By Golf Channel’s Mercer Baggs
Wyndham Clark survived a tricky layout and outplayed three of the game’s most well-known players to win the 123rd U.S. Open on Sunday at Los Angeles Country Club.
Clark shot even-par 70 to earn his first major title in his seventh major start. It’s his second PGA Tour title, coming three starts after his maiden win last month at the Wells Fargo Championship, a designated event.
The 29-year-old finished at 10 under par, one clear of Rory McIlroy. Scottie Scheffler (70) finished three back, in third place, with Cam Smith (67) alone in fourth place at 6 under. Rickie Fowler shot 75 to tie for fifth.
For McIlroy, it was shades of last year’s Open Championship at St. Andrews, where he couldn’t get putts to fall in the final round and fell to Cam Smith.
Birdies weren’t as significant this Sunday, but McIlroy didn’t make enough. In fact, he just made one, on his first hole. One birdie, one bogey for an even-par 70.
Clark, who shared the overnight lead with Fowler, set the early Sunday pace with three birdies and a bogey over his first seven holes. Fowler, meanwhile, bogeyed Nos. 2, 5 and 7.
With Fowler falling five back, Clark’s closest competitor was McIlroy. The Northern Irishman birdied the par-5 first, but then parred out on the front nine to stay stuck at 10 under par.
Clark, at 12 under, ran into trouble at the par-5 eighth, when his second shot settled in thick fescue short of the green. He whiffed on his third shot and blasted his fourth through the putting surface. Clark was able to save bogey and then made a 7-footer for par at the ninth – following a brilliant pitch shot to that position – to make the turn with a one-stroke advantage over McIlroy.
Fowler managed to stay in the mix, thanks to a birdie at No. 8, the resultant two-shot swing with Clark allowing him to cut his deficit to three.
Scheffler, meanwhile, entered the closing nine four back, trading a wild bogey at the seventh for a routine two-putt birdie at the eighth, his only scoring holes on the outward half.
A four-player race quickly came down to two, however, as Scheffler and Fowler both hit into the same greenside at the par-3 11th and made bogey. For good measure, they each bogeyed the 12th.
It was Clark vs. McIlroy, with McIlroy one group ahead. And for the 2011 U.S. Open champion, it was par after par after par. He missed a 4-footer for birdie at No. 8, a 12-footer at No. 9, a 15-footer at No. 10 and an 18-footer at No. 11.
But, he made no bogeys.
While Clark was scrambling, hole after hole, to avoid squares, McIlroy was hitting greens – 12 of his first 13 – and safely two-putting.
Then came the par-5 14th. After driving it into the left rough and laying up to 125 yards, McIlroy missed the green short with a wedge. His ball embedded into the grass above the face of a bunker, from which he was able to get relief. Taking a drop in the greenside rough, McIlroy pitched to 9 feet and, again, but this time for par, missed.
He walked off the 14th green two back, at 9 under, leaving it open – literally – for Clark. After an extended wait, Clark launched a fairway wood from 282 yard to 20 feet. He two-putted for birdie, his first since the sixth hole, to extend his lead to three with four to play.
He needed every one of those shots.
Clark made a sloppy bogey at the 139-yard, par-3 15th and then hit his tee shot on the par-4 16th into a fairway bunker. After laying up, he hit a wedge from 133 yards to 7 feet but lipped out the par save.
McIlroy entered the 502-yard, par-4 18th one back and laced a tee shot 321 yards down the right side of the fairway. With 181 yards remaining, he first backed off his approach shot and then tugged an iron 41 feet left of the hole.
His birdie effort to tie for the lead rolled by the right edge.
Eleven months ago at St. Andrews, McIlroy hit all 18 green and took 36 putts. This Sunday, he hit 15 greens and needed one too many swipes.
Clark, ultimately, just needed two putts to win. After a great up and down at the 17th to save par, he hit the green in two at No. 18, but 60 feet away.
With the crowd allowed to encircle the green, Clark calmly rolled his birdie putt to within 2 feet and tapped in for par and the victory.
from NBC Sports https://ift.tt/QiVuJMD