Friday At The 126th U.S. Open
Clark opens up four-stroke lead after 36 holes at Shinnecock Hills. Plus, Niemann's misbehavior penalty, Quotables, No. 11 stings, Tee Times and Weather.
-7: Leading score to par, Wyndham Clark
133: Clark’s 36-hole total is the lowest in Shinnecock U.S. Opens
65: Low score in round two, Collin Morikawa
80: High score in round two, Matt McCarty
+4: Cutline (72 players)
10: Number of players under par through 36 (1 in 2018)
+5/MC: DeChambeau, Hovland, Gerard, Horschel, Fowler, Reed, English, Taylor
72.254: Scoring average (77.88 Rnd 1 1986, 76.47 Rnd 1 2018)
5: Amateurs to make the cut (Cowan, Russell, Koivun, Flemming, Lee)
7,398: Round one yardage (7,440) w/left No. 7 tee in use
Mid to upper 10s: Stimpmeter speeds (Greens single cut)
4.329: Round two scoring average of No. 6 (1st)
83.22%: No. 6 fairway hit percentage in round two (124/149)
44.30%: No. 6 green in regulation percentage in round two (66/146)
76: High temperature (mostly sunny skies, dry, breezy with winds primarily S/SW)
Wyndham Clark believes he has yet to play his best golf through 36 holes of the 126th United States Open.
“I really felt like I could be in double digits, but you know, the great thing about that is I didn’t feel like I had my best, and I still am leading as of right now,” he said after posting a 69 and 7-under-par total to open up a four-stroke lead. “Hopefully I can bring my A-game on the weekend.”
Visually and statistically, the 2023 U.S. Open champion at Los Angeles Country Club appears to be doing everything extremely well.
He’s averaging 339.8 yards on the two measuring holes, 316 on all drives.
He’s gained 4.451 strokes approaching the green (28/36 in regulation),
Clark has gotten up and down 6 of 8 times.
He has made 214’9” of putts.
“My goals coming into this week was if I shot even-par, I would hope I had a chance to win,” he said. “Things changed a little bit with conditions and whatnot, but yeah, 10 was coming into today.”
Yes, that would be 10-under-par through 36.
Clark was asked to clarify (did you really say 10 under!?) his lofty goals. Then came the inevitable questions about last year’s temper issues and current status as golf’s lead villain. This would be the incidents culminating in inflicting damage to one of Oakmont’s old lockers and a weird inability to accept responsibility (despite suggestions of victimhood like the ones you might have heard on Friday’s broadcast).
“I’ve gotten a lot of grief since last year, rightfully so,” Clark said. “The thing that’s unfortunate is that’s not who I am, what happened last year. I’m hoping I can win back the fans that I had or some new fans because it was a terrible incident. You know, I really feel like I can show people that I’m fun and outgoing, I’m fierce, competitive, love the game, respect the game, and I just had a bad moment. Hopefully, I can win those people back.”
Clark’s steady play over 36 was briefly interrupted by a short night’s rest. He said he went to bed after Thursday’s play suspension at 10:30 a.m. but was back up at 4 a.m. for his round with Dustin Johnson and Gary Woodland.
“I'm going to really be looking forward to a nap and watching USA [soccer] hopefully win a game.”
A pair of two-time major champions moved into contention with sterling plays during the early wave: Xander Schauffele (67) and Collin Morikawa (65).
The +4, 144 cutline is the lowest in five modern era U.S. Opens at Shinnecock Hills:
1986 (150, +10)
1995 (146, +6)
2004 (145, +5)
2018 (148, +8)
Niemann Gets A Code Of Conduct Two-Shotter
Joaquin Niemann was assessed a two-stroke penalty for throwing his sand wedge on the 6th hole. The incident occurred during Thursday’s first round and is the first such penalty doled out by the rules committee since 2019’s change in the rules.
Niemann was assessed the penalty after signing for his opening 75. While the incident was not caught by cameras, but it was witnessed by a rules official, according to the USGA. Besides throwing his club, Niemann also requested fire ant relief (oldie but goodie!), kicked a small white flag marking the location of his ball, and in general acted like a very slim manchild.
His score on the sixth hole of 9 rose to an 11.
“I hit it two times out of bounds on the right, two bad swings,” he said. “Then, yeah, got pretty frustrated. I’m not someone that like to be in that behavior. I’m the first one to judge myself when I don’t behave on the golf course. Yeah, that was a misbehave from my part.”
Niemann’s “misbehave” was determined to be serious misconduct under Rule 1.2b, refined in 2019’s update to the Rules of Golf and affording the committee the right to create a code of conduct policy.
In this case, Niemann’s club hurl was deemed “Serious Misconduct” under the U.S. Open’s policy provided to players and did not require a warning unlike the general policy under the Rules of Golf.
The language shared with press to explain the Niemann decision:
Serious Misconduct: If a player’s (or their caddie’s) behavior is so far removed from what is expected in the spirit of the game of golf, in accordance with Rule 1.2b, the Chief Referee, in consultation with the Championship Director, may apply a penalty of two strokes or disqualification, taking account of the frequency, impact, intent and severity of the misconduct.
Playing on a LIV exemption based on his 2025 season-long play, Niemann used the “misbehave” to fuel a second-round 65.
“Signed my scorecard, and then a referee came up to me and said, I need to talk to you. I was, like, sure. I knew I had a misbehavior, but I feel like everybody had some, and it’s never going to anything major like two-shot penalty, you know?”
Quotable
Harry Higgs (71-68) on showing up Thursday in shorts. “One of the Darrell Survey guys gave me his pants, which had I had to have worn for -- I was here for ten hours yesterday -- I would have 100% ripped them. They fit, but not that great. It would have been real funny trying to get a ball out of the hole and teeing it up. God love my wife. I called her at 5:30 in the morning, and she quick got out, grabbed me a pair of pants. Shoot, grabbed me two just in case, trying to maybe make me look good. By about 6:15 before my 6:35 tee time I had my own pair of pants. J ust kind of told the same…Maybe I should do stuff like that more often. Well, that is important, because they will not let me play, but this just -- it’s really not that important. I’m not a robot. I’m going to make mistakes. That’s a very rare one for me. I pride myself on being very prepared.”
Rory McIlroy (69-71) on the course setup. “The weather has been perfect. They've got everything back on track, so I'd say people should expect the Shinnecock they've gotten to know over the past couple of decades.”
Matt Fitzpatrick (67-70) on sharing a house with his brother Alex (71-69) and chatting about their rounds. “I saw him for about two minutes last night after the round. I went straight to bed, and I’ve not seen him.”
Fitzpatrick on the setup. “For the most part, at a U.S. Open, it’s not like you can go flag hunting. I will say some of these greens with where they have to put the pins, you have a little bit more of a chance because most of them have to be pretty central just because of how slopy the greens are.”
Collin Morikawa (73-65) on Shinnecock Hills. “It’s grown on me throughout the week. I think when I showed up, you know, it was nice, and everyone had high remarks for it. I just looked at it as this is the next test for me, but I think it’s grown on me. Especially with this wind that we’ve had. I think with the north wind, it plays very, very weird, but with the south we had yesterday and the west we’re having right now, I think it plays as a great golf course.”
Scottie Scheffler (72-68) on his position in the championship. “The wind definitely was the biggest challenge the first couple of days. Looks like we’re going to have some more wind tomorrow. Wyndham was able to handle it really well obviously the first couple of days, but like I said, the tournament is halfway done. I did a good job of kind of hanging in there the last two days, and hopefully start making a bit of a move over the next couple of days.
Shane Lowry on what happens if you end up on the wrong side of the hole at Shinnecock: “You just know if you miss the putt you’re gonna look like a f*&^ing idiot.”
Hole Of The Round
