
But Rory McIlroy believes Shinnecock may bite back sooner rather than later.
"[The greens] were starting to dry out a little bit, so I would expect them to sort of keep trending in that direction, as we get into tomorrow and as the weekend goes on,” the two-time reigning Masters champion said. “I think the weather has been perfect. They’ve got everything back on track, so I’d say people should expect the Shinnecock they’ve gotten to know over the past couple of decades.”
The 2011 U.S. Open champion, McIlroy sits at T-11 with the group at even par. He was 2 under at one point on Friday but got into trouble on the back nine, carding three bogeys and a double bogey to his four birdies for the day.
Also at T-11 and even par is world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who is in pursuit of the career Grand Slam this week. It’s his first shot at the feat. If he were to come from behind to win — which is never out of the realm of possibility for Scheffler — he would become the seventh man to win all four majors. McIlroy, of course, became the sixth last year when he won the Masters after an 11-year major drought.
When Scheffler was asked about Clark distancing himself and if that changes how he approaches the tournament, he responded, in part, “I think the tournament is halfway done.”
