A six-shot lead, a hostile gallery, and one of the more gripping Sunday finishes in recent major championship history.
The 126th US Open, played at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in Southampton, New York, was always going to produce a story. Shinnecock has that effect. It punishes complacency, rewards the scrambler, and creates theatre on the final day. This year was no exception.
Wire to Wire — and Every Inch of It
Wyndham Clark entered Sunday’s final round six strokes clear. He shot a 73. He still won by one. That tells you more about Shinnecock Hills than it does about the champion.
Clark’s decisive quality all week was scrambling — 16 of 24 saves over four rounds. The most important came on the par-5 16th, when he drove into thick fescue, escaped, and holed a 25-foot birdie to re-establish a two-stroke lead. A three-putt bogey on the 17th reduced it to one. Two putts from 52 feet on the 72nd hole sealed it. Final score: 4-under 276, one ahead of Sam Burns. Clark became the ninth player in US Open history to go wire-to-wire — joining a list that includes Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.
The Crowd and the Redemption
This win carries weight beyond the leaderboard. Clark had a difficult 2025, a season that included a well-documented incident at Oakmont and considerable reputation repair. He arrived at Shinnecock with a portion of the gallery openly against him — many rooting instead for Scottie Scheffler, world number one, chasing the career Grand Slam on his 30th birthday and Father’s Day. Clark handled the noise with composure. “Anytime someone said something negative to me, I replaced it with something positive,” he said. His father, Randall, having taken a red-eye from Denver to surprise his son on Sunday morning, was waiting by the 18th green. It was that kind of afternoon.
The Chasers
Sam Burns had the round of the day — a 67 — and came within a stroke of a playoff. He birdied four of his first eight holes in a charge that, at one point, appeared capable of overturning a seven-shot deficit.
Missed putts on both the 17th and 18th holes ended the run. It was his third consecutive top-ten finish at a US Open.
Scheffler finished tied fourth at even-par 280. The career Grand Slam remains unfinished business.
McIlroy, briefly in contention on Saturday, described the final day as the course “winning the battle.” Tom Kim, ranked 141st in the world and playing as a qualifier, finished a composed solo third at one-under — and earned his exemption into next year’s US Open at Pebble Beach.
What Shinnecock Demands
Shinnecock Hills rewarded one quality above all others this week: the ability to hold a game together when the course is actively working against you. Fescue rough that punishes the wayward shot. Greens fast enough to produce three-putts from anywhere. A wind that changes the arithmetic every hour. Clark’s answer to all of it was definitive.
If Sunday’s final round has put golf firmly back on the agenda — it tends to do that — there are courses rather more welcoming than Shinnecock’s fescue waiting across the Atlantic. Browse our Portugal golf holidays and play in the sunshine, where scrambling is entirely optional.
