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Wyndham Clark did his part. The U.S. Open weather didn’t. Now everyone’s looking up at him.
The former U.S. Open champion took the first steps toward a second national title Thursday night at Shinnecock Hills, posting a six-under score through 16 holes to open a four-shot lead before darkness suspended play.
“Everything was kind of clicking,” Clark said as the sun disappeared. “We were definitely fortunate with the wind laying down.”
Fortunate, sure. But Clark’s position is not a surprise. He has been one of the hottest players in the game over the past month; winner of the CJ Byron Nelson in late May, third at the Memorial, in contention at the RBC Canadian Open before a stumbling Sunday. That form carried into Thursday. He opened with birdies at the 10th and 11th, added another at the 18th, and made the turn at 32 with the lead. It wasn’t perfect, because no U.S. Open round is. He missed a makeable birdie at the first and a bogey at the second was the lone hiccup on the card.
But he quickly answered with back-to-back birdies at the third and fourth, and round’s centerpiece came at the par-5 fifth. Clark essentially replicated what Rory McIlroy had done hours earlier, a 400-yard drive followed by a gorgeous approach that produced eagle. When the horn sounded, he was on the notorious par-3 seventh. He finished the hole anyway, getting up and down to preserve the number.
A four-shot lead at any point of a U.S. Open demands respect. What built it demands context.
A fog delay wiped out the first two hours of the morning, and when the early wave finally reached the course, they were met with constant, biting wind. The scoring average ballooned to nearly four over, what you expect from this venue. The afternoon brought more of the same, until it didn’t. The wind nearly vanished in the waning hours, and with the greens already softened to account for the conditions, the second wave could attack. Six of the seven players tied for second at two under came in the afternoon. Four of them haven’t finished.
“I would say when I got my tee times on Tuesday, I was like, ‘Oh, could be a tough draw,'” Clark said. “That two-hour fog delay was very helpful, and it was really nice it laid down.”
There’s no asterisk on providence. Frankly, Clark could use a little luck. His earned his breakthrough at the 2023 U.S. Open, won at Pebble the next year and nearly captured the Players. What came next was less than tidy. A tee-box sign smashed at the 2025 PGA Championship. A locker broken at last year’s U.S. Open, earning a rebuke from Oakmont’s membership. Not the gravest of offenses, but unbecoming. Clark has spent recent months letting his golf do the talking. Sixteen holes at Shinnecock, and whatever comes next, would go a long way toward finishing that sentence.
But it is only 16 holes, which is why his plan for the quick turnaround was straightforward.
“Eat as fast as possible, sleep as hard as possible, and get out here and hopefully keep playing good,” Clark said.
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Main Image: Warren Little
