SOUTHAMPTON, NEW YORK | The wrinkle, if there is such a thing in the six-stroke lead Wyndham Clark holds with one round remaining in the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hill, is a storyteller’s tease.
It’s Scottie Scheffler, the world No. 1, in the final Sunday pairing and one round away from becoming the seventh player to complete the career grand slam. That Sunday also happens to be Scheffler’s 30th birthday is another tease.
But if the story is character driven, Clark is the obvious protagonist, steamrolling through three windy days to sit at 7-under-par 203, six clear of his nearest pursuers and aided by the fact that none of his closest challengers entering the third round pushed him.
“Tomorrow is an awesome new challenge,” said Clark, who has been in control since shooting 64 in the first round.
It’s as if Clark has been immune to the wind and unbothered by the bumpy poa annua greens that arrive in the late afternoon as regularly as sundown. While every other player has scorecard bruises to vouch for Shinnecock’s edge, Clark has played as if he’s in a bubble.
He missed a 7-foot par putt on the 18th hole in the gathering dusk Saturday to trim his lead by a stroke but it felt, at least in the moment, like a rounding error. Moments earlier, Clark had hit the shot of the championship to this point, carving a 275-yard 3-wood to within four feet of the hole, setting up an eagle at the par-5 16th that landed like a hammer on the leaderboard.
It is a performance that requires historical perspective. The largest 54-hole lead lost in U.S. Open history happened in 1919 when Mike Brady couldn’t hold a five-stroke lead over Walter Hagen.
Even by Scheffler’s elevated standards, taking down Clark on Sunday would be a monumental achievement, though Sahith Theegala, Tom Kim and Sam Stevens are also tied at 1-under par 209.
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It is not the largest 54-hole lead in U.S. Open history. Tiger Woods led by 10 strokes at Pebble Beach in 2000, Rory McIlroy led by eight at Congressional in 2011 and Jim Barnes led by seven in 1921.
Twenty-one players have led a major championship by six or more strokes with one round remaining and only one of those players lost. Does the name Greg Norman (at the 1996 Masters) ring a bell?
Even by Scheffler’s elevated standards, taking down Clark on Sunday would be a monumental achievement, though Sahith Theegala, Tom Kim and Sam Stevens are also tied at 1-under-par 209.
“We’ve been battling hard for a few days, and I did a good job of keeping myself in the tournament. I’ll need a really nice round tomorrow if I’m going to try and catch Wyndham,” said Scheffler, whose 1-under 69 was one of just two sub-par rounds on Saturday (Emiliano Grillo’s early 67 was the other).
Three years after taking down McIlroy at Los Angeles Country Club to win the 2023 U.S. Open, Clark has rediscovered his lost form. He won the CJ Cup Byron Nelson a month ago, finished third at the Memorial and had a T11 with a soft Sunday finish last week at the RBC Canadian Open.
While Clark has been generous in discussing and apologizing for his bad behavior in 2025, most notably damaging a locker at Oakmont Country Club during the U.S. Open a year ago, the main talking point is his dominant play on a layout that has flummoxed everyone else.
“It’s kind of a jumbled leaderboard, except for where the leader is,” Kim said of having eight players within one stroke of each other – and an area code away from Clark.
“Scottie is the best player in the world, and he’s going to play, probably, really good. He always does, but it’s nice to have a six-shot lead on him.” – Wyndham Clark
Scheffler spent most of the first three days in neutral, hanging around the periphery rather than center stage. When he bogeyed the first two holes Saturday, it looked as if he was playing himself out of the championship.
It shifted at the par-4 14th hole when Scheffler chipped in from behind the green, turning a difficult up and down into a birdie that produced his first genuine fist pump of the week.
“We’ve been battling for three days now, and at that point over par for the tournament, you can feel like it’s kind of slipping away. To steal one there was really nice,” Scheffler said.
Birdies at 15 and 16 pushed Scheffler to 2-under for the championship and positioned him to be in the final pairing Sunday. He missed a 7-foot par putt on the par-3 17th then saw a birdie putt from inside four feet on the 18th slip past the hole, leaving a bigger deficit than he might have faced.
It’s up to Clark to take advantage of the cushion.
“Scottie is the best player in the world, and he’s going to play, probably, really good,” Clark said. “He always does, but it’s nice to have a six-shot lead on him.
“But really I’m just going to keep approaching it the same way. If I go out and execute and go through my process and hit the shots I know I can hit, I like my chances.”