Scheffler’s score was deceptively good on a day when gusting winds reached 40mph and ensured that the greens became firmer and even more perilous.
Only one other player, Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo – who moved to level par for the championship after signing for a three-under 67 – broke the par score of 70.
It was attritional. As US Opens often are. Ten players began the day under par. By the end, there were only five.
The third-round scoring average was 73.61, the highest of the championship.
It took one hour and 50 minutes for the first birdie to be registered, one of only two in 70 combined holes played by the field over the opening two hours.
Scheffler’s performance was all the more impressive given he bogeyed the first two holes and his resurgence arrived entirely on the harder back nine.
A birdie on the 10th provided some impetus but his chip-in on the 14th followed by an outpouring of emotion signalled a shift in momentum.
Further birdies at the 15th and 16th helped him play the final nine holes in 32 shots, matching the lowest score of the week.
But Clark’s lead was barely threatened.
Unheralded American Stevens briefly got within two shots at four under par but he was one of several players whose challenge faded on the back nine.
Rory McIlroy was another. The Northern Irishman had a hat-trick of birdies from the fifth, one of which was a sensational 66-foot putt, to get to two under but five bogeys in his closing nine holes derailed his title hopes.
And Fitzpatrick’s hopes of adding to his 2022 US Open triumph were all but sunk by a ruinous run of three successive bogeys to start his round.
The normally unflappable Yorkshireman, playing in the final group with Clark, had started four back at three under but by the final hole his frustration was evident after he hacked out of deep rough and then overhit a chip. It led to a fifth bogey of the round as he finished eight off the pace.
Those at one under know they need to shoot low on Sunday and hope Clark makes mistakes.
Perhaps they will follow Fleetwood in taking inspiration from the last US Open held at this Long Island layout when the Englishman shot a 63 in 2018’s final round as he came from six back to finish one behind champion Brooks Koepka.
Fleetwood, who will start eight adrift said: “We’ll see what conditions bring. It’s nice when you have good memories of a place, isn’t it? I have great shots to go off and good feelings, so you know, I can draw on that.”
But equally Clark knows that if he can emulate the only three players to have finished under par at a Shinnecock Hills US Open – Ray Floyd in winning in 1986, and champion Retief Goosen and runner-up Phil Mickelson in 2004 – then the title is likely his.
SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. — The USGA set up a different golf course at Shinnecock Hills to keep it playable in strong wind. And when the wind subsided late Thursday afternoon, Wyndham Clark looked like he was playing in a different U.S. Open.
Clark seized on a more gentle course — slightly calmer and still soft with receptive greens — by pulling away late to reach six-under-par through 16 holes.
He left in darkness with a four-shot lead over seven players, one of them Oklahoma junior Ryder Cowan, another the surprisingly resurgent Dustin Johnson.
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 afternoon wave was playing at least a stroke easier than the early starters who faced relentless wind.
“Everything was kind of clicking,” said Clark, who came into the U.S. Open playing as well as anyone. “We were definitely fortunate with the wind laying down. Overall a good round.”
Shinnecock was still a brute of a test, but the red numbers on the white scoreboard were an unfamiliar site for this course. When play was suspended by darkness, 17 players were under par.
Xander Schauffele hits his tee shot on the ninth hole during the second round of the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club on Friday.
(George Walker IV / Associated Press)
The lowest opening round in the previous five U.S. Opens at Shinnecock is 66, last done by three players in 2004.
Cowan birdied his last hole for a 68 to join former Sooner Max McGreevy and former Oklahoma State player Sam Stevens, the only one of that trio who faced the harsh wind of the morning wave.
Johnson, in his final year of being exempt from the U.S. Open he won at Oakmont in 2016, ran off four straight birdies and was tied with Clark after 13 holes. But Johnson failed to get up-and-down for birdie on the easy par-five fifth, where Clark made eagle. And then Johnson three-putted from short range for double bogey on the sixth to fall four shots behind.
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, who won the U.S. Open in Los Angeles three years ago, changed the look of the leaderboard. He was to return Friday morning to complete the round, then head out for the second round in wind expected to be not as strong.
One key to his round might have happened some five hours before he even showed up.
Thirty minutes after the round began, play was stopped because of fog so dense it was difficult to see the fairway and the green on the par-three 11th. The two-hour delay pushed back tee times.
The forecast was for the strongest wind of the week during the brightest part of Thursday.
“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 golf wasn’t too shabby, either. Clark started on No. 10 and opened with two quick birdies. He went out in 32 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-three second, he took off.
He hit wedge to five feet on No. 3 for birdie, made a 20-foot birdie putt on the next and then from 207 yards with some wind at his back, he hit his second on the par-five fifth to within three feet for 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.
Only 27 out of the 77 players from the afternoon wave — Jason Day withdrew because of a back injury — finished the first round.
Dustin Johnson reacts after missing a putt on the sixth hole during the second round of the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club on Friday.
(Gerald Herbert / Associated Press)
Johnson was joined by three other U.S. Open champions — Matt Fitzpatrick (2022), Gary Woodland (2019) and Jon Rahm (2021) — at two under, with all still having holes to play.
Rahm, who had a chance in the final hour at the PGA Championship, was bogey-free and reached two under by making a 60-foot birdie putt on the par-three 17th hole.
Stevens overcame a double bogey to start his round — a hole that took him over two hours to play 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 Opens at Shinnecock when the course got out of control, it slowed greens to 10 1/2 on the Stimpmeter — rare for any major, much less the U.S. Open — and keep plenty of water on the putting surfaces.
It was all because of 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 played, it became more ideal with each passing hour late in the afternoon.
