SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. — I stood probably 25 feet from Wyndham Clark as he stepped into his second shot on No. 16, a 3 wood from 275 yards. As soon as he hit it, he started hollering, “hold it wind … hold it! Hold it!”
From a distance like that, players and TV folks and media morons like myself are often relying on the crowd’s reaction to tell us exactly how good it was. Especially when it’s the final pairing on Saturday evening at a major championship.
What we got was a soft clap and the odd shout or two from up ahead that had “terrific Alex Smalley approach shot on the 7th hole early on Thursday morning” energy. When I saw the ball on the green, I thought, “Huh, that looks pretty close … must be an optical illusion given how little the crowd delivered there.”
Turns out, Wyndham had an eagle putt from LESS THAN FIVE FEET AWAY to get to 8 under and effectively end the 2026 U.S. Open.
We’ll get to what he did with that putt, and — more importantly for the sake of this particular newsletter — what I heard in the aftermath as Wyndham tries to add Shinnecock and Scottie to a mantle that already includes LACC and Rory among his conquests.
But first!
Today’s newsletter is presented by our friends at Cobra, who have supplied me with the tools necessary to also hit greens with 3 woods from 275 yards away.
The OPTM X fairway wood delivers “a potent blend of speed and forgiveness.” I think we saw the fruit of this new line of clubs when Gary Woodland was so far past a couple of his competitors in a practice round that he literally called them on his phone to note the distance between them and him. One of them was, ahem, the best player on the planet.
The only downside here — and I can certainly attest to this — is that its classic shape may trigger overconfidence because results will likely include straighter ball flights, easier launch, and more reliability than you've ever had in a fairway wood. Hate to see it.
Thank you to Cobra for supporting our work at this year’s U.S. Open.
Watching Scottie
Wyndham, of course, went on to make the eagle putt to get to 8 under, seven shots up on his closest competitors, one of whom is Scottie Scheffler (Wyndham finished six up on Scottie and Co. going into Sunday afternoon).
As a quick aside, if you’re looking for optimism when it comes to a competitive final round on Sunday, look no further than the 2024 Players Championship where — as my esteemed colleague, Brody Miller, pointed out — Scottie came from five behind to run down … Wyndham Clark (among others).
Here are those third and fourth round numbers.
It probably won’t happen this time around, but me when I saw that …
Anyway, after Wyndham made the eagle putt on Saturday at Shinnecock, the applause was less rapturous than it was resigned. Two gentlemen sitting in the stands behind me started to stand up as one of them said, “Fu** this,” and the other responded, “Unbelievable.”
This following a day in which Wyndham was serenaded with 825 variations of the phrase, “How are the lockers treating you here at Shinnecock, Wyndham?!”
People here at Shinnecock really — and I underestimated this throughout the week — really do not want Wyndham Clark to win the 2026 U.S. Open.
Unfortunately for them, Wyndham Clark is almost certainly going to win the 2026 U.S. Open. It’s only a matter of by how much and over whom. Those answers will likely be something like “four” and “Scottie” when the dust settles on Sunday evening at this magnificent place.
And then what? What do we do with two-time U.S. Open champion, Wyndham Clark? What do we do when Wyndham Clark has more U.S. Opens than Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele and Collin Morikawa combined?
Watching Wyndham
I have been thinking about this all day. Most of the last two days, really. Ever since I read Joel Beall’s excellent piece on reckoning with who Wyndham is and what he’s done.
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