GOLF CHANNEL
LOS ANGELES — Wyndham Clark survived a tricky layout and outplayed some of the game’s most well-known players to win the 123rd U.S. Open on Sunday at Los Angeles Country Club.
Clark shot even-par 70 to earn his first major victory in his seventh major start. It’s his second PGA Tour title, coming three starts after his maiden win last month at the Wells Fargo Championship, a designated event.
The 29-year-old finished at 10 under par, one clear of Rory McIlroy. Scottie Scheffler (70) finished three back, in third place, with Cam Smith (67) alone in fourth place at 6 under. Rickie Fowler shot 5-over 75 to tie for fifth.
“You know, this is now my second win on the PGA Tour and first one was surreal and this one is surreal. It hasn’t quite hit me yet. Walking up 18 was pretty emotional, and then finishing,” Clark said. “But yeah, it’s been a whirlwind of the last five, six weeks. It’s been – just so blessed and humbled to be here.”
For McIlroy, it was shades of last year’s Open Championship at St. Andrews, where he couldn’t get putts to fall in the final round and fell to Smith.
Birdies weren’t as significant this Sunday, but McIlroy didn’t make enough. In fact, he just made one, on his first hole. One birdie, one bogey for a 70.
Clark, who shared the overnight lead with Fowler, set the early Sunday pace with three birdies and a bogey over his first seven holes. Fowler, meanwhile, bogeyed Nos. 2, 5 and 7.
With Fowler falling five back, Clark’s closest competitor was McIlroy. The Northern Irishman birdied the par-5 first, but then parred out on the front nine to stay stuck at 10 under.
Clark, at 12 under, ran into trouble at the par-5 eighth, when his second shot settled in thick fescue short of the green. He whiffed on his third shot and blasted his fourth through the putting surface. Clark was able to save bogey and then made a 7-footer for par at the ninth – following a brilliant pitch shot to that position – to make the turn with a one-stroke advantage over McIlroy.
Fowler managed to stay in the mix, thanks to a birdie at No. 8, the resultant two-shot swing with Clark allowing him to cut his deficit to three.
Scheffler, meanwhile, entered the closing nine four back, trading a wild bogey at the seventh for a routine two-putt birdie at the eighth, his only scoring holes on the outward half.
A four-player race quickly came down to two, however, as Scheffler and Fowler both hit into the same greenside bunker at the par-3 11th and made bogey. For good measure, they each bogeyed the 12th.
It was Clark vs. McIlroy, with McIlroy one group ahead. And for the 2011 U.S. Open champion, it was par after par after par. He missed a 4-footer for birdie at No. 8, a 12-footer at No. 9, a 15-footer at No. 10 and an 18-footer at No. 11.
But, he made no bogeys.
While Clark was scrambling, hole after hole, to avoid squares, McIlroy was hitting greens – 12 of his first 13 – and safely two-putting.
Then came the par-5 14th. After driving it into the left rough and laying up to 125 yards, McIlroy missed the green short with a wedge. His ball embedded into the grass above the face of a bunker, from which he was able to get relief. Taking a drop in the greenside rough, McIlroy pitched to 9 feet and again – but this time for par – missed.
“I feel like I didn’t time the shot perfectly,” McIlroy said of his approach. “I hit it when the wind was at its strongest and the ball just got hit a lot by the wind, and obviously it came up short. If I had it back, I think I had the right club and the right shot. I might have just had to wait an extra 15 or 20 seconds to let that little gust settle.”
McIlroy walked off the 14th green two back, at 9 under, leaving it open – literally – for Clark. After an extended wait, Clark launched a fairway wood from 282 yards to 20 feet. He two-putted for birdie, his first since the sixth hole, to extend his lead to three with four to play.
He needed every one of those shots.
Clark made a sloppy bogey at the 139-yard, par-3 15th (the only bogey of anyone in the field on that hole Sunday) and then hit his tee shot on the par-4 16th into a fairway bunker. After laying up, he hit a wedge from 133 yards to 7 feet but lipped out the par save.
McIlroy entered the 502-yard, par-4 18th one back and laced a tee shot 321 yards down the right side of the fairway. With 181 yards remaining, he first backed off his approach shot and then tugged an iron 41 feet left of the hole.
His birdie effort to tie for the lead rolled by the right edge.
Eleven months ago at St. Andrews, McIlroy hit all 18 greens and took 36 putts in the final round. This Sunday, he hit 15 greens and needed one too many swipes.
“The more I keep putting myself in these positions, sooner or later it’s going to happen for me. Just got to regroup and get focused for Hoylake in a few weeks’ time,” said McIlroy, whose last major win came at Royal Liverpool in 2014.
“When I do finally win this next major, it’s going to be really, really sweet. I would go through 100 Sundays like this to get my hands on another major championship.”
Clark, ultimately, needed two putts to win. After a great up and down at the 17th to save par, he hit the green in two at No. 18, but 60 feet away.
With the crowd allowed to encircle the green, Clark calmly rolled his birdie putt to within 2 feet and tapped in for par and the victory.
THIRD ROUND
LOS ANGELES — Rickie Fowler was flamboyant as ever Friday in the U.S. Open, not so much with his attire as a golf game so wildly entertaining that he made only four pars in his 2-under 68 that gave him a share of the 36-hole record and a one-shot lead going into the weekend.
Los Angeles Country Club tried to fight back after a record opening day of low scores, and help arrived in the form of a blazing sun and just enough wind to keep the toughest test in golf from turning into a festival of birdies.
Fowler still did his part, making birdies on half of the holes he has played over two rounds. What mattered was leading a major at the halfway point for the first time, and growing confidence that his three-year slump is well behind him.
He was at 10-under 130, tying the U.S. Open record set by Martin Kaymer in 2014 at Pinehurst No. 2. Fowler led by one shot over Wyndham Clark (67), with Rory McIlroy (67) and Xander Schauffele (70) two shots behind.
“Yes, I’m in the lead, but we’re only halfway there,” Fowler said. “Being in the lead is nice, but it really means nothing right now. I’m looking forward to continuing to challenge myself and go out there and try and execute the best I can.”
He started with three straight birdies, all of them from about 6 feet. The two bogeys he made on the front nine were followed by birdies. He started the back nine with two bogeys, only to answer with a 25-foot birdie putt. Back and forth it went, all round, until he finished with a beauty of an approach to 8 feet on the 17th, the hardest hole of the round.
Schauffele, who matched Fowler’s record-breaking 62 on Thursday, had a wild ride of his own.
He was tied for the lead at one point early on the back nine, approaching a few holes that could yield birdies. They produced bogeys instead, both times with a wedge in hand on the par-5 14th and the 115-yard 15th hole.
He birdied the final two holes to stay very much in the game.
“Just leaking some oil,” Schauffele said. “I bogeyed two holes I was supposed to have good birdie looks on. But I’m happy with how I finished.”
Clark, who last month broke through with his first PGA Tour title against an elite field at Quail Hollow, started strong with a bold flop shot that set up a birdie and a 40-foot birdie putt on the back nine, and then he held it together over his final nine holes.
Closing fast was McIlroy, without a major in nine years, overcoming a rugged start with four birdies on his last five holes. He was at 132, the sixth time he has been 8 under or lower going into the weekend at a major. He won three of those previous five times.
“I felt like coming into this week that was going to be a key for me if I could put the ball in play. You can play from there and create some scoring opportunities,” McIlroy said. “That’s really my game plan over the next couple days. Put the ball in play off the tee, and I think I’ll be just fine from there.”
Not to be overlooked was Dustin Johnson, the two-time major champion who made a quadruple-bogey 8 on his second hole with six bad shots, one penalty and a tap-in. The man with golf’s shortest memory rebounded quickly and still shot 70, leaving him four shots behind and very much in the mix going into a weekend.
The North course wasn’t tricky — USGA setup man John Bodenhamer said it would not be as “stupid hard” as it could be — and instead relied on maximum length. That included a pair of par 3s nearly reaching 300 yards.
“I think there was maybe five or six tees that were put back, and then not only that, a lot of times they had a back tee, they had a back pin,” Clark said. “So it was playing pretty long.”
Clark’s two big moments came on the par-5 14th that played 605 yards with a front right pin tucked behind a massive bunker complex. He was all the way to the left in the sticky, gnarly collar of another bunker and sent his shot skyward, over a corner of the sand to the tiny section of green, and then made a 12-footer for birdie.
The other was on the 16th from 40 feet, a putt he misread in the practice round and got right with a scorecard in hand.
McIlroy didn’t envision such low scoring, including his opening 65, which he attributed to cloud cover, condensation and receptive greens.
“The conditions now, it’s a little brighter, sunnier, a little bit of breeze. It’s got the potential to get a little firmer and faster over the next couple days, which will make the scores go up a little bit,” McIlroy said. “We’ll see what it’s like at the end of the week.
“Yes, the course has played maybe a little easier than everyone thought it would, but wouldn’t be surprised on Saturday, Sunday to see it bite back,” McIlroy said. “It should be tough. It should be just as much of a mental grind out there as a physical one.”
McIlroy had his share of mistakes on the back nine with errant shots off the tee, including the 297-yard 11th hole, the second-longest par 3 for a U.S. Open. But he had a 30 on the front nine for the second straight day by taking advantage of the scoring holes and ending his round with a tee shot on the par-3 ninth to 3 feet.
Harris English also shot 30 on the front nine to finish off his 66, leaving him at 7-under 133.
“They can get them as firm and fast as they want and put those pins in some tough spots. It’s going to be fun,” English said. “The rough is still going to be penal. I think everybody is going to get the U.S. Open they’ve been wanting to see.”
On an opening day that featured two 62s (Fowler and Schauffele), the low round belonged to Min Woo Lee, whose 65 left him tied with Johnson at 6-under 134.
Scottie Scheffler was among those five behind.
All of them are chasing Fowler, who is thrilled to be back in this position again. The real test starts Saturday, for Fowler and the rest of the field wondering when a typical U.S. Open will finally arrive.
FIRST ROUND
LOS ANGELES – After breezing through a half-dozen interviews and satisfying a long line of autograph-seekers, Rickie Fowler hung around the scoring area long enough to congratulate the newest member of the 62 Club.
Fowler had held the U.S. Open single-round scoring record by himself for less than 25 minutes before Xander Schauffele rolled through and matched him with an 8-under round of his own. No one else in the early wave at Los Angeles Country Club shot better than 67, the early record-setters seeming to defy belief.
“I personally did not see that,” Scottie Scheffler said, “but I guess it was out there. That’s some serious golf.”
The afternoon starters approached the mark but ultimately fell short in a round in which six players shot 65 or lower on a favorable day that felt more like the old L.A. Open than the national championship.
Of course, there were ample reasons why a pair of Cali kids each carded their lowest major round by three strokes and wiped out 127 years of U.S. Open history in less than a half-hour. Separated by a single group in the morning wave, Fowler and Schauffele warmed up in a drizzle and then played under overcast skies, enough to take some of the fire out of the wickedly fast greens. There was virtually no wind, making the fairways (already 43 yards wide on average) play true to their massive size. And the USGA adopted a kinder, gentler setup (“There were definitely some gettable pins,” Scheffler said) that allowed the 156-man field to get through in a reasonable timeframe.
“It’s not really what you expect playing a U.S. Open,” Schauffele said, “but monkey see, monkey do. Was just chasing Rickie up the leaderboard. Glad he was just in front of me.”
Fowler set the pace by carding a tournament-record 10 birdies, a continuation of the rejuvenated form that has seen him end his prolonged slump and return to the top 50 in the world. Since reuniting nine months ago with swing coach Butch Harmon, Fowler has morphed from a below-average ball-striker on Tour to one of the game’s best. Thursday was an important step, the first time in four years that he’s actually thrust himself into the mix at a major. Walking off the green, he nonchalantly told caddie Ricky Romano that this was how he’d been playing of late – he just dropped a few more putts.
“It’s been trending in the right direction,” Romano said, “and it just kind of all came together today. Golf is a lot of confidence, and I think he’s just built a lot of it.”
No one should have been surprised by Schauffele’s torrid run. Of the world-class players without a major title, Schauffele has played the best in the game’s biggest events over the past six years, particularly in this championship, with six consecutive top-15s.
“It’s built for his game,” said his caddie, Austin Kaiser. He’s consistent. Complete. Unflappable.
Even with Schauffele’s game in gear, Kaiser said he would have taken a 3-under start at the beginning of the day and stayed home. Maybe a 64 was out there, he said, if someone really got cooking.
But a 62?
“It’s unspeakable out here,” Kaiser said.
Schauffele, however, seemed less impressed. It might have been a historic day – the USGA collected artifacts from both players to store in their museum – but ultimately it didn’t mean much to him. In interviews he was quick to downplay the achievement.
“It’s just Thursday,” he said. “It’s literally just the first day of a tournament. It’s a good start.”
His reluctance to gloat was likely twofold: The Open is one-quarter complete, and the USGA is likely to tighten the screws over the next three rounds. There was a general sense that the first round was the easiest LACC would play for the entire week, and the setup czars might be keen to exact some revenge.
“I think the USGA will be a bit frustrated that the number was that low today,” Scheffler said.
“I’m sure after Rickie did what he did they will make it quite a bit harder for us,” added Max Homa.
Smiled Kaiser, “I’m sure the USGA is kind of sweating right now.”
John Bodenhamer, the USGA’s chief championships officer, warned the field that, even with LACC’s unique features, “it’ll be a good ol’ fashioned U.S. Open” in spots.
“We haven’t thrown in the towel, that’s for sure,” Bodenhamer said. “It’s going to be tough. That is what we do.”
The opening-round scoring average (71.3) suggested otherwise, the lowest mark – by nearly a stroke – in tournament history. But with a dry forecast that should allow the USGA to have complete control of the setup, it shouldn’t stay forgiving for long. They can deprive the greens of water. Cut holes on humps, mounds and knobs. Extend some tee markers. Dial up the torture meter. Bodenhamer promised a “spicier” setup.
“You just wait until this place firms up,” Schauffele said. “It’s going to be nasty.”
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