{"id":25933,"date":"2026-06-23T14:45:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T14:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/25933\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T14:45:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T14:45:07","slug":"wyndham-clark-showed-his-toughness-as-the-us-open-champion-long-island-didnt-want-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/25933\/","title":{"rendered":"Wyndham Clark showed his toughness as the US Open champion Long Island didn’t want"},"content":{"rendered":"

SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. (AP) \u2014 For thousands in the gallery on the final day of the U.S. Open, he was<\/a> a most unpopular champion.<\/p>\n

One media account noted that he \u201cdefeated par, pressure and a hostile gallery Sunday” and that he \u201cstalked poker-faced through the heat and caustic comments of the gallery.\u201d The local columnist wrote \u201cexcept for a few strays from his hometown,\u201d nobody rooted for him.<\/p>\n

That was Jack Nicklaus in 1962 at Oakmont.<\/p>\n

Nicklaus certainly can relate to the toughness Wyndham Clark<\/a> showed Sunday at Shinnecock Hills to become a U.S. Open champion for the second time. If hearing the crowd cheer his bad shots wasn’t enough of a challenge, Clark’s six-shot lead was nearly gone in five holes. But he showed his moxie by not letting Sam Burns<\/a> or anyone else catch him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had some stones down the stretch,\u201d said Scottie Scheffler<\/a>, high praise from golf’s best player.<\/p>\n

But could Nicklaus relate to the \u201chostile gallery\u201d and \u201ccaustic comments\u201d Clark endured? Hostile and caustic had a different meaning in 1962.<\/p>\n

Society has changed mightily over the past 64 years, and it’s getting worse by the year. The Long Island fans \u2014 no one would refer to them as \u201cpatrons\u201d \u2014 had no filter and no restraint. But this isn’t a Long Island problem. It’s largely an American problem everywhere but Augusta National.<\/p>\n

Clark is not the first person to be a major champion hardly anyone wanted. <\/p>\n

Nicklaus was never going to be celebrated in 1962, not in an 18-hole playoff against Arnold Palmer in the King’s backyard at Oakmont, especially with Palmer having won the Masters that year.<\/p>\n

It felt as though all of New York was ready to crown<\/a> Phil Mickelson<\/a> at Shinnecock Hills in 2004 until he three-putted from 5 feet for double bogey on the 17th hole. The air came out of the place in a New York minute. Retief Goosen<\/a> was appreciated \u2014 but not adored \u2014 as the U.S. Open champion.<\/p>\n

This was different. This was ugly. It was relentless.<\/p>\n

\u201cHit it in the fescue!\u201d was nothing like Nicklaus ever heard. Nor did Oakmont in 1962 have a fan like the idiot who shouted, \u201cDon’t choke, Wyndham!\u201d when it was Clark’s turn to tee off on the fourth hole. The fan was quickly approached and evicted. <\/p>\n

The rousing and sudden cheer on the par-3 seventh sounded as though Clark had just hit it close. Instead, it was because his ball went into the bunker.<\/p>\n

It might have been different had Clark played in the final group with Tom Kim<\/a> instead of Scheffler, the No. 1 player in the world who had a chance to give fans something to remember forever by winning the U.S. Open on his 30th birthday to complete the career Grand Slam.<\/p>\n

But the crowd shifted quickly from being pro-Scottie to anti-Wyndham. <\/p>\n

Clark no doubt is difficult to embrace, particularly after his behavior last year when he flung a driver that made a marshal flinch at the PGA<\/a> Championship, and a month later smashed a locker at Oakmont when he missed the cut at the U.S. Open.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew York didn\u2019t really like me. I love you guys,\u201d Clark said during the trophy presentation. \u201cBut I get it. Some of it\u2019s self-deserved. I did some unfortunate things last year that I really regret, and I\u2019ve been sorry multiple times and I\u2019m still sorry. So hopefully, I can win you guys over eventually.”<\/p>\n

His signature moment came on the par-5 16th when he atoned for a bad tee shot into gnarly grass by making a 30-foot birdie putt. The applause was muted, and don’t get the idea it sounded that way because too many fans had phones in their hands. They didn’t like him.<\/p>\n

Clark played right through it, with some level of experience. He played with popular Rickie Fowler<\/a> in the final round of his U.S. Open victory at Los Angeles Country Club in 2023, when he held off popular Rory McIlroy<\/a> by one shot. But no one cheered against him that day.<\/p>\n

The Long Island gallery was at another level, and ultimately Clark took his place among other Shinnecock Hills champions notes for their toughness \u2014 Brooks Koepka<\/a>, Goosen, Corey Pavin<\/a> and Raymond Floyd.<\/p>\n

Scheffler has seen this act before. He played McIlroy in singles at Bethpage Black in the Ryder Cup last September, when the taunts became personal and left a stain on the matches.<\/p>\n

He also got a relatively muted response in McIlroy’s home country when Scheffler won the British Open at Royal Portrush last summer. There was no heckling, certainly not any bad behavior. But it was quiet for a world-class performance by the No. 1 player.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe crowd was tough today. I mean, New Yorkers, they are tough people,\u201d Scheffler said Sunday. “You like seeing the fans cheer for you. I think sometimes it can get a little too much when balls are going off greens and you start hearing cheers. That felt a bit much to me.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing in the arena is not for everybody, and I think it shows a lot about Wyndham, how he handled not only this golf course but I think the crowd today as well and is a well-deserving champion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clark took the high road in the closing ceremony, his news conference and other interviews in the hours after his victory. He posted on social media Monday night, “This game can be incredibly humbling. It doesn\u2019t owe you anything, and sometimes the only thing you can do is keep showing up and trust that the work will eventually pay off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keep showing up and maybe the fans might cheer for him. <\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

On The Fringe analyzes the biggest topics in golf during the season. AP golf: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/golf<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. (AP) \u2014 For thousands in the gallery on the final day of the U.S. Open, he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11863,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[209,1138,10245,8322,4541,5225,531,144,7940,1513,399,2177,208,2425,10244,424],"class_list":["post-25933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pga-championship","tag-brooks-koepka","tag-champions-tour","tag-college-basketball-crown","tag-corey-pavin","tag-pga-pga-championship-05-14-2026","tag-pga-u-s-open-06-18-2026","tag-pga-championship","tag-pga-tour","tag-retief-goosen","tag-rickie-fowler","tag-rory-mcilroy","tag-sam-burns","tag-scottie-scheffler","tag-tom-kim","tag-washington-nationals","tag-wyndham-clark"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25933","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=25933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}