Key events
Scottie Scheffler splashes out delicately from the bunker at 7. Too delicately. His ball topples back into the trap, and though he gets out with his second attempt, he’ll need to make a 15-footer for bogey. Wyndham Clark by contrast whips up decisively to four feet, and this could be a matchplay double-whammy for the world number one.
Scheffler and Clark both find the bunker guarding the front-left of the par-three 7th green. But while the former’s only just squeaks in, looking for a while like it was dead on line for the pin, the latter slam-dunks into the trap. The leader continues to make some big tee-to-green errors … though it’s not cost him dearly. Yet. He remains ahead thanks to that street-fighting short game, which by the looks of things will continue to be stress-tested over the closing two-thirds of his round.
Forget that bit about putting. Both players opt to chip up. Clark leaves his effort ten feet short, giving Scheffler the green flag to get more aggressive. Which he does, and he should be tidying up from a couple of feet. Another big pressure putt for Clark … and he makes them more often than not. And so he does here, the confident roll ensuring a bobble halfway along the route to the cup doesn’t divert the ball offline. Scheffler makes his par, and it’ll be Clark who’ll be the happier right now. But his game is getting a little tatty under these extreme tournament conditions. If at any point his putter goes cold, he’ll be in a spot of bother.
Having got to within one shot, Sam Burns immediately cedes ground. His chip at 9 races eight feet past the hole, and he’s left with a treacherous downhill par putt. He dribbles it down, but it slides off to the right. Bogey, and Clark’s lead is two again. The iron in at fault there. Burns still out in an impressive 32 strokes, mind. Meanwhile back on 6, Clark and Scheffler both send fine approaches into the heart of the green … only for the camber to slowly take both balls away from the flag and off the putting surface to the right. No bunker, and both will most likely putt from where they are, with Clark going first to offer his opponent a read.
-5: Clark (5)
-3: Burns (9)
-1: Poston (14), Mitchell (9), Scheffler (5)
E: Fleetwood (9), Grillo (7), Kim (6)
+1: Niemann (F), Hatton (F), Woodland (17), Parry (14), Morikawa (11), Schauffele (9), Stevens (7)
… so having said that, Sam Burns makes his first big mistake of the final round. From the centre of the fairway at 9, he underhits his approach, and his ball topples back off the front. It stops in a thick collar of rough. Meanwhile a final-hole bogey for Tyrrell Hatton, the result of finding the long stuff with his tee shot. That’s still an impressive closing round of 67, and at +1 he’s got a fair chance of another top-ten finish at the US Open. He’s got two of them on his resumé already. Hatton joins Joaquin Niemann in the clubhouse lead.
Clark makes a good fist of his 25-foot par effort, but it’s always staying high on the left, and there goes another shot. Meanwhile it’s a careful two-putt birdie for Scottie Scheffler, and suddenly everything has changed. Meanwhile Emiliano Grillo takes a hesitant prod at a short par putt on 7 to slip back to level par. We’ve got a US Open on our hands, ladies and gentlemen!
-5: Clark (5)
-4: Burns (8)
-1: Poston (13), Mitchell (8), Scheffler (5)
E: Hatton (17), Fleetwood (9), Grillo (7), Kim (6)
Wyndham Clark bumps up from the back of 5, take II. This time he nearly skulls it, and he’s fairly fortunate the ball stops 25 feet past the flag. A little more juice, and he’d have found himself in the bunker. Meanwhile Scottie Scheffler stands and watches, while on 9, Sam Burns splits the fairway. This feels like a crucial long par putt coming up for Clark. He’s got to limit the damage to bogey.
Sam Burns is on the charge! He tramlines a 50-footer across 8 and that’s his fourth birdie on the front nine! The 29-year-old from Louisiana came so close last year, and now he’s got to within two of the lead today. Meanwhile back on 5, Wyndham Clark faces a difficult pitch up from the back of the green … and doesn’t bump it all the way up. It comes back down the slope towards him, and all of a sudden, this US Open is on.
Wyndham Clark, the adrenaline flowing, fizzes an eight-iron through the 5th green and over. Down the bank, into some light rough. Collin Morikawa took a couple to get back up from there. Scottie’s up next, and perhaps spooked at what he’s just seen, only just makes it onto the green. But that’s the careful play, and he’ll have a look at eagle from the best part of 40 feet.
Clark made some other-worldly up and downs yesterday, but that scramble might be the most important of all. Had he dropped a stroke, there would have been a sense of the field closing in a bit, the pressure further ratcheted up. But that’s kept everyone at arm’s length. However one more player has just joined the red-figure club: Emilaino Grillo, who curls in a 20-footer on 6 to move to -1.
JT Poston rakes in a Texas Wedge from off the front of 12. He moves into red figures. Meanwhile yet another birdie for Tyrrell Hatton, this time at 16. A bogey for Tommy Fleetwood, who fails to get up and down from a greenside bunker at 7. Then coming through afterwards, Keith Mitchell nearly makes a 30-footer for birdie, but must remain at -1. And then Wyndham Clark rolls in his left-to-right slider from 15 feet to save par! That’s a quite outrageous up and down. His long game hasn’t been all that this weekend; his short game has been out of this world. Par for Scheffler.
-6: Clark (4)
-3: Burns (6)
-1: Poston (12), Mitchell (6)
E: Hatton (16), Fleetwood (7), Schauffele (7), Grillo (5), Kim (4), Scheffler (4)
What looked like hardpan from distance is in fact trodden-down grass. So it’s a decent enough lie for Wyndham Clark, who has caught a fair few breaks while going off piste yesterday and today. But you’ve got to take advantage of these things, and that’s what he does, yet again. A lovely crisp lob to 15 feet, about the best he could expect in sending his ball over a cart path and a bunker, the pin tucked in behind. If he escapes with a par here, everything and anything will seem possible.
Is the pressure getting to Wyndham Clark? He sends his drive at 4 into a fairway bunker, then carves his second over the gallery to the right, the ball bounding off a cart path and landing on some hard pan. He spins around in disgust and shakes his head. It’s certainly a hole that can take a chunk out of you: Sahith Theegala has just made double on it to crash down the standings to +1. Scottie Scheffler gets on in regulation, and here’s another big matchplay-style moment coming up.
Some admin regarding action passed. Tommy Fleetwood might live to regret a short birdie putt missed on 5; he’s nevertheless going well, a clean card through six holes and five behind Clark. Collin Morikawa knifed a wedge from a greenside bunker at 5, then failed to get up from the bottom of a swale behind the green, en route to a bogey six … but he’s bounced back with a long birdie rake across 7. He’s level par. And Tyrrell Hatton birdies 15: he’s three under for his round today and at +1 shaping up for another impressive showing at the US Open, following last year’s tie for fourth.
Scottie Scheffler hasn’t enjoyed himself on the front nine this week. He’s currently cumulatively five over going out, and sending his tee shot into the deep fescue down the left of 3 won’t help that stat. He whistles his second into greenside sand, and doesn’t get particularly close with his splash out. But he rolls in the putt, and pumps the air with his fist. He’s clinging on at the moment, but with Wyndham Clark missing a 15-foot birdie putt, he’s lost no ground despite that scrappy hole. He remains level par, six behind the leader.
-6: Clark (3)
-3: Burns (5)
-1: Fleetwood (6), Mitchell (5), Kim (3), Theegala (3)
E: Morikawa (7), Schauffele (6), Stevens (4), Scheffler (3)
JT Poston has inserted himself into the equation. The 33-year-old from North Carolina is in good form, having won the Memorial Tournament a couple of weeks ago, and he’s just carded four birdies in five holes to hit the turn in 32 strokes. He’s level par, as eagle-eyed readers will have already noticed. Meanwhile Sam Burns and Keith Mitchell take turns to roll in mid-distance putts on 5 for birdie; they’re -3 and -1 respectively.
Joaquin Niemann pars his way home and signs for a 66. What a performance from the brilliant Chilean. What that septuple-bogey 11 (!) on Thursday might have cost him. He’s the new clubhouse leader at +1.
Wyndham Clark putts up from the fringe at the back of 2 to four feet. That’s a fine effort, but it still leaves a tricky short bogey putt with right-to-left break. He makes the putt, but only just; a more tentative prod would have sent that wide left. Scottie Scheffler’s birdie putt nearly drops, but par will have to do. Meanwhile on 3, Sahith Theegala rolls in a 20-foot right-to-left slider to get into the red at -1 … and Tom Kim follows him in for a birdie of his own to join him at -1.
-6: Clark (2)
-2: Burns (4)
-1: Fleetwood (5), Kim (3), Theegala (3)
E: Poston (9), Schauffele (5), Mitchell (4), Stevens (3), Scheffler (2)
Clark whips up and over a bunker, onto the green. But the slope takes his ball off the back. Only just, but two putts from there will be a result. As the ball left the putting surface, a sizeable section of the gallery cheered loudly: they’re obviously behind Scheffler. This sort of thing can either get in a player’s head – see Colin Montgomerie passim – or fuel them to greater things. Let’s see which way this goes.
Clark goes for a gentle fade into the par-three 2nd. But he sends it straight left, so much so that it clears the tallest fescue to the side of the green. It’s still in thick rough, though. The same mistake he made on 17 last night, but this time there’s no camera podium from which to get relief. On Sky, Paul McGinley calls a double-cross, suggesting that could be something that will get into his head, given what happened yesterday on 17. Clark looks a little concerned, especially as Scheffler then does exactly what he was trying to do, a fade that lands on the front-left portion of the green, the camber of the putting surface bringing his ball round to 17 feet. Big chip from the rough for Clark coming up; he’s been up to the task more often than not this week.
Clark can’t make his birdie putt, which shaves the left lip. But that’s a nerve-settling opening par, the hole played without fuss or drama. Then Scheffler, to almost funereal silence, shoves his par putt wide right. He stands there scratching his head in confusion as Clark bounds off to the next tee with an extra spring in his step. That couldn’t have gone much better for the leader, missed birdie putt notwithstanding.
-7: Clark (1)
-2: Burns (3)
-1: Fleetwood (1)
E: Morikawa (4), Mitchell (3), Stevens (2), Kim (2), Theegala (2), Scheffler (1)
Scheffler needs a fast start to eat into Clark’s lead and apply some matchplay-style pressure. But his second into 1 takes a hot bounce off a downslope and disappears over the back, into a thick fringe. He’s got to whip out high, and does very well, getting to within six feet. But that’ll be a tester to save par … and Clark has stuck his approach pin high to 15 feet. A birdie attempt coming up, and a possible two-shot swing. This could nix any hope of Scheffler gaining momentum from the get-go!
Up on the green, Tom Kim and Sahith Theegala both make disappointing – and frankly careless – three-putt bogeys. They slip back to level par. Heading the other way: Sam Burns, who follows up birdie at 1 with another at 3. Burns came so close last year, leading after 54 holes at Oakmont, but his final round was an almost literal wash-out of 78. Burns is on course to best last year’s tie for seventh.
-7: Clark
-2: Burns (3)
-1: Fleetwood (4), Scheffler
E: Morikawa (4), Mitchell (3), Stevens (2), Kim (1), Theegala (1)
♪ ♫ ♬ “Happy birthday to you / Happy birthday to you / Happy birthday dear Scottie (30), Happy birthday to you! ” ♪ ♫ ♬ It’s the final match of the 126th US Open. Scheffler belts his tee shot down the middle. Wyndham Clark, who was a bit wayward off the tee yesterday, takes iron for safety and finds the fairway as well. Everyone’s out! It’s on! More cheers for Scottie than Clark, by the way, which will partly be a popularity thing – America loves a winner, and Scheffler’s on the brink of a career slam – but also from a desire to witness a sporting contest. Nothing personal, Wyndham. That’s showbiz!
♪ ♫ ♬ “Happy birthday to you / Happy birthday to you / Happy birthday dear Tom Kim (23), Happy birthday to you! ” ♪ ♫ ♬ The penultimate pairing take to the tee, and it features the birthday boy Tom Kim. There’d be few more popular winners if the young Korean made it today, and he’s on the 1st in regulation, as is his playing partner Sahith Theegala, whose victory would go down very well with the gallery too. See also: Tommy Fleetwood, who knocks his wedge at 3 from 144 yards to four feet and tidies up for his second birdie in a row. Just the five more for another final-day 63 at Shinnecock, then! He’s -1.
The defending champion JJ Spaun didn’t make the weekend. Last year’s runner-up did, though, and Robert MacIntyre has finished his week with a level-par 70. He’s +7, and wouldn’t be human if he’s still not cursing Viktor Hovland for giving Spaun a read ahead of that tournament-winning putt. Meanwhile in other European news, Justin Rose has just made three birdies in a row, on 11, 12 and 13, to rise up the standings to +1. A top-ten finish within reach for the 2013 champ.
There have been quite a few shots of both Wyndham Clark and Scottie Scheffler going through their practice routines. Clark wedging an alignment stick through the loops of his trousers for real-time hip analysis; Scheffler missing a few short putts, which doesn’t augur well. Meanwhile here’s more good news for Clark courtesy of David ‘Not That One’ Howell: “The scoring variance has continued to be lower than in prior US Opens here, and low variance is obviously what a six-shot leader wants. Secondly, finding fairways doesn’t seem to be as important today. Lots of players have been scoring over par while hitting most fairways, and several of today’s best rounds have come in spite of missing a few. Considering that Clark has historically not been the straightest off the tee, it’s reasonable to assume he might find the fescue a bit under pressure, but that might not be a death sentence today.” Speaking of belt loops, any old excuse to enjoy the greatest zinger ever told …
Another final round of 63 in a US Open at Shinnecock is statistically, realistically too much to ask of Tommy Fleetwood. Surely. But he’s just raked in a long birdie putt across the par-three 2nd to join the group at level par in short order. Just the six more birdies needed. What better excuse to refresh the leaderboard for the first time in this report?
-7: Clark
-1: Scheffler, Theegala, Kim, Stevens
E: Fleetwood (2), Schauffele (2), Mitchell (1), Grillo
+1: Niemann (14), Woodland (9), Morikawa (2)
+2: Rose (12), Griffin (11), Hatton (11), Bhatia (8), Rai (6), M Fitzpatrick (2)
A lovely moment on 18 as the 17-year-old amateur Miles Russell walks up 18. The youngest player in the field is on in regulation, and having hit his approach, wears a smile as wide as Long Island itself as his caddie hands his official vest and bag of clubs over to his dad. Father and son make the last walk up the fairway together, and that is such a sweet moment. Russell Sr. (not that one, Pulp fans) helps Miles line up his final putt, a long right-to-left swinger that nearly drops. A tap-in for par and a final round of 70. He finishes the week at +7. His playing partner today, fellow amateur Jackson Koivun of North Carolina, birdies for a 68 and finishes at +5. He’ll be keeping an eye on what Ryder Cowan gets up to: the only player left who can beat Koivun to Low Amateur status and the Jack Nicklaus Medal has bogeyed 2 and is currently +3 overall through 4.
Joaquin Niemann might be the one to take advantage of the relatively benign conditions. Out in 33, the Chilean, much touted as a major champion in waiting, has subsequently birdied 10 and now 13 to move to four under for his round, and +1 overall. He’ll be cursing his opening round of 78, and that toddler’s tanty on the par-four 6th, at which he took 11 strokes. A septuple bogey! Two tee shots out of bounds, a back-and-forth with the referee in a doomed attempt to get relief from fire ants in the fescue, and a two-shot penalty for a coptered club. Oh Joaquin! He’s currently +1 for the tournament, and in theory, if we factor out the butterfly effect and linear nature of history, would now be just one off the pace sans meltdown. A lesson for all you kids out there: keep your cool, it pays in the long run. (Though it is fun to launch a club in a fit of pique. Well, it is. It might not be right but it is. I don’t write the rules.)
Ludvig Åberg birdies the last for a final round of 66. Another major championship of what-ifs for the young Swede, who it’s easy to forget is still only making his 11th major-championship appearance this week. He ends the week at +3 and is the new clubhouse leader. Some more proof that there’s a score out there for the chasing pack. Only problem being, it’s also out there for Wyndham Clark, and look at the 64 he shot on Thursday when the wind was down.
Meanwhile here’s a reminder of how easily a six-shot advantage can be whittled away on a major-championship Sunday …
… plus memories of Brooks Koepka nearly letting a seven-shot lead slip. Suffice to say, Wyndham Clark, as dominant as he’s been so far, won’t be taking anything for granted just yet.
A six-shot lead, though. Courtesy of an old Joy of Six, here’s the story of how Arnold Palmer came from seven back in 1960 (though to be clear, 54-hole leader Mike Souchak was only two ahead of the field going into the final round).
“You’re dead,” scoffed golf writer Bob Drum. He’d just been asked by Arnold Palmer, two times a Master but yet to land his national title, if a final-round 65 could win the US Open. “Nah, you’re too far back, Arnie. That would do nothing.” Palmer threw his half-eaten cheeseburger down – it was lunch between the third and fourth rounds of the 1960 tournament at Cherry Hills near Denver, the final 36 holes in those days all played on the Saturday – and left the locker room in the lofty state of high dudgeon.
In fairness to Drum, his was a reasonable, if slightly tactless, response. Palmer came into the Open as the favourite, fresh from winning at Augusta, but he pushed his opening tee shot into a ditch, double bogeyed the first hole, and never quite got going. He’d putted poorly, and after three rounds was seven shots behind the leader Mike Souchak. There were 13 other players in between the two, including four-time winner Ben Hogan, Gary Player, former champ Julius Boros, the pop singer Don Cherry (!) and a promising young amateur called Jack Nicklaus. Yep, Arnie was dead.
Except, of course, Arnie wasn’t dead. Steam trailing from his lugs – “I was a little angry at Drum and his attitude,” recalled Palmer – he took to the first tee and attempted to drive the green at the short par four. His ball rolled to 20 feet. He didn’t make the eagle putt, but birdie was a good enough start. Come the 4th, he’d made four of them in a row. By the 7th, he’d made another two, by which point he was jigging across the turf in a syncopated manner, repeatedly tossing his visor into the air in celebration. A shot was dropped at 8, but he still reached the turn in 30 strokes, a new tournament record.
That pique-fuelled charge – followed by one last birdie at 11 – was enough to land Palmer the title. Souchak, unnerved by the ear-splitting noise generated by Palmer’s gallery – which now included Drum, the player greeting the hapless scribe on his arrival with a raised eyebrow and a wry “fancy seeing you here!” – fell apart. Young Nicklaus briefly held the lead but, callow and nervous, naively elected to putt over a ball mark and three putted, all momentum lost. Finally Hogan, who had hit 34 out of 34 greens in regulation on the final day going up 17, dumped his approach in water while striving too hard to nudge ahead of Palmer, then got wet again from the tee at the last. Palmer’s seven-shot comeback was the greatest in US Open history, the visor he launched on the final green still, it’s said, in orbit. Nice that Arnie celebrated so well while the going was good, because a mere six years later, he would, unlike his cap, come crashing back down to earth.
There were only two rounds under par yesterday. Emiliano Grillo shot 67 in the windiest of the conditions; Scottie Scheffler carded 69 after coming home in 32 strokes. It was tough. And it’s tough again today, of course … just not so tough. There isn’t as much wind, and though the greens are still hard and fast, there’s already been evidence that something is out there for someone. Maybe it’s already been done, because already there have been three sub-70 rounds this morning/afternoon, one more than the whole of Moving Day. Peter Uihlein, who shot 80 yesterday, has finished his week with a 66, a score that’s only been bettered in this tournament so far by Wyndham Clark (64), Collin Morikawa (65) and Joaquin Niemann (65), and matched by Xander Schauffele (66) and Dustin Johnson (66). James Nicholas has followed up yesterday’s 82 with 69. And Ben James has shot 67. So it’s on. Possibly. Another final round of 63 for Tommy Fleetwood? Let’s rule nothing out. An 83 is realistic too.
Preamble
If Wyndham Clark doesn’t turn the 126th US Open into a procession, we’ll have one heck of a story on our hands. After a third round of 70 mainly constructed on a foundation of world-class scrambling, but also featuring one of the great US Open fairway woods to set up eagle at 16, Clark established a six-stroke lead …
-7: Wyndham Clark
-1: Scottie Scheffler, Sahith Theegala, Tom Kim, Sam Stevens
E: Emiliano Grillo, Keith Mitchell, Sam Burns, Xander Schauffele
+1: Tommy Fleetwood, Collin Morikawa, Matt Fitzpatrick
Selected others: Aaron Rai (+3), Rory McIlroy (+3), Gary Woodland (+3), Duston Johnson (+4), Justin Rose (+4)
… and nobody has ever given up such a 54-hole advantage in US Open history. The largest lead lost after three rounds is five, by Mike Brady to Walter Hagen in 1919, though Arnold Palmer won from seven back in 1960 and Johnny Miller did it from six behind in 1973. So depending on how you want to look at this, a win for anyone other than Clark today is either without precedent or proven to be possible. History teaches us nothing.
Even so, it’s unlikely that Clark will be doing anything other than lifting up the big old cup. However he’d have surely picked a different player to be the next cab on the rank, and his playing partner today: the world number one Scottie Scheffler, the career slam almost within touching distance. Those players to claw back a big deficit again: Walter Hagen, Arnold Palmer, Johnny Miller. Talent out of the top drawer, where Scheffler also resides. And it’s the US Open, at the notoriously difficult Shinnecock, where you can bet the USGA will have one or two final tricks up their sleeve. If Clark’s nerves start rattling, and someone in the chasing pack goes on a heater, you never know. Or maybe Clark will simply do what he did yesterday: grind, fight, hold firm, then play another majestic fade into the 16th to set up a carpe-diem eagle. We’ll find out soon enough. Here are today’s tee times (all BST). It’s on!
12.45pm: Dylan Wu, James Nicholas
12.56pm: Peter Uihlein, Russell Henley
1.07pm: Patrick Rodgers, Eric Lee (a)
1.18pm: Neal Shipley, Hideki Matsuyama
1.29pm: Adrien Dumont de Chassart, Nico Echavarria
1.40pm: Caleb Surratt, Ben James
1.51pm: Jackson Van Paris, Spencer Tibbits
2.02pm: Kurt Kitayama, Max Greyserman
2.18pm: Marek Fleming (a), Jacob Bridgeman
2.29pm: Johnny Keefer, Ludvig Åberg
2.40pm: Ryan Fox, Angel Hidalgo
2.51pm: Miles Russell (a), Jackson Koivun (a)
3.02pm: Robert MacIntyre, Chris Gotterup
3.13pm: Harry Higgs, Andrew Putnam
3.24pm: Michael Brennan, Jordan Spieth
3.35pm: Bud Cauley, Ben Kohles
3.51pm: Cameron Young, Joaquin Niemann
4.02pm: Laurie Canter, Justin Thomas
4.13pm: William Mouw, Niklas Norgaard
4.24pm: Max McGreevy, Justin Rose
4.35pm: Ben Griffin, Tyrrell Hatton
4.46pm: Pierceson Coody, Dustin Johnson
4.57pm: Ryo Hisatsune, Gary Woodland
5.13pm: Akshay Bhatia, Rory McIlroy
5.24pm: Maverick McNealy, Brian Harman
5.35pm: Zac Blair, Aaron Rai
5.46pm: John Parry, JT Poston
5.57pm: Sungjae Im, Michael Kim
6.08pm: Ryder Cowan (a), Alex Fitzpatrick
6.19pm: Corey Conners, Keegan Bradley
6.35pm: Matt Fitzpatrick, Collin Morikawa
6.46pm: Tommy Fleetwood, Xander Schauffele
6.57pm: Sam Burns, Keith Mitchell
7.08pm: Emiliano Grillo, Sam Stevens
7.19pm: Tom Kim, Sahith Theegala
7.30pm: Scottie Scheffler, Wyndham Clark