Wyndham Clark extended his lead to four shots heading into round three of the US Open at Shinnecock Hills on Friday. Image courtesy usopen.com.
By Rahul Banerji
Wyndham Clark will take four-shot lead into Moving Day at the 126th US Open after a hard grind in Southampton, New York, on Friday.
He set out early to finish his first round and wrapped up the second as a part of the morning wave, giving him time to watch the USA beat Australia in the football World Cup and seal qualification to the second round.
The kicker for the 2023 winner? No 36-hole leader has gone on to win the US Open at Shinnecock Hills.
Ahead of Saturday’s third round, Clark was on 7 under par 133 riding on an opening 6 under 64 before adding a second round 69 to sit four shots up the road from Xander Schauffele, Alex Fitapatrick, Sam Stevens and Joohyung ‘Tom’ Kim.
England’s Fitzpatrick (67-70) is the 2022 US Open winner and a two-time major champion.
Schauffele (71-66) is an Olympic champion. Former collegiate star Stevens (66-69) is still seeking his first PGA Tour victory and has made the cut in all four of his US Open starts, while Kim (70-67) has won thrice on the Tour.
A further shot behind is two-time major champion Collin Morikawa (73-65) on 2 under 138 and five strokes behind Clark.
Quality pursuers
At 1 under 139 are Sam Burns, who has top-10 US Open finishes in his last two starts, two-time PGA champion Justin Thomas, Harry Higgs and Indian-American star Sahith Theegala (67).
Following Theegala into the weekend round was Akshay Bhatia, another golfer of Indian origin who played in this year’s Indian Open, part of an 11-strong group at even par 140 along with past winners Rory McIlroy and Gary Woodland besides world number one Scottie Scheffler.
PGA champion Aaron Rai (74-67) was part of another large group, in shared 22nd place at 1 over 141.
Seventy-two players, including five amateurs, made the cut at 4 over 144 that eliminated the likes of Bryson DeChambeau, Brooka Koepka, Jon Rahm and defending champion J.J. Spaun. It was the lowest cut line at a Shinnecock Hills US Open.
“Yesterday, I really drove it great, and then I was just really conservative into the greens,” said 2023 champion Clark later.“These greens are obviously the challenge of this golf course.
“Then today I kind of did the same thing. Wasn’t as sharp, but the consistency of hitting it to kind of conservative targets really paid off.
“I’ve progressed as the year has gone on. I wasn’t quite putting the scores and the results together, but then as I started putting well and found a putter, then everything started coming together. Then you start really building confidence.
Building momentum
“All that together kind of just built momentum and we find ourselves here.”
Playing in the second wave on Friday, both McIlroy and Scheffler were hampered by the wind, which picked up late on Friday. Said the world no. 1, “With the amount of pitch you have on the greens, playing in the wind is extremely difficult, and judging speed on putts when the wind is blowing that hard can be challenging as well.
“There’s a lot that goes into how they want to set up this golf course … My job is to go out there and play it.”
Added McIlroy speaking to Sky Sports, “Even par going into the weekend isn’t terrible. I’m only three back of second place but obviously Wyndham’s built a bit of a lead.”
Two other golfers of Indian origin from the starting field — Sudarshan Yellamraju of Canada and Indo-American qualifier Manav Shah — did not make it to the weekend rounds.
Yellamaraju finished at 5 over 145 with rounds of 73 and 72, while Shah, playing in his maiden major had rounds of 73 and 74 to total 7 over 147 alongside the likes of Australian star Min Woo Lee and Austria’s Sepp Straka, both notable performers on the PGA Tour.
Also read: Wyndham Clark gets off to a flier in round 1 at Shinnecock Hills
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