SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. — Whatever dread Wyndham Clark felt earlier in the week when he saw the tee times and the forecast for the 126th U.S. Open gave way to hope Thursday, and he hadn’t even arrived for his opening round at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club.
Morning fog led to a two-hour delay, and Clark had a feeling his late afternoon start would be an advantage as the wind began to subside with the setting sun. Good golf was still required, and Clark displayed every bit of that before he was stopped only by darkness.
By then, the 2023 U.S. Open champion had used a birdie-birdie-eagle stretch to reach 6 under through 16 holes and build a four-shot lead.
“Everything was kind of clicking,” Clark said. “We were definitely fortunate with the wind laying down. Overall a good round.”
The United States Golf Association set up a different course at Shinnecock Hills for what is so often billed as the toughest test in golf — slower, more receptive greens and reasonable pin positions — to keep it playable in strong wind. When it subsided late in the day, though, Clark looked like he was playing in a different U.S. Open from everyone else.
No one ever has gone lower than 66 in an opening round at Shinnecock Hills. Clark can go two shots lower if he can finish with two pars when he and 49 other players return Friday morning to complete the first round.
He led by four strokes over seven players, one of them University of Oklahoma junior Ryder Cowan, another one the surprisingly resurgent Dustin Johnson, a two-time major champion who hasn’t made much noise since leaving for the LIV Golf League four years ago. Four of them were former U.S. Open champions.
Second-ranked Rory McIlroy thought he had made a fine effort with a 69 in gusts that topped 30 mph in the middle of the day, when the scoring average was well above 74. The afternoon started tough until the wind kept subsiding, and players began taking aim at flags. The second wave was playing at least a stroke easier than the early starters who faced relentless wind.
It was still a brute of a test, but the red numbers on the white scoreboard were an unfamiliar site for this course that is hosting the USGA’s big show for the sixth time. When play was suspended by darkness, 17 players were under par.
Cowan birdied his last hole for a 68 to join former Sooners standout Max McGreevy and former Oklahoma State player Sam Stevens of those who finished the round. Stevens was the only one of that trio who faced the harsh wind of the morning wave.
Johnson, in his final year of being exempt from his 2016 U.S. Open victory at Pennsylvania’s Oakmont Country Club, ran off four straight birdies and was tied with Clark after 13 holes. However, Johnson failed to get up and down for a birdie on the easy par-5 fifth, where Clark made an eagle. And then Johnson three-putted from short range for a double bogey on the sixth to fall four shots behind.
Top-ranked Scottie Scheffler, who needs the U.S. Open to complete the career Grand Slam, battled all day and relied heavily on his short game to salvage a 72. It was his 10th consecutive U.S. Open round without breaking par, but at the time it left him only four shots out of the lead.
Clark changed the look of the leaderboard with his late flourish.
“I would say when I got my tee times on Tuesday, I was like, ‘Oh, could be a tough draw,'” Clark said. “That two-hour fog delay was very helpful, and it was really nice it laid down. So it definitely helped those last six, seven holes we played.”
His game wasn’t too shabby, either.
Clark started on No. 10 and opened with two quick birdies. He went out in 32 strokes to get his name atop the leaderboard. And after missing an eight-foot birdie putt on No. 1 and failing to save par from a bunker on the long par-3 second, he took off.
He hit a wedge shot to five feet on No. 3 for a birdie, made a 20-foot birdie putt on the next hole, and then from 207 yards with some wind at his back, he hit his second on the par-5 fifth to three feet to set up an eagle.
When Johnson faltered, Clark had plenty of breathing room — and a quick turnaround.
The wind was so strong and the conditions so severe that it took Scheffler’s group nearly three hours to complete nine holes. There was a question the round could have finished even without the fog delay.
Johnson was joined by three other U.S. Open champions — Matt Fitzpatrick (2022), Gary Woodland (2019) and Jon Rahm (2021) — at 2 under, with all still having holes to play.
Rahm, who had a chance in the final hour at the PGA Championship in May, was bogey-free and reached 2 under by making a 60-foot birdie putt on the par-3 17th hole.
Stevens overcame a double bogey to start his round — a hole that took him more than two hours to complete because of the fog — and strung together six birdies for his 68.
“The greens haven’t been too firm, the fairways haven’t been too firm, so I’ve really felt like it’s pretty scorable,” said Stevens, who had only his second sub-70 round in his fourth U.S. Open. “Obviously, it’s difficult, but overall it’s an awesome place. I think the setup is great right now.”
For half of the opening round, the USGA appeared to have the ideal test. Coming off two U.S. Opens at Shinnecock when the course got out of control, it slowed greens to 10 1/2 on the speed-measuring Stimpmeter — rare for any major, much less the U.S. Open — and keep plenty of water on the putting surfaces.
It was all due to the wind, which did not disappoint. The sustained wind approached 25 mph, and gusts were even stronger. And if that wasn’t enough, it shifted directions in the middle of the day.
“It was tough around here without wind, and then it was blowing pretty hard — really hard,” Keegan Bradley said after a 70. “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.”
But they did play, and it became more ideal with each passing hour late in the afternoon.