Wyndham Clark is in pole position to win the US Open, but he did crack open the door to the hungry chasing pack.
All he needed was to hole a five-foot putt to stay seven shots in the lead on the final hole, but he missed it. It was seemingly his first missed putt of the day, but a big one for the mentality of both Clark and those looking to hunt him down on Sunday.
Having said that, he does have a six-stroke advantage on the field and is overwhelmingly likely to claim his second US Open title on Sunday. It would take an outright collapse for him to lose his lead.
After his round, Xander Schauffele named the score he thinks Clark will have to shoot to give everyone else a chance.
The score Xander Schauffele thinks Wyndham Clark must shoot for him to lose US Open lead
Schauffele started his third round hot on Clark’s tail, four shots back and hopeful of getting right into contention. Instead, he shot three over par and is now eight shots back of Clark.
Speaking after Saturday’s play, the two-time major winner reflected on his round. He said, “Yeah, it was kind of a little bit of everything, to be honest. Kind of a slow start. Then had a bad stretch of golf there 10 through 12. I hit a great bunker shot on 11, but could have been worse, I guess
“Then I was just trying to get back into touch. Wyndham is playing great, and he’s at 8-under, and kind of the rest of the herd is trailing by a lot, and I’m one of them. Yeah, just kind of a long day, U.S. Open day.”
At one point, Schauffele fell to two over, but made two birdies on the final six holes to give himself an outside chance going into Sunday.
He continued, “I just three-putted on 12 and then got aggressive on 13 with driver off the tee and was able to hit one to tap-in, so that was a nice way to sort of restart, and then snuck a birdie in there on 15. I was trying to get back in the red.
“That would have been a success, I would say, for how the day was going. But I’ll take it, as of right now.”
But he’s still far behind Clark, who he thinks is going to win the US Open as long as he can hit a certain score.
Schauffele said, “You know, the way this tournament is panning out, if I can — in my mind, if I can get to 4- or 5-under, that would be all-world. I’m not even sure if that’s possible tomorrow.
“We’ll see with how the USGA sets the course up. But I’m assuming the members here at Shinnecock don’t want to see 8-under winning, so I’m assuming the wind will go and less water will be put on the greens. It’s going to play sort of what I remember in 2018.
“Kind of the way this is turning out, it’s all in Wyndham’s hands, really. If he plays a really solid round of golf tomorrow, if he shoots even par or 1-over or 2-over, he’s going to win the golf tournament. That’s how I think it’s going to pan out.”
If Clark finds a way to throw this away, it’ll be a collapse that is remembered for decades.
