WYNDHAM Clark heard it all day from the Shinnecock Hills crowd. Fans shouted for his golf ball to go in the bunker and the rough. One was ejected after yelling: “Don’t choke, Wyndham!”
He quieted them with a 52-foot putt to tap-in range for his second US Open title in four years, avoiding the worst collapse in tournament history after his six-stroke lead dwindled to one.
Oh, how this anybody-but-Wyndham crowd would’ve relished that.
New York loves a winner, but the one these fans really wanted to see was Scottie Scheffler, who was chasing the career Grand Slam, or Sam Burns, who lost by a stroke. Not Clark.
Call it backlash for him damaging a locker in a fit of rage at Oakmont Country Club while missing the cut last year in the US Open. Or for saying on TV that being surrounded by kids playing in the Masters Par 3 Contest was “great birth control.” Or even for winning his first US Open title in 2023 over fan favorites Rory McIlroy and Rickie Fowler.
Or maybe the folks spending their Father’s Day at Shinnecock just wanted to see a little drama after Clark built leads of two, four and six strokes after each of the first three days.
“Man, they definitely didn’t want me to win,” Clark said.
On Saturday, he complained that fans had largely deserted the course by the time he was finishing his third round. On Sunday, he might’ve wished they had stayed home.
It’s rare for a golfer in the lead at a major championship — or any golfer for that matter — to be the subject of such derision. It happened to McIlroy at the Ryder Cup last September at Bethpage Black, also on Long Island, but that was a team competition. McIlroy was the star of the winning European side and US fans went overboard in letting him have it.
Clark said he tried to see himself in an “underdog” role on Sunday, as he did in 2023.
“Anytime someone said something negative to me, I replaced it with something positive,” Clark said. “Some of it’s self-deserved. I kind of brought it on myself, but I also get it, too. Scottie was going for the career Grand Slam, and it hasn’t happened very often.”
Even so, the animosity appeared to rattle Clark early in his round. He bogeyed the second, sixth and seventh holes as fans threw their support behind Scheffler. They cheered Clark’s mistakes while showering Scheffler with affection — even serenading the four-time major champion, who turned 30 on Sunday, with “Happy Birthday.”
It was “Get in the bunker!” for Clark and “We love you Scottie!” for Scheffler, who tied for fourth at even par. AP
LOS ANGELES — The PGA Tour unveiled a dramatic overhaul of professional golf in the United States that will see the circuit divided into two distinct structures.
Under the new system, which will be launched in 2028, the tour will comprise a lucrative PGA Tour Championship Series of around 23-24 events which will include the majors and international events such as the Ryder Cup.
A second tier of at least 20 events -- the PGA Tour Challenger Series -- will run alongside the Championship Series, offering golfers the chance to secure a pathway to the elite circuit.
A system of player promotion and relegation between the two tiers will also be introduced.
The shake-up is the result of a working group from the PGA Tour’s Future Competition Committee, chaired by Tiger Woods, which has been studying ways of revitalizing golf.
“From day one, the focus of the Future Competition Committee has been to build the best version of the PGA Tour, and to do so in a way that reflects the voice of our players and the expectations of our fans,” PGA Tour chief executive Brian Rolapp said in a statement.
“The result is a new competitive model grounded in meritocracy, with clearer pathways, higher stakes and more consistency when the best players compete together.
“This model positions the PGA Tour for the future, and our focus now shifts to finalizing the details and preparing for implementation in 2028.”
Each PGA Tour Championship Series event will boast a purse of at least $20 million with fields of 120 players, with a 36 hole cut to the top 65 and ties.
The series, which will run in a season stretching from February to August, will also feature a new-look postseason with the introduction of match play and a new-look Tour Championship played across a rotation of courses.
Leading players from the PGA Tour Championship Series will also be eligible for a limited series of “elevated international events” organized in conjunction with Europe’s DP World Tour, the PGA Tour said.
Challenger Series events will feature minimum purses of $4 million.
The PGA Tour said the top 90 finishers out of 130 players in the Championship Series will be exempt for the following season, while those finishing outside the top 90 could face relegation to the Challenger Series.
A minimum of 20 players from the Challenger Series will be promoted to the Championship Series the following season.
