Clark Leads by Four After 36 at Shinnecock Hills

While his fellow U.S. Open competitors were trying to tackle Shinnecock Hills Golf Club and make it into the weekend, Wyndham Clark spent his Friday afternoon in the Hamptons t with his feet up, watching the U.S. men’s soccer team blank Australia, 2-0, to earn a spot in the knockout stages.  And why not relax and watch the rest of the U.S. Open field grind in the afternoon?

Through 36 holes of the 126th iteration of the National Open, Clark, who finished his second round at around 1 p.m., enjoyed a four-stroke advantage. His 7-under-par total of 133, which included an opening-round 64 that he finished early on Friday due to Thursday’s 2-hour fog delay, was a Shinnecock Hills record. His 6-under 64 was one shot off the course record posted by Tommy Fleetwood eight years ago in the final round when the Englishman came up a stroke shy of champion Brooks Koepka.

Now, Clark will enter Saturday’s third round in an ideal position, but history isn’t on his side:  No 36-hole leader in the last four U.S. Opens held at Shinnecock Hills has gone on to hoist the trophy.

And with the quality of chasers –several with major championships in their portfolios - in his rearview mirror Clark can’t get completely comfortable.

Matt Fitzpatrick, the 2022 U.S. Open champion and two-time major champion Xander Schauffele, who shot even-par 70 and 4-under 66, respectively on Friday, are in that group. They are joined by former Oklahoma State star Sam Stevens (69), who is still seeking his first victory on the PGA Tour andhas now made the cut in all four of his U.S. Open starts, and qualifier Tom Kim (67), the owner of three PGA Tour titles.

Collin Morikawa, another two-time major champion, posted a second-round 65 to get within five strokes of the frontrunner.

Five-time PGA Tour winner Sam Burns (68), who has finished T-7 and T-9 in his last two U.S. Open starts, two-time PGA Championship winner Justin Thomas (68), qualifier Harry Higgs (68) and Sahith Theegala (67) are six strokes back at 1-under 139.

And never count Rory McIlroy or Scottie Scheffer out. Both are sitting at even-par 140. World No. 1 Scheffler, who turns 30 on Sunday, needs the U.S. Open title to complete the career Grand Slam, a feat world No. 2 McIlroy achieved by winning the 2025 Masters.

The cut came at 4-over 144, the lowest at a Shinnecock Hills Open, with 67 professionals and five amateurs advancing to the weekend.

While the winds were up again on Friday – 15 to 25 mph – they weren’t quite as blustery as Thursday, when gusts were recorded as high as 31 mph. Still, the players who had the late/early starting times got the better end of the draw.

What’s surprising was that Friday’s scoring average was 72.24, fairly low by U.S. Open standards

Friday brought an early wakeup call for Clark. Because of Thursday’s late finish, he didn’t get to bed until 10:30 p.m. and his alarm clock went off at 4 a.m. Friday for a 6:35 a.m. restart. He parred his last three holes to post the 64.

In Round 2, Clark parred his first eight holes before a bogey on No. 9. After consecutive birdies on 12 and 13, he avoided major disaster on the par-5 16th, recovering from a buried lie in a bunker to make a quality bogey 6. He then closed the day in style by converting a 33-foot downhill putt for birdie on 18.

When he won three years ago at The Los Angeles Country Club, Clark also opened with a 64 and followed with rounds of 67-69-70. He didn’t lead until the third round and then held off McIlroy, Scheffler, Cameron Smith and Fleetwood.   

“Yesterday, I really drove it great, and then I was just really conservative into the greens,” said Clark, who credits his recent work with Cherry Hills Country Club’s director of instruction Pat Coyner for his recent resurgence. “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.”

An aura of confidence has returned for Clark, who admittedly had a pedestrian 2025 campaign that included a missed cut and unfortunate incident at Oakmont (Pa.) Country Club last June. Since missing the cut at last month’s PGA Championship, he’s won the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, finished third at the Memorial Tournament and tied for 11th at the RBC Canadian Open, the lead-up event for the U.S. Open.

“I got a swing coach that really helped me,” said Clark. “I've really 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. 

“All that together kind of just built momentum and we find ourselves here.”

Schauffele, meanwhile, has now made the cut in all 10 of his U.S. Open starts where he hasn’t finished worse than a tie for 14th and owns seven top 10s. In 2024, he claimed both the PGA Championship and The Open Championship.

Only a bogey on the par-5 fifth hole prevented Schauffele from producing the second bogey-free round of the championship.

“I probably embrace it the right way,” said Schauffele of his U.S. Open success. “It's a brutal week. Everyone watching at home wants to see guys shooting in the 80s and doing crazy things. I get it. You know, it's once a year you get to see some carnage, and it's at a U.S. Open.”

Fitzpatrick was 2 over after 15 holes on Friday before getting up and down for birdie from a greenside bunker at the par-5 16th and closing the day with a 14-foot birdie.

Morikawa produced one of two 65s on Friday, registering seven birdies against two bogeys. It was his best round at a U.S. Open in eight starts.

“It's still a little uncomfortable,” said Morikawa of his back. “I'm hitting it a lot better. Last week was huge for me. I felt like I made progress. I took a little bit of time off with the [new] baby.

“I can't hit every shot that I want to hit. Usually my go-to shot with right-to-left wind with an iron would be to cut something up, know how it's going to spin, and just play that shot. I can't quite cut it as much as I want. Thankfully, the greens are soft enough right now where I don't have to hit the high spinner, but I'm able to hit enough shots. I think I proved it to myself today that I have enough tools to go out and play well.”

Stevens joined Clark as the only two players to post sub-70 rounds over the first two days, while Kim, who turns 24 on Sunday, came into the championship having an unremarkable year with only one top-10 finish (T-6 in Myrtle Beach) in all of 2026. Kim burst onto the scene early in his PGA Tour career and was a fan favorite for the International Presidents Cup Team. But his play had fallen off to a point where he had to endure 36-hole qualifying in Dallas last month just to book a spot in the field.

On Friday, Kim played the back nine in 3-under 32 to head into the weekend with momentum.

McIlroy had a crazy last nine holes that included two birdies, three bogeys and a double bogey. Birdies on 5 and 8 got the six-time major winner to 3 under par, until three consecutive bogeys from No. 10 derailed his momentum. McIloy endured a similar happenstance to close Round 1 with consecutive bogeys on 8 and 9.

“I think the setup has been good,” said McIlroy. “I think that's more a reflection of the golf course rather than the setup. I would say that the storyline over the first two days hasn't really been the setup. It's been the golf course.

“Yes, [the USGA] had to set it up in some ways quite benign because of the expected wind yesterday that materialized for some but not all of the day. Then today was, I would say, a typical day here at Shinnecock where the wind was, you know, 15 to 20, gusting to 25 to 30. But I would say fewer players on the weekend, starting a little bit later, I think you'll start to see the golf course dry out a little bit and ramp up.”

Relax no more. Weekend U.S. Open pressure has arrived.  

Notable

• Three players who survived both local and final qualifying to play at Shinnecock Hills made the 36-hole cut: Jackson Van Paris, Spencer Tibbits and amateur Marek Fleming. Tibbits originally lost a nine-hole playoff to Andrew Putnam for the final spot from the Emerald Valley Golf Club (Crestwell, Ore.) final qualifier but was added to the field on Sunday night as an alternate.
  
  
• Five amateurs out of a starting group of 20 made the cut. Besides the aforementioned Fleming, Ryder Cowan, Miles Russell, world No. 1 Jackson Koivun and Eric Lee will play the weekend. Russell, 17, is the youngest player in this year’s field.
  
  
• Matt and Alex Fitzpatrick are the first set of brothers to play the weekend at a U.S. Open since Edoardo and Francisco Molinari did it in 2021 at Torrey Pines. . Edoardo won the 2005 U.S. Amateur at Merion.
  
  
• Five past U.S. Open champions failed to play the weekend, including Brooks Koepka, the winner here in 2018; Jon Rahm, who posted the first bogey-free round (68) in the last 753 played at Shinnecock but carded a second-round 78; and two-time champ Bryson DeChambeau. The other two past champions to miss the cut were defending champion J.J. Spaun and 2010 winner Graeme McDowell.
  
  
• Other notables to miss the cut included 2019 British Open champion Shane Lowry, reigning U.S. Amateur champion Mason Howell, 2025 U.S. Senior Open champion Padraig Harrington, 2026 NCAA Division I individual champion Preston Stout, 2025 U.S. Junior Amateur champion Hamilton Coleman and 2025 U.S. Mid-Amateur champion Brandon Holtz.
  
  
• Joaquin Niemann was assessed a two-stroke penalty during the resumption of Round 1 for throwing a club on the 6th hole. According to the USGA, it was a serious misconduct breach of Rule 1.2b. He rebounded nicely in Round 2 with a 65 to make the cut.

Quotable

“I'm going to really be looking forward to a nap and watching USA hopefully win a [World Cup soccer] game.” – Wyndham Clark on his afternoon plans

“For the most part at a U.S. Open, it's not like you can go flag hunting. I will say some of these greens with where they have to put the pins, you have a little bit more of a chance because most of them have to be pretty central just because of how slopey the greens are. There's obviously some of that that I'll take into account, but for the most part trying to play my same game, and you know, hopefully make a few putts from distance and see where it ends up.” – Matt Fitzpatrick on his weekend strategy

“I think I do pretty well with when the setup is difficult. Generally, a lot of my good finishes on tour have been at tougher setups. I don't get so bothered by bogeys when there's not a ton of birdies being made, and it seems like a lot of weeks on tour, you know, it's 20, 25 under [winning]. When I get to a course where … 10 under or less I feel like is going to win, I feel like I have a good chance.” – Sam Stevens

“Doesn't really matter to me. I just play. The golf course can change pretty quickly, and so a lot of that depends on do they want to water the greens, how fast they want to get them, where is the wind direction coming from, can they get them much quicker. 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.” – Scottie Scheffler

“That 2-footer felt like it was 15 feet or so. You dream about playing the weekend in the U.S. Open as a kid, and I did that last year [at Oakmont], and that was sort of a pinch-me moment. This year has been a little bit different. I feel like I can contend out here.” – James Nicholas

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