{"id":54183,"date":"2026-08-22T03:48:28","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T03:48:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/54183\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T03:48:28","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T03:48:28","slug":"2026-bmw-championship-u-s-open-winners-atop-leaderboard-as-wyndham-clark-seizes-36-hole-lead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/54183\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 BMW Championship: U.S. Open winners atop leaderboard, as Wyndham Clark seizes 36-hole lead"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. LOUIS \u2014 There\u2019s no guarantee Gary Woodland will be playing in next week\u2019s Tour Championship at East Lake.<\/a><\/p>\n

That\u2019s why the 2019 U.S. Open winner is concentrating on taking this week\u2019s BMW Championship<\/a> hole-by-hole rather than letting his mind drift into the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy focus right now is one day at a time. I don\u2019t have that luxury to look ahead,\u201d Woodland said after carding a bogey-free 65 on Friday. <\/p>\n

He was No. 31 in FedExCup points entering the week<\/a> but currently projects to finish 17th \u2014 all depending on the result of the final 36 holes at Bellerive. <\/p>\n

\u201cTomorrow\u2019s a new day, and hopefully I get some rest tonight and I\u2019ll show up tomorrow and see how it comes,\u201d he added. \u201cBut I don\u2019t have the luxury to look ahead anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

Woodland\u2019s not the only U.S. Open winner <\/a>near the top the leaderboard in the Show-Me State.<\/p>\n

He sits one shot off two-time U.S. Open champ Wyndham Clark\u2019s 36-hole lead. <\/p>\n

Clark, who also got through Friday unscathed, went bogey-free in back-to-back rounds for the first time in 210 career tournaments. Yet, he felt like his short game still left room to be desired.<\/p>\n

\u201cFeel like my putter still hasn\u2019t gotten hot yet so it\u2019ll be nice if it does over the weekend,\u201d Clark told Golf Channel\u2019s Kira K. Dixon after the round.<\/p>\n

Clark and Woodland shared the lead with three others <\/a>\u2014 Rory McIlroy, Chris Gotterup, and J.J. Spaun \u2014 after Thursday\u2019s opening round.<\/p>\n

Spaun, the 2025 U.S. Open champ who celebrated his 36th birthday on Friday<\/a>, took the clubhouse lead at 10 earlier in the day. He finished two back and in solo third.<\/p>\n

Gotterup (67) and Sungjae Im (64) are tied for third at 9 under. McIlroy is now five back after a 69.<\/p>\n

And they\u2019re all chasing Clark.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s exciting to have this opportunity \u2014 there\u2019s a lot on the line. You know, making it to East Lake, Presidents Cup team, world rankings \u2014 all the above,\u201d said Clark, who is a contender for player of the year after winning at Shinnecock and taking the CJ Cup Byron Nelson a month prior. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"GOLF:<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The golf world\u2019s attention turns to St. Louis as the top 50 players in the FedExCup standings will battle it out over four days.<\/p>\n

Feeding off the energy of the crowd<\/p>\n

If any of the three major champs have a tangible advantage heading into the weekend, it would be Kansas native Woodland, who is playing in front of high school and college friends this week. <\/p>\n

Woodland confirmed it was the most relaxed he\u2019s ever felt entering the weekend of a tournament when asked after his round<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say that \u2014 I feel very comfortable,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s nice being close to home. It\u2019s nice having so much support out here. The fans have been amazing. I\u2019m definitely feeding off that energy, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for what the next 12 to 16 hours look like for the five-time Tour winner? Rest and recovery.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll get in the dark room, get my feet up, let my brain reset \u2014 a cold, dark room for a while,\u201d the 42-year-old Woodland said. \u201cHopefully for about 12 hours.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"BMW<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The top 30 players will qualify for the PGA Tour\u2019s playoff finale. Here\u2019s how those around the cut line are faring at Bellerive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. LOUIS \u2014 There\u2019s no guarantee Gary Woodland will be playing in next week\u2019s Tour Championship at East…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54184,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1288],"class_list":["post-54183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-u-s-open-championship","tag-u-s-open-championship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54183","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=54183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}