Wyndham Clark held off charges by fellow major winners Xander Schauffele, Matt Fitzpatrick and Collin Morikawa to seize a four-stroke lead in Friday’s second round of the US Open at blustery Shinnecock.<\/p>\n
Clark, the 2023 US Open winner, curled in a 33-foot birdie putt at the 18th hole to fire a one-under par 69 and stand on seven-under 133 for 36 holes.<\/p>\n
“I had it on a good line and I almost really called it,” Clark said of his last putt. “I’m glad it went in. It was a great way to finish the round.”<\/p>\n
Clark posted the lowest 36-hole US Open score ever at Shinnecock, his 133 one under the old mark by Phil Mickelson and Shigeki Maruyama from 2004.<\/p>\n
A second-place pack on 137 included England’s Fitzpatrick, South Korean Tom Kim and Americans Schauffele and Sam Stevens with American Morikawa on 138.<\/p>\n
On a 20-hole day, Clark parred his first 10, starting with two holes to complete a six-under 64 opening round after a fog delay prevented completion on Thursday.<\/p>\n
The 32-year-old American began his second round with eight pars but lipped out a 43-foot birdie putt at the ninth then missed a three-foot comeback effort.<\/p>\n
“Had an awesome day yesterday and then came out today, wasn’t as good, but I really fought and hopefully this is the toughest day for me,” Clark said.<\/p>\n
Clark sank a five-foot birdie putt at the 12th and added a birdie putt from just beyond 28 feet at 13 then made bogey at the par-five 16th before the closing birdie.<\/p>\n
England’s Fitzpatrick fired a 70. The 2022 US Open winner had bogeys at 11 on a five-foot par putt miss and 12, where he hit a cart path on his second shot.<\/p>\n
He birdied the par-five 16th from just inside 10 feet and sank a 13-foot birdie putt at 18.<\/p>\n
“Two in the last three always nice, especially at a US Open,” Fitzpatrick said. “Struggled a little bit off the tee on the back nine, but overall scrambled incredibly well to be where I am.”<\/p>\n
Two-time major winner Schauffele, a back-nine starter, birdied three of his last four holes before the turn and sandwiched birdies at the fourth and sixth around his lone bogey in shooting 66.<\/p>\n
“Pretty pumped to come out and shoot something low,” Schauffele said. “It’s just a lot of patience and good golf shots, for the most part.”<\/p>\n
Two-time major winner Morikawa made five birdies in his first 10 holes in shooting a 65. The American birdied 15 and 16 but made bogey at the par-three 17th.<\/p>\n
“I chipped it a lot better,” said Morikawa. “That’s the difference of kicking yourself out of a tournament, keeping yourself in it.”<\/p>\n
Justin Thomas, a two-time winner of the PGA Championship, closed with a birdie at nine to shoot 68 and stand on 139.<\/p>\n
– McIlroy seven adrift –<\/p>\n
Others fell by the wayside.<\/p>\n
Second-ranked Rory McIlroy began the back nine with three bogeys and erased birdies at 13 and 14 with a double bogey at 15 in shooting 71 to stand on 140.<\/p>\n
“Back nine was a bit of a battle,” McIlroy said. “Couldn’t stop getting myself to hit it over the back of the green… still feel like I’m in the tournament and in with a decent chance.”<\/p>\n
Top-ranked Scottie Scheffler, who would complete a career Grand Slam with a victory, shot 68 to stand on 140.<\/p>\n
Two-time major winner Dustin Johnson pulled within a stroke of Clark with a birdie on 10 only to double bogey the par-three 11th and bogey 12 and 13 on his way to a 77 to finish on 143.<\/p>\n
Fellow American Gary Woodland, the 2019 US Open winner, began with a birdie but made bogeys on four of the next six holes and shot 73 to stand on 140.<\/p>\n
Those missing the cut included two-time major winners Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm, defending champion JJ Spaun and Australian Adam Scott in his 100th consecutive major.<\/p>\n
js\/bb<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wyndham Clark held off charges by fellow major winners Xander Schauffele, Matt Fitzpatrick and Collin Morikawa to seize…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23941,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[414,1553,1399,424,1401],"class_list":["post-23940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-collin-morikawa","tag-birdie-putt","tag-collin-morikawa","tag-matt-fitzpatrick","tag-wyndham-clark","tag-xander-schauffele"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}