Clark Extends Advantage to 6 After 54 Holes at Shinnecock Hills

Anyone who fully understands the travails of championships contested at iconic Shinnecock Hills Golf Club can easily see what is transpiring in the 126th U.S. Open.

The volatility of this William Flynn design, coupled with the elements and intense weekend pressure of trying to claim the toughest test in professional golf, makes for interesting narratives.

Like the fact that no 36-hole leader in any of the U.S. Opens here – notwithstanding the 1896 affair that was a one-day, 36-hole sprint – has managed to add their name on the trophy. Big names like Greg Norman (1986 and 1995), Phil Mickelson (2004) and Dustin Johnson (2018) were all in that position and left the Hamptons without the hardware.

So, there was a reason why midway leader Wyndham Clark – even with a four-shot advantage through 36 holes – couldn’t get too comfortable. Not with Saturday’s winds drying out one of the most challenging courses where the USGA conducts its U.S. Open.

Yet Clark seems to be tossing past trends to the wind. As the number of players in red figures continue to dwindle like sand through an hourglass, Clark maintained his position atop the leaderboard.

In fact, he built on it.

Thanks to clutch up-and-down pars on Nos. 7, 9, 10, 11, 13 and 17, and the only eagle on the par-5 16th this week, the 2023 champion fired an even-par 70 for a six-stroke advantage. He’s also trying to be the first wire-to-wire winner since Martin Kaymer at Pinehurst in 2014.

One of his closest pursuers is a familiar name, but even world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler might need a Herculean effort to catch Clark and nail down the final major to complete the career Grand Slam. Showing the heart of a four-time major champion, the Texan overcame a bogey-bogey start to card a 69, which included a back-nine 32. The father of two, who turns 30 on Father’s Day Sunday, will play alongside Clark in the final pairing at 2:30 p.m.

Joining Scheffler at 1-under 209 are Sahith Theegala, who stuffed his 117-yard approach on 18 to a foot in posting an even-par 70, Tom Kim and Sam Stevens, both of whom shot 72.

Emiliano Grillo posted the round of the day, a 3-under 67, to move from a share of 46th to a tie for sixth at even-par 210. Also on that number is two-time major winner Xander Schauffele (73), along with Keith Mitchell (70) and Sam Burns (71). Schauffele rebounded from double bogeys on 10 and 12 with birdies on 13 and 15 to stay in contention.

While the winds blew hard early in the day – gusts were recorded in the low 40s – they began to subside as the day wore on. But that didn’t mean the course played any easier. Greens began to firm up along with the tension.

The day began with 10 players in red figures and it ended with only four. Only three players in Shinnecock U.S. Open history have finished 72 holes under par (1986 champ Raymond Floyd; 2004 champ Retief Goosen and 2004 runner-up Phil Mickelson).

The third-round scoring average was 73.61, the highest of the championship.

Only Scheffler and Grillo bettered par.

Clark played the kind of round that wins U.S. Opens. Outside of a 7-foot miss for par on 18, he was a wizard on and around the greens. In fact, the par saves might have been better than the 275-yard, 3-wood second to No. 16 to set up a 4-foot eagle. Two of the last three U.S. Open champions at Shinnecock who led in scrambling went on to win the championship: Corey Pavin in 1995 and Goosen in 2004, when he had 11 one-putt greens in the final round.

On Saturday, Clark was 7 for 9 in scrambling and is 13 of 17 for the championship. He made some 50 feet of par putts in the third round.

“I mean, they're huge,” said Clark. “That's what you have to make to win U.S. Opens. You're not going to have too many birdie putts, and when you do miss, it's really hard to hit a gimme, so you've got to make those 5- to 12-footers.”

At the 10th, Clark’s 65-yard wedge approach trickled over the green, and he deftly recovered with a pitch to 4 feet. On the par-3 11th, he found the right bunker off the tee and knocked a 54-degree wedge to 6 feet.

“I was in jail and hit really good shots and then made the putts,” said Clark.

On Sunday, Clark gets to play alongside one of the game’s behemoths. Scheffler, who chipped in for birdie on 14, could have gone even lower on Saturday. He failed to get up and down for birdie from 90 feet after almost driving the 375-yard 13th hole, nearly eagled No. 16 and then missed a 4-footer on 18 for birdie. He has played Shinnecock in 3 under par since opening with a 72 on Thursday. 

“I mean, I'd rather be leading,” said Scheffler, laughing. “We've been battling hard for a few days, and I did a good job of keeping myself in the tournament. I'll need a really nice round tomorrow if I'm going to try and catch Wyndham.”

Theegala is coming off an injury-filled 2025 season when he dealt with neck and oblique issues. The poor season left him out of many Signature Events on the PGA Tour in 2026. At one point, he didn’t think he would qualify for the U.S. Open, only becoming exempt on May 18 when he was among the top 5 players in the FedExCup Standings not already exempt.

On Saturday, he made 16 pars, one bogey and the one brilliant birdie to end the day.

“Honestly bummed I missed a couple majors last year with injury and started this year with pretty poor status,” said the former Pepperdine All-American. “I wasn't in any of the elevated [events] or majors.

“The goal was just to get here. I love U.S. Opens. I don't know if they necessarily fit my game, but I just love really, really hard golf courses.”

Like Scheffler, Kim also celebrates a birthday – his 24th – on Sunday. But the affable Korean, who broke onto the scene four years ago with his first PGA Tour win at the Wyndham Championship and added two more over the next 13 months, has slumped over the past two seasons. He came into this championship ranked 141st in the Official World Golf Ranking. He also needed to survive 36-hole final qualifying in Dallas on May 18.

But he’s found something this week at Shinnecock Hills, despite a roller-coaster Saturday that featured four birdies against six bogeys.

“It was tough out there,” said Kim, who bogeyed three of his first six holes. “I didn't really hit a very bad shot for six holes. Just a couple putts that just wiggled on me, and I just kept telling myself that as long as I keep hanging in there and keep waiting for my time to wait for that good wave to come, I knew I was going to be in a good position, and I felt like I did a good job of hanging in there.”

On Sunday, the chasers likely won’t have the luxury of just hanging in, not with Clark holding a huge edge.

But this is Shinnecock Hills, where Sunday drama is as common as the wind.

Notable

• Of the 72 players who made the cut, 49 were American. England had the next most players with eight, followed by the Republic of Korea and Japan with two each. Northern Ireland, Denmark, Canada, Sweden, Belgium, Argentina, Chile, New Zealand, Spain, Scotland and Colombia all had one.
  
  
• One interesting pairing on Saturday had the world No. 1 amateur, Jackson Koivun, paired with the top junior and youngest player in this week’s field, 17-year-old Miles Russell. Koivun, who just led Auburn to its second NCAA title in three years, is turning professional after the U.S. Open. Russell has committed to attend Florida State in 2027. Both are paired again tomorrow.
  
  
• Speaking of amateurs, University of Oklahoma rising senior Ryder Cowan holds a five-stroke advantage for low-amateur honors. He sits at 2-over 212. Russell and Koivun are both at 7-over 217.
  
  
• Twenty-five of the 72 players who made the cut were qualifiers. Only Jackson Van Paris, Spencer Tibbits and amateur Marek Fleming went through both stages. Harry Higgs was the last player to gain entrance in the field as a first alternate from the Gastonia, N.C., final qualifier.
  
  
• The last time five or more amateurs made the cut in a major championship was at the 2015 Open Championship held at the Old Course at St. Andrews. American and 2013 U.S. Amateur Public Links champion Jordan Niebrugge was the low amateur. It also occurred in that year’s U.S. Open at Chambers Bay, where six played 72 holes and Brian Campbell was the low am.
  
  
• The forward tee was used on the par-3 second, making the hole play 229 yards. The “left” tee also was utilized on the 178-yard seventh hole to allow players a favorable angle with the right-to-left wind.
  
  
• In the battle for low Fitzpatrick brother, Matt (211) has a one-stroke lead over Alex.
  
  
• Carson Daly, one of the personalities on the “Today Show” on NBC, took in the action on Saturday with his son, Jackson. Carson played junior golf in Southern California against the likes of Tiger Woods before getting into the entertainment industry.

Quotable

“Scottie is the best player in the world, and he's going to play probably really good. He always does, but it's nice to have a six-shot lead on him. But really, I'm just going to keep approaching it the same way. If I go out and execute and go through my process and hit the shots I know I can hit, I like my chances.” – Wyndham Clark

“Part of the challenge of U.S. Open is judging the conditions and putting yourself in the right spots and hitting great shots. I feel like if you hit a great shot, you're going to get rewarded. Good shots are going to be borderline. I assume going into tomorrow, they're going to continue to get firmer and firmer.” – Scottie Scheffler

“So much of it depends on what Wyndham does. I could play a great round tomorrow and shoot 3 or 4 under and still lose by seven. I'll stick with my regular game plan. You don't normally shoot a low number trying to shoot a low number. You shoot a low number just because it happens.” – Sam Stevens

“The goal is to put yourself in position come [the] back nine on Sunday, and then that's when you can start leaderboard watching. It's really hard to push at a golf course this difficult, but the beauty of this place is it does allow you to push. There's a lot of danger involved in pushing it a little bit, but you do have opportunities to kind of make a push at the end there.” – Sahith Theegala

“I looked at the weather this morning. I thought we were going to get nine very windy and then nine not so windy, but it just kept going up. It never slowed down. I played solidly all day. Four birdies on the front nine. Obviously when you stand on the 10th tee [at] 4 under par [for the round] in the U.S. Open, you're just rushing to get it done and finish it.” – Emiliano Grillo

“We'll see what conditions bring tomorrow. I'd like to think so. It's nice when you have good memories of a place, isn't it? I have great shots to go off and good feelings, so you know, I can draw on that. But I've enjoyed battling with the golf course so far this week. Now looking forward to another shot at it tomorrow.” – Tommy Fleetwood when asked if another final-round 63 is possible

“Amateur golf is in a great spot right now. The college kids are definitely showing off … how good they are. For five of us to make it through, it's quite impressive.” – Jackson Koivun

David Shefter is a senior staff writer at the USGA. Email him at dshefter@usga.org.