U.S. Open: Heckled all day, Wyndham Clark had the last word

SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. —  Wyndham Clark had just missed a six-foot par putt on the 17th hole at Shinnecock Hills on Sunday, and when you miss a putt that late in the proceedings, the results can be catastrophic. Clark, who’d entered the day with a six-stroke lead on the field, now stood just one stroke clear. In other words, he needed to make a par on the final hole to clinch the U.S. Open. 

He could have used a few “hang in there”s from the fans, a few “you got this”es or “go get ’em Wyndham.” Instead, he got someone singing. Badly. 

“Doo doo doo de-de-doo doo,” yelped one atonal fan, adding a helpful “Under pressure!” 

Hey, at least this tone-deaf fellow had the courtesy to massacre a classic between holes, not while Clark was in his backswing, or when his shot was in the air. That, in itself, was an improvement over the previous 17 holes, when Clark, who’s from Denver, Colorado, was treated like he was a Ryder Cup intruder on American soil. 

“Man, they definitely didn’t want me to win,” Clark said afterward, the U.S. Open trophy by his side. “It’s pretty rare in an Open Championship or a major to have fans kind of boo against your shots or cheer for bad shots.”

From the very first tee, when fans serenaded Clark’s playing partner Scottie Scheffler with “Happy Birthday” — he turned 30 on Sunday — all the way to the last tee, when — as Clark was lining up a potential Cup-winning putt — the crowd again sang “Happy Birthday,” Sunday was one long torrent of abuse directed Clark’s way. Every missed putt, every flown green, every ball that didn’t end up precisely where Clark wanted it to, and the fans pounced — some so abusive they were kicked out of the golf course. 

“The crowd was tough today. I mean, New Yorkers, they are tough people,” Scheffler said after the round. “Being in the arena is not for everybody, and I think it shows a lot about Wyndham, how he handled not only this golf course, but I think the crowd today as well, and is a well-deserving champion.”

That’s all correct, and Scheffler was wise to take the high road and pivot the story into one praising Clark’s mental toughness. So we’ll say what the players inside the ropes are too diplomatic to: this was an embarrassment to Long Island, to New York, and to the game of golf. 

For a mostly-genteel sport, golf has a long, well-documented history of galleries abusing certain players. Arnie’s Army absolutely tormented a still-young, still-baby-fat Jack Nicklaus so badly that Nicklaus pretty much destroyed their hero. More recently, Brooks Koepka-loving bros tormented Bryson DeChambeau with shouts of “Brooksie!” for several weeks in the pre-LIV days. Patrick Reed received only modest applause when he won the damn Masters. And then, of course, there’s the Ryder Cup, where fan abuse is a key component of what counts as home field advantage these days. 

The Ryder Cup crowds tipped over from boisterous to malicious last fall, ripping on everything from Rory McIlroy’s personal life to Shane Lowry’s weight. And get this — in a shocking coincidence, that Ryder Cup was held at Bethpage, just down the road from Shinnecock. What are the odds? 

To be clear, this gallery didn’t come close to Bethpage’s for abusiveness and general jackassery. This was less “we hate you and want you deported” and more “we’re rooting for the other guy and simply don’t know how not to be jerks.” Screaming “Get in the bunker!” may not be profane, but it also isn’t even clever the first time, much less the 40th. 

To be clear, this antipathy toward Clark didn’t come out of nowhere. He’s got a history of bad behaviors — smashing a sign at the PGA Championship and smashing a locker at the U.S. Open last year, to start — that don’t sit well with a good slice of golf fandom. Plus, much like DeChambeau, he’s got a little too much of the please-like-me bro vibe to him, and golf fans have a kind of sixth sense to sniff out, and bully, that kind of thing. 

But he’s trying, man. He’s trying really hard to put that behind him. He’s taken responsibility all week for the locker room incident, putting it in the context of turmoil engulfing his entire personal life. “After what happened at Oakmont was obviously the lowest point,” Clark said Sunday. (Don’t focus on the passive-voice sentence construction, focus on the bigger picture.) “I was in a dark place, didn’t really go outside much. It was a really negative, dark place. At that moment I just felt a lot of my career, world ranking, reputation, everything just dwindling. That’s a terrible feeling.” 

Clark worked his way back from those depths, and the trophy sitting next to him as he spoke is proof that his work is paying off. Maybe this will quiet the gallery critics, and maybe not. There isn’t a major or significant tournament on the schedule for Long Island anytime soon, and that’s probably for the best. 

“It sucks being the underdog or getting rooted against, but I can pull through,” Clark said. “There’s nothing like winning kind of an away game, if you will.”

The New York crowds had their say. But by every measure, Clark had the last word. Winning is, without a doubt, the best revenge.