Wyndham Clark can see U.S. Open finish line. But he still has to cross it

SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. — Six golfers have won the career Grand Slam and on Father’s Day 2026, on the day he turns 30, Scottie Scheffler has the chance to become the seventh. Through three rounds of this 126th U.S. Open, here at Shinnecock Hills, Scheffler is one under par and in a four-way tie for second, six shots behind the 54-hole leader, Wyndham Clark.

Should Wyndham Clark win this tourney? Of course he should. But there’s something not-quite-right about the word should, and there’s something not-quite-right about big leads on Sundays at majors. They can get in the leader’s head. They’re unreliable.

Clark, winner of the 2023 U.S. Open, has led after the first, second and third rounds here. Leads get heavier and heavier. Big leads get heavier yet. Three days of windblown golf can make your head rattle. The leader’s long wait for a mid-afternoon tee time can lead to wayward thinking.

This is all a ’round-about way of saying that Scottie Scheffler’s chances of winning his first U.S. Open on Sunday, and completing the career Grand Slam, are not totally remote. Would a win from him be a longshot? Of course. But not an impossible-shot. A Sunday 66 could be enough. Golf is a numbers game, and, of course, a head game. You can’t separate the two.

“I think it’s appropriate to understand what’s at stake,” Scheffler said early Saturday night, with Clark still on the course. The sentence is such an insight into how his mind works, about his ability and desire to take things straight on. “I’ve worked really hard for a long time to have a chance to win golf tournaments and to win major championships. I think understanding the moment, and giving it your best shot, is all part of the process.”

The man was faking nothing. The man fakes nothing.

Ernie Els was watching from home, in South Florida. In his World Golf Hall of Fame career, Els won two U.S. Opens and two British Opens. He loves Shinnecock Hills, with all its rattles and rolls, with all its nods to “Golf in the Kingdom.” He likes Shinnecock’s deep beach-sand bunkers and its grasses that present in every shade of brown and green. Shinnecock brings two Open rota courses, or two in particular, to mind for Els: Royal Portrush, where Scheffler won the Open last July, and Muirfield, where Els won the 2002 Open.

Els knows something that Scheffler may find out on Sunday: the mindset, and the skillset, that paves the way to a British Open win can pave the way for a U.S. Open win. Not any U.S. Open win. A U.S. Open win at linksy Shinnecock Hills.

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“I think the Sunday setup will favor Scheffler, I think it’s better for his higher ball flight,” Els said. The Sunday pin positions are likely to be far more demanding than they have been so far, and the course is likely to be, by far, its firmest. The harder the course, the better for Scheffler, and any chaser. The prospect of completing the career Grand Slam, Els said, will be a positive for Scheffler.

Tiger Woods needed three years to win the career Grand Slam. Jack Nicklaus needed four. Gary Player needed seven. Ben Hogan needed eight. Gene Sarazen needed 13 years. Rory McIlroy needed 14. If Scheffler wins on Sunday, he will have completed the career Grand Slam in four years — four years and two months, to be precise — and he will have done it on his first chance. He won the Masters in 2022 and ’24, and he won the PGA Championship and British Open last year.

“It may look like a links golf course because there are no trees and you have that kind of grass, but I don’t think it necessarily plays like [a links course],” Scheffler said. “You can hit a few linksy-type shots, but overall, the ball is still played in the air on this golf course. The ball needs to be hit up in the air, especially to hold these greens.”

So, in conclusion, combining Els’s commentary and Scheffler’s: On Sunday at Shinnecock, we’re going to get some of both, British golf and American golf.

Scheffler and Clark are in the day’s last twosome on Sunday, off at 2:30 p.m. Clark will be playing, on some level, to make us all forget about how he bashed in that locker at Oakmont last year.

Scheffler is playing for something far more glorious.

Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@Golf.com.

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