Clark Takes Wind out of Shinnecock Hills; Leads Suspended Round 1 by 4

Going into Thursday’s opening round of the 126th U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, all the talk was about the expected high winds that were going to whip through the eastern end of Long Island.

Then Mother Nature threw in a curveball.

Yes, the conditions were quite blustery on the classic William Flynn design hosting its sixth U.S. Open and fifth in the last 40 years. But when thick morning fog rolled in shortly after the opening tee shots, reducing visibility to the point that playing championship golf was impossible, the horns blew. The suspension, which began at 7:05 a.m. EDT, pushed everything back two hours.

The fog eventually faded away, but the winds, ranging from 15 to 25 mph (one gust hit 31 mph), never left the property, creating highly challenging conditions for the 156 competitors.

Recognizing this, the USGA erred on the side of caution and eased back on its setup, especially when it came to green speeds (10.5 feet on the Stimpmeter) and syringing greens between the morning and afternoon wave to ensure competitive equity while not compromising the championship test.

Nevertheless, Shinnecock Hills became part Thrills and part Spills.

The thrills? How about the performance by 2023 champion Wyndham Clark? Through 15 holes, the Colorado native was 6 under par, including an eagle 3 on the par-5 fifth hole, when play was suspended due to darkness at 8:25 p.m. EDT.

In addition to Clark, 50 competitors will return to Shinnecock at 6:35 a.m. on Friday to complete Round 1. All Round 2 times are delayed 15 minutes, with the first tee times off Nos. 1 and 10 now starting at 6:50 a.m.

Clark wasn’t the only impressive round on Day 1. Dustin Johnson, the 2016 champion, made four consecutive birdies from No. 1 – he started on the 10th hole – before a disappointing double bogey on the par-4 6th hole dropped him back to 2 under. He has a 3½-foot birdie putt on No. 7 when play resumes on Friday.

Despite the gusty winds, eight players finished Round 1 in the red (there are currently 17 players under par, and 70 more between 2 under par and 2 over par).

Three players with ties to Oklahoma all carded 2-under 68s: former Oklahoma State standout Sam Stevens, ex-University of Oklahoma standout Max McGreevy and current Sooner All-American Ryder Cowan.

Three other past U.S. Open champions – Matt Fitzpatrick (2022), Jon Rahm (2021) and Gary Woodland (2019) – are at 2 under par with a few holes left to play.

Rory McIlroy, who won the 2011 U.S. Open for the first of his six major titles, was on both ends of a roller-coaster ride in his 1-under round of 69. He got to 3 under with an 11-foot eagle putt on the par-5 fifth – his 14th hole of the day – but gave two strokes back with disappointing bogeys on Nos. 8 and 9. In between, he made an 18-foot par save on the 4th, an 11-foot birdie on No. 11 and a 26-foot birdie on Hole 12.

McIlroy now has 23 sub-70 rounds the U.S. Open, tying him with Phil Mickelson for the second-most in championship history behind only Jack Nicklaus’ 29.

Others who posted 69 were Ludvig Åberg, Max Greyserman, Brian Harman and Ben James. Two-time U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau also is at 1 under through 16 holes. He has a 22-foot birdie putt on the 8th green.

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, needing the U.S. Open title to become the seventh player to complete the career Grand Slam, managed a 2-over 72 on a day when he spent most of the round scrambling for pars.

Contrary to expectations, the afternoon wave might have gotten a break thanks to the fog delay. The winds that blew hard during the middle of the day began to diminish as the sun set.

Clark, who registered his fourth PGA Tour win at last month’s CJ Cup Byron Nelson, had just one blemish on his card, a bogey 4 on the par-3 second. Should he manage to par his remaining three holes, he would have the second-lowest round ever at Shinnecock Hills. Tommy Fleetwood carded a final-round 63 eight years ago, finishing one stroke back of Brooks Koepka.

“I would say when I got my tee times on Tuesday, I was like, oh, could be a tough draw,” said Clark, thinking the afternoon wave would face the stiffest winds. “That two-hour fog delay was very helpful, and it was nice it laid down. It definitely helped those last six, seven holes we played.”

Johnson seems to have an affinity for Shinnecock Hills. In 2018, he shared the 18-hole lead, held it outright after 36 holes, and despite a third-round 77, managed to finish third behind Koepka and Fleetwood. But lately, he has struggled in majors with just three top-10 finishes since his November 2020 Masters victory. That stretch of 22 starts includes nine missed cuts.

Stevens had just teed off No. 10 to begin his round when the horns blew for the fog. He was quite thankful because he could barely see the flagstick from where his ball ended up. During the 2-hour suspension, he spent time in the clubhouse chatting with his former Oklahoma State assistant coach Donnie Darr, who is on the bag of current Cowboy Eric Lee. The USGA grouped Stevens and Lee with OSU alum/2010 U.S. Amateur champion Peter Uihlein.

When play resumed, Stevens promptly double-bogeyed No. 10, yet managed to play 4-under golf over the next 17 holes, including a 7-foot birdie on the ninth to end the day.

Coming into the championship, Stevens, whose grandfather, Johnny, qualified for the 1969 U.S. Open at Champions Golf Club, had finished outside the top 10 in his last eight PGA Tour starts. In fact, he owns just two top-10 finishes in 2026: a share of sixth at The American Express and a solo fifth in the Texas Children’s Houston Open. Last season, he finished runner-up twice, at the Farmers Insurance Open and 3M Open, and was solo third in the CJ Cup Byron Nelson.

“I wouldn't say I'm surprised,” said Stevens of his opening round. “I haven't played as well over the last month or so to be honest. I've had a really crappy attitude, which makes golf a lot harder. So, I got a week at home last week and just kind of focused on trying to stay positive and enjoy playing a little more.”

Cowan’s 68 matched the best round by an amateur at Shinnecock Hills. Sam Randolph posted that same score in Round 3 of the 1986 championship en route to low-amateur honors. One of 20 amateurs in the field, he currently leads that chase by three strokes of Marek Fleming, who is 1 over through 11 holes. Lefty Miles Russell, the youngest player in the field (17), posted a 2-over 72.

“That is very cool, very cool,” said Cowan when told his score matched the lowest by an amateur at the famed course. “I think that I've really just been trying this week to focus on each shot, especially today. One at a time, not worry about what's going on in the crowds or anything. I'm not used to all these crowds. We don't ever really play with a lot of crowds.”

McGreevy, a 31-year-old qualifier from Edmond, Okla., who is making his U.S. Open debut, turned in even-par 35, then played the back nine in 2 under with a 17-foot birdie on No. 13 and a 21-footer on the par-3 17th.

“It was obviously exciting playing in the first round in a U.S. Open, any major type of thing,” said McGreevy, who survived an 8-for-3 playoff at the Canada final qualifier on June 8 to book his spot in the field. “Yeah, kind of felt like any other day. I had a couple extra hours this morning to gather my thoughts and be ready to go. I knew it was going to be a hard day. It's just a hard golf course in general.”

While the winds are not expected to whip as hard on Friday, Shinnecock Hills likely won’t ease up on the field. Only three players have ever finished under par for 72 holes in five previous U.S. Opens at the venue.

So don’t expect the course to be a breeze. 

Notable

• James Nicholas, a Korn Ferry Tour member from Scarsdale, N.Y., had the honor of hitting the opening tee shot. Nicholas is a Yale University alum who briefly played football at the Ivy League school before focusing on golf. Nicholasis also credited with the first birdie of the championship, which came from 49 feet on the third hole.
  
  
• J.J. Spaun’s opening-round 77 put the Southern California native in jeopardy of being the second straight defending champion to miss the cut. Bryson DeChambeau missed the cut last year at Oakmont (Pa.) Country Club.
  
  
• There were no bogey-free rounds in the morning wave with Ben James, a member of two victorious USA Walker Cup Teams (2023, 2025), going the longest without a blemish (15 holes). In the 2018 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills, not a single bogey-free round was registered. James, a Connecticut native, turned professional last week after starring at the University of Virginia for the past four years.
  
  
• Jon Rahm has a chance to post the first bogey-free since the 2004 U.S. Open. He currently has two birdies and 11 pars. He is facing a 72-yard third shot on the par-5 fifth hole.
  
  
• Keith Mitchell became the seventh player in U.S. Open history to shoot a 29 for nine holes, and the second to achieve it at Shinnecock Hills (Neal Lancaster on the second nine in 1995). What’s remarkable is that Mitchell, who started on No. 10, opened with a 6-over 41 on the back nine, then turned around and shot 29 with four birdies and an eagle 3 on the par-5 fifth. He closed his round with a 9-footer at the 9th hole. He’s also the first player in championship history to play nine holes in the 20s and nine holes in the 40s during the same round.
  
  
• For the 10th consecutive year, retired Oakmont Country Club/Seminole Golf Club professional Bob Ford started players off the first tee. Ford received the Bob Jones Award in 2017, the year he began announcing competitors. David Jacobsen, the 2025 Joe Dey Award winner from Portland, Ore., started players off No. 10. He is the brother of 2004 U.S. Senior Open champion Peter Jacobsen.
  
  
• Asterisk Talley, fresh off helping the USA reclaim the Curtis Cup at Bel-Air Country Club, was on property Thursday following fellow Junior Invitational at Sage Valley champion Miles Russell. The lefty opened with a 2-over 72. The two were on last year’s victorious U.S. Junior Ryder Cup Team that won at Nassau Country Club on Long Island.
  
  
• Professional Jackson Suber is the lone Ole Miss Rebel in this week’s field. Among those supporting from the gallery on Thursday was former Mississippi guard Sean Tuohy, who is better known for his role in the Blind Side (movie and book). Sean (played by Tim McGraw in the movie) and Leanne (played by Sandra Bullock) “adopted” Michael Oher, a football player who went on to play at Ole Miss and eventually in the NFL with the Baltimore Ravens.
  
  
• Viktor Hovland wore a black ribbon on his golf hat on Thursday to honor the recent passing of Norwegian National Team coach Hans Åberg, who had played a prominent role in the country’s development of elite players since 2019.
• Jason Day withdrew from the championship during Round 1 due to back pain.

Quotable

“Eat as fast as possible, sleep as hard as possible, and get out here and hopefully keep playing good.” – Wyndham Clark on how he plans to prepare for the resumption of play

“It was tough around here without wind, and then it was blowing pretty hard, really hard. Tough conditions. The USGA did a great job setting the course up because, if the greens were any faster or firmer, we might not be playing right now. So, they did a great job.” – Keegan Bradley (even-par 70)

“Any time you get conditions like this, I think the scores are going to be high. I think it's an interesting golf course. Part of the challenge so far is judging the conditions as well, judging how this course is going to play. I feel like this course can change pretty rapidly from day to day. I think that's also part of the challenge of the tournament is adjusting to those conditions.” – Scottie Scheffler (2-over 72)

“I was thinking about trying to break 80 and just trying to keep it in the fairway and on the green and maybe have a chance to make the cut, and it just all flipped when I hit a really good shot on 17, a good putt, and then the same thing on 18. My caddie on No. 1 was like, ‘Hey, I think it's driver, it's a little downwind. It was the best swing of the day and just kind of got some momentum going.” – Keith Mitchell on going 41-29 to shoot even-par 70

“It's a tough day, right? It's tough for everybody, I think. Biggest thing for me, I stayed patient. Didn't have my best stuff, but I made a lot of putts and saved myself to keep the momentum going.” – Gary Woodland (2 under par through 15 holes)

“I got my first taste of a U.S. Open last year at Oakmont, and that was a lot different than this year for many reasons, one being this is my home state. You dream about playing in your home state, your home U.S. Open. Obviously, to get through [final] qualifying to have a spot out here and then be honored with the first tee shot is a dream come true. You dream of hitting the first tee shot under some pressure. I didn't hit the best one, but I ended up making a par and just to kind of continue the day with a lot of grit was pretty cool.” – James Nicholas (1-over 71)

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