SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. — How do you win at Shinnecock Hills? Not easily, for starters. It’s Wednesday of tournament week, so by now you’ve probably heard all about the course’s challenges from both players and media.
But here’s one more reminder, from a U.S. Open champ. We caught up with Wyndham Clark on the range on Monday to discuss the difficulties players face this week.
“The main thing is the greens,” he said. “This place has crazy greens; they are super undulated, and to add to that, you have Poa annua, and Poa annua is always tough to putt on.
“Undulating greens, with wind,” he continued. “So it’s like a putting nightmare. You find yourself having these tough, tricky putts where you hit it in there close and it’s hard to make putts and, you know, pars are going to be huge here.”
Asked what things this week’s winner will do better than everyone else, Clark said putting and patience.
“You are going to miss putts, you are going to make some bogeys,” he said. “It’s just inevitable. It’s just a matter of like accepting them, moving on. And then making those key putts you have to make in a U.S. Open from 4-10 feet.”
And this week could get windy too, which won’t make it any easier.
“I would say driving accuracy is extremely important,” Scottie Scheffler said during his Tuesday press conference. “There might be a couple holes, but you put a 20-mile-an-hour wind out there, these fairways with how firm they are, are not going to play super wide. I think when you look at your poor tee shots hitting it into in the rough in this fescue, it’s going to be virtually impossible to get the ball on the green.”
For more from Clark, including his mindset this week, you can watch the video below. And you can browse tee times for Thursday here.
