Wyndham Clark may have had just one goal of redemption entering the Shinnecock Hills last Thursday. But he certainly walked off the 18th green with much more. He won his second US Open title after wrecking his reputation last year at Oakmont, and he did it all with a historic style. Clark joined only eight other players (nine if you count Tiger Woods twice) in championship history to lead a U.S. Open from the first round to the last, without ever relinquishing his grip.
None of that was missed by Jack Nicklaus, who was watching the tournament unfold. As impressed as the golf’s most decorated legend was with the golfer’s relentlessness, the final moments Clark shared with his father touched Nicklaus more, as he revealed himself.
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Nicklaus did not stay quiet about it. The 18-time major champion posted a congratulatory message on Instagram for Clark, and it read less like a quick note and more like an assessment from golf’s most decorated major winner.
“Wow, @wyndhamclark! What a @usopengolf win! You did what I always thought was one of the toughest tasks in golf, especially major championship play, and that is to go wire to wire. On Sunday, you might have given up a little ground, but you recovered beautifully.
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“I have always said that the U.S. Open is a total examination of a golfer’s game, and you aced your exam on the short game and scrambling! All those par-saves you had, and then that great birdie putt on No. 16. Just fantastic! You should be very proud and happy. I know Barbara and I are for you! She also sends her congrats and we wish you well in the future!
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“By the way, one of my very favorite aspects underlining every U.S. Open is the opportunity to win on Father’s Day. To see your Dad there to surprise you truly touched my heart! I’m sure it meant the world to you! 😊 🏆”
Once Clark made his final putt to clinch the win, he looked around to see his father, Randall Clark, smiling towards him. He had caught a red-eye flight to see his son play and was hiding in the crowd that was more often than not heckling the golfer. Wyndham ran towards his father, teary-eyed, to give him a long bear hug as the two exchanged pleasantries on Father’s Day.
That hug and those tears were not simply for seeing his father attend his tournament in person alone, though. They also represented the weight being lifted off the golfer on an unforgiving course like this.
Clark led after every single round at Shinnecock Hills, a narrow, punishing golf course that gave almost nothing away. He carried a six-stroke cushion into Sunday, then watched it shrink to one as Sam Burns mounted a real charge on the back nine. The par-5 16th hole decided things.
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Clark pulled his tee shot into the deep fescue, found a lie that threatened bogey, scrambled back to the fairway, and rolled in a birdie putt from just over 24 feet.
Clark converted roughly 66 percent of his scrambling chances over the weekend, a figure that ranked third in the field and explains how he absorbed the pressure without folding under it. Recovery shots, clutch par putts, and the decisive birdie on 16 made up the bulk of his closing argument.
Wire-to-wire wins at the U.S. Open are rare. Clark became the ninth player to do it, joining names like Ben Hogan, Tony Jacklin, Rory McIlroy, and Tiger Woods — who managed the feat twice. Clark is the first to manage it since Martin Kaymer in 2014.
He’s also now a two-time U.S. Open champion, a club with very few members. Clark’s win at Shinnecock added still more records to that resume, stacking up against a championship history that stretches back more than a century.
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For a man who has won four U.S. Opens himself, Nicklaus knows how rarely the competitive and the personal line up this closely. And while he was happy to see the win, he was more pleased to see the love between the father and the son.
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