The post After Shinnecock U.S. Open, another South Shore golf adventure to remember  appeared first on Golf.

The post After Shinnecock U.S. Open, another South Shore golf adventure to remember  appeared first on Golf.

These weeks, between golf’s two great championships, are lovely, despite the sog-fest upon us now. In these long summer days, Wimbledon is on in the morning, its grass at the T getting browner by the day. In this year of World Cup fútbol, there’s almost always something to watch. The U.S. Senior Open is played annually in this fast month, its fields loaded with familiar names. (Ernie, Paddy, Vijay, Davis, this year at Scioto, the Columbus course where young Jackie Nicklaus first broke par.) Across the Lower 48, in these weeks after Father’s Day, the yellowish light of afternoon summons you to the course murmuring this: Quick nine?

Or 10. I nod here to the routing of the village-owned course in Bellport, in Suffolk County, on the South Shore of Long Island. The Bellport loops go 1 through 8, a collection of good holes without a showstopper. The more common late-day move there is the second loop, nine to the house, with its various whiffs of the bay. I have played those holes while fading into sleep more than a few times. Smell and memory have had a long and good marriage. Don’t they?

I grew up in Patchogue, one town west of Bellport, a baseball town (ballfields everywhere) and a ferry town (the Davis Park Ferry shuttling beach people to Fire Island and back). In high school and college, I logged many fast summer rounds at Bellport with my friend Larry Lodi, who broke 80 regularly with a strong right-hand grip and in various guitar god T-shirts. (Peter Frampton, etc.) We dug clams in the Great South Bay, sold them dockside, ate fast suppers at our respective homes, then raced the 5 miles to the Bellport course, our last putts slowed by rising dew. Larry’s car (by which I mean his mother’s Buick) had an FM radio with the Bee Gees (it seemed) always playing on WBLI. Forgive me, I’m drifting. In the summer of ’78, or one of those Ford or Carter summers, floats with Hispanic themes made their first appearance in Patchogue’s annual July 4th parade. The floats were colorful, proud, fun, overdue. Bellport doesn’t have a July 4th parade but it does have a longstanding Independence Day street fair called “Artists on the Lane” — pleasant enough though low on funk. 

Come summer, I’m drawn to Patchogue, to Bellport, to the courses and beaches of Suffolk County. I’m drawn home. The U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills last month was a gift, as were the Opens there in 1986 and ’95, in 2004 and ’18. On Wednesday night, this year at Shinnecock, I slipped out of the press tent at maybe half past six and was still able to get in 10 holes at Bellport before sunset. The bay holes there are like a North Star for me.

A fortnight or so later, on July 4th, I was back in Bellport. It was a scorcher there, as it was across Long Island, as it was across the country. My wife, Christine, and I made a listless walk down Bellport Lane, peeking sluggishly at the various artist booths, lingering at length in the museum-barn owned by the Bellport Historical Society. It had air conditioning.

In mid-afternoon, to continue this sluggish theme from a sluggish day, we made a listless drive east on Sunrise Highway, in search of cooler temperatures. As we approached Shinnecock Hills, I realized for the first time that its Stanford White clubhouse, though high on a hill, was no longer visible from the highway. Kind of annoying. I had never noticed how tall and thick a stand of barrier trees, between Sunrise Highway and the club, had become. 

During the Open, there were members hanging on the clubhouse porch, some of them in club blazers, clinging to tradition and yesteryear. You could almost picture Thurston Howell III, Ascot-wearing Wall Street (get this) millionaire from “Gilligan’s Island,” smiling in his approval. BTW, what was Thurston thinking, signing up for that three-hour cruise-ship tour, along with his bride, Lovey Howell? Maybe they were looking for relief from a sluggish day, as Christine and I were on Independence Day 250. The Howells boarded the S.S. Minnow, which promptly got blown off-course by a tropical storm and CBS had another sit-com hit. I played Bellport the other day with a light-footed gent named Marcel who was wearing a floppy bucket hat he could have borrowed from Gilligan. Somewhere, Gilligan was smiling, too.

Back to the real world. There’s a winding public road, Tuckahoe Road, that bisects the Shinnecock Hills course. It was closed all through the U.S. Open but now it was open again and I pointed our green Mini (160,000 miles and going strong) to it. There were golfers at play on the course, caddies trailing them. Several massive U.S. Open tents were still up but coming down and there were dozens of sweltering workers in construction bibs working in the rising heat of this national holiday. On the other side of the Atlantic, you could imagine, tents and grandstands going up at Royal Birkdale for the British Open. The first round is on July 16. Scottie Scheffler will return the trophy to the R&A before that. You only get it for a year. Well, what don’t we borrow, when you get right down to it?

Christine and I did a drive-by tour of the adjacent courses, the courses of the Southampton Golf Club, the Sebonack Golf Club, the National Golf Links of America. Sebonack’s developer, Michael Pascucci, bought the 300-acre property from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local No. 3, and Bob Rubin, owner of another course in the vicinity, The Bridge, used to float another name in Sebonack’s direction, The Local, to set it apart from its neighbor, The National, and to acknowledge its IBEW roots. Bob is a Francophile among other things and can’t resist a double entendre. (The Local — so good.) I showed Christine the fabulous entry columns at Sebonack and announced grandly, “The Macdonald Gates.” “Wait,” Christine said. “I thought the Macdonald Gates were at The National?” The things she has picked up on, fortyish years in.

We drove by the actual Macdonald Gates and to the public beach that runs parallel to N.G.L.’s spectacular uphill 18th hole, a short par-5 called Home. Home — so good. Charles Blair Macdonald, when designing The National often considered golf in Scotland as he considered the course, and in the auld country Home is a common name for finishing holes and a handsome coda on their cute little scorecards. (Check out Elie, Brora, Prestwick.) I stumbled recently onto these sturdy sentences and I include them here for you CBMacD buffs out there, from a short 1928 New Yorker piece about Macdonald and his N.G.L. course: “As it turned out, half of the course was copied from historic holes abroad and half created out of Macdonald’s own fancy. He thus became the pioneer golf-course architect in this country.”

The bayfront beach in front of the course — please note: it is not lifeguarded — is named for Thomas Rewinski, a former N.G.L. greenkeeper. I’ve known that name forever. When I was a kid, the South Fork of the East End of Long Island still had many prominent families with Polish surnames, families that owned potato farms and thriving small businesses, Carl Yastrzemski’s family among them. I’m sure, on the right day and in the right conditions, the Rewinski beach is wonderful, but on our day there Christine and I struggled to navigate its rocks, could find no breeze and swam in water that was too still and eerily warm. We baked for 20 minutes and left.

An ice cream stop was the preamble to a dusk visit to an ocean beach called Sagg Main, where the bodysurfing conditions were superb. The ocean water was appropriately cold, and the beach air was warm without being hot. Oh the joy. I finished reading a long profile of the writer Colson Whitehead in The New Yorker. Our day was finally coming together.

News

Shinnecock Hills and its six U.S. Opens are bridge to game’s history — and my own

By: Michael Bamberger

From the beach, Christine and I drove to Sag Harbor for dinner, to a mom-and-pop Italian restaurant we like there. On our way to it we drove by a wee inland course in Bridgehampton. I can tell you almost nothing about it except that it has nine holes, it looks old and no right-minded golfer would dare to sneak on it. We parked near a church on the outskirts of Sag Harbor’s downtown.

Colson Whitehead, I had just read, spent his childhood summers in Sag Harbor with his family. A lot of the New Yorker piece dwells on that, Whitehead as an affluent Black summer kid in a town with few Black people in it, biking around town with his brother, making the scene, in their own way. Our waiter at Il Capuccino, a local young man studying urban planning at Vassar, knew a lot about Colson Whitehead. Good food, good times, no dessert course. We left the restaurant at 9:15 p.m, with Sag Harbor’s fireworks, over Sag Harbor’s harbor, announced for 9:30. Christine and I were married a short ferry-ride away, on Shelter Island.

We started walking downhill, bound for the harbor, and were surprised to immediately see the first firework low in the sky, 15 minutes ahead of schedule. For the next 45 minutes, we took in the light show, concluding with (per custom) a shoot-the-works blast that often brings to mind for me Francis Scott Key’s ode to “red glare” and the Grucci family of Bellport, the first family of American fireworks. In 1983, while visiting my parents for Thanksgiving, I covered a fatal factory blast at the Grucci factory in Bellport for the Boston Globe.

A few minutes after the last spark of the Sag Harbor’s show last blast evaporated, a thousand cellphones went buzzing at once, with an emergency notification from the National Weather Service:

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING in effect for this area.

DESTRUCTIVE 80 mph winds.

Take shelter in a sturdy building, away from windows.

Flying debris may be deadly to those caught without shelter.

All along Sag Harbor’s crowded sidewalks, there was a sense of urgency, as this storm moved in and the air got heavy, bordering on panic but short of it. We could hear the fierce wind in the trees above us and could see heavy raindrops landing on the roof of the Mini as we entered it. Sag Harbor’s narrow streets were almost overwhelmed by the fleeing cars, some of them twice the size of ours. Christine wondered aloud if we should just stay put, not that that seemed particularly safe. We were in an area crowded with mature trees. We had to go somewhere and headed out. Christine asked Waze to direct us to the SpringHill Suites, our weekend home on the outskirts of Bellport. Room 109. We’ve been in it before.

The Mini plowed through pools of water that were at least a half-foot deep and maybe double that. You needed some speed to get through them. I kept repeating the same question to Christine: “Next turn, please.” We’re on this road for 1.5 miles. We’re on this road for 2 miles. Bear left at the next sharp turn. Twigs and branches were falling all around us. The rain and wind were fierce. Passing vehicles sprayed us like we were in the early stages of a car wash, our windshield momentarily opaque. Waze was rerouting us every half-mile or so, out of informed and sudden necessity. These back South Fork roads, more rural than suburban, were pitch black even when the sky turned an ominous gray, filled with the angry glare of an electrical storm. We were on roads I had never seen in my life. In a manner of speaking, we were blown off course. There was no safe place to stop even if we had wanted to. My skin was clammy. 

All I wanted to do was to get to Sunrise Highway, where there would be safe places to pull over, strip malls with overhangs and the like. At one point we were a few hundred yards from the highway but couldn’t get to it, as a downed tree crossed our road. One car after another made a three-point turn. The alternate route, or routes, took forever. Waze was in control and there was no choice but to keep the faith. We drove by the entrance to The Bridge, or so I sensed. We were driving blind. With a kind of blind faith, I should say.

Eventually, amazingly, Waze led us to a road that offered a clear shot to Sunrise Highway: Tuckahoe Road, right through the Shinnecock Hills Golf Club course. In the afternoon, on that same road, the clubhouse was on our left, and there were people here and there, golfers and caddies and workers. Now the old clubhouse was on our right and it was a ghost town, dark and lonely on the top of its hill. But comforting, too: I knew it. You could wait out a storm there if you had to. Nobody would deny you that, even after the fact. The opposite, if anything. Glad to hear you’re safe and sound. Easy to imagine that. Golf and golfers are good that way. We’re a kind of clan, really. I have found that often.

The windshield wipers were keeping up, pretty much, and I offered silent praise to our trusty green Mini, surely with less urgency than Washington did when riding Nelson, his beloved wartime horse, though the comparison did cross my mind, knowing all the while it was a wild reach.

We made it to Sunrise Highway and the driving was fine. We made it back to our room. A 50-minute drive took an hour and 50. My clubs were in the boot, along with a damp bathing suit.

Flying debris may be deadly. There’s a sentence that gets your attention. The National Weather Service should take a bow here. Waze, too. While I’m at it, I tip my hat to my bride here. (Here and always, really.) I often bring back golf caps from my little trips, to this course or that tournament, lightweight white ones you can put in the wash, and Christine wears them all summer long, right through Labor Day, sticking her ponytail through the protractor-shaped keyhole above the adjustable strap in the back and with a style (I would like to say) all her own.

We got lucky. Flying debris fell around us but not on us. We made it back to the SpringHill Suites and the night manager at the front desk was holding down the fort on a wild night, a wild conclusion to 7/4/250. Midnight was closing in. We were in, the curtains drawn, the TV on. For the night, 109 was Home. 

Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@Golf.com.

The post After Shinnecock U.S. Open, another South Shore golf adventure to remember  appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘Everybody says I’m the worst’: Bryson DeChambeau explains major issues after U.S. Open MC appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘Everybody says I’m the worst’: Bryson DeChambeau explains major issues after U.S. Open MC appeared first on Golf.

Bryson DeChambeau arrived at the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills hoping to play the weekend in a major championship for the first time in 2026. The two-time U.S. Open champion imploded on Friday at the Masters to leave Augusta earlier and never had a chance at the PGA Championship at Aronimink.

Still, DeChambeau said he was confident about the state of his game as he arrived on Long Island. A few days later, DeChambeau was packing up early after shooting 70-75 (five over) to miss the cut by one shot.

DeChambeau didn’t speak with the assembled media after missing the weekend at Shinnecock. But a week later, the Crushers’ frontman and YouTube content king posted a 34-minute video to his channel where he walked through every shot of his two rounds at Shinnecock and explained why he has underperformed at majors this year.

“I’ve been wanting to do this for a little bit now,” DeChambeu said to start the video. “I think it’s important for you guys, especially given that I show myself off in different ways, whether it’s entertaining on YouTube or playing professional golf, I want to do my best in every single event, and the way I’ve played recently is not a true reflection. Unfortunately, I’ve been working incredibly hard, and sometimes it just doesn’t pan out, which kind of sucks, and that’s golf, that’s life.”

Most of DeChambeau’s video is him explaining how the softness of the greens confused him, or the wind didn’t hit certain shots the way he wanted or how he misread certain putts. He said “one of his favorite moments” of the tournament was the first drive he hit with his new TaylorMade prototype driver on the 12th hole. DeChambeau’s drive on the par 4 hit the road that intersects the hole and landed 427 yards away. He went on to make birdie.

When DeChambeau reaches Shinnecock’s first hole (the tenth of his first round), he notes an issue he has been working to figure out. DeChambeau’s drive found the fairway, but his approach landed left of his desired target. The shot landed hole high, but was indicative of one thing DeChambeau has been fighting.

“That’s one of the things I have to figure out with my wedges,” DeChambeau said. “Sometimes they feel like it slips on the face and it’s probably a shaft to head weight combo. So, that’s what I’m working on to figure that out right now.”

DeChambeau played his first 17 holes in one under par and seemed to be set to enter the mix at another U.S. Open.

But his issues started to rear their head on Friday. With the first round called due to darkness, DeChambeau had to come out early Friday to finish the final hole of his first round and then turn back around and play his second. While warming up on the range, his swing felt off. It was a problem he couldn’t solve — one he has been fighting for some time.

“Anyway, this is kind of where it gets weird,” DeChambeau said of Friday morning. “I get to the range on Friday, and all of a sudden, something feels a little off with my timing in regards to how I’m jumping off the ground to get the club to come out. You know, those little right misses that I was talking about became more pronounced. I couldn’t feel like the club was naturally turning over effortlessly. And yeah, it showed on nine and I missed it horribly right. Felt late.”

DeChambeau’s drive on the final hole of his first round flared right and landed in the fescue. He eventually made a 26-foot putt for bogey to finish the first round at even par.

“I’m just in a weird spot,” DeChambeau said after his first round. “So, I had a little frustrating moment after that. But then, I gather myself and I come out and I still can’t figure it out. I still don’t know what’s going on with my golf swing. It feels a little funky. It’s just not turning over like it was the day before.”

DeChambeau’s tournament quickly came unraveled at the start of his second round. He opened with pars at one and two and then made back-to-back double bogeys to fall to five over for the tournament.

“That was my tournament,” DeChambeau said. “That literally was the tournament. If I finish at one over, right from all that, if I finish at one over, I’m what am I seven back? Something like that. You know, there’s plenty of people that were one over going in and [finished] top 10 or played well on the weekend. You just can’t do that. It was really unfortunate the way that whole situation happened. I didn’t feel like I played that bad for that to happen, but you can’t do that at majors. You can’t make two doubles in a row. You can’t just do that.”

News

'It was unfair': Major champ laments fan treatment of Wyndham Clark

By: Josh Sens

DeChambeau further discussed his swing issues, the same ones he appeared to be fighting on the range at the PGA Championship at Aronimink, when he hit a smother hook off the ninth tee.

“Slap cut,” DeChambeau said. “I couldn’t time my golf swing for some reason and it wasn’t unloading. The club head wasn’t coming out from the top. Felt like it was being dragged like radially and just could never get the club head out.”

The video ends with DeChambeau being asked a few questions from off-screen, the same questions he would’ve faced from the media had he taken the few minutes to stop and answer.

“Not good enough golf,” DeChambeau said about his three major missed cuts. “We could say it’s unlucky. We could say, bad judgment. We could say bad swings and all that. But ultimately it comes down to me making better decisions, having a couple things go more my way, and me being more comfortable over the golf ball and not holding it off and knowing why I’m I have that miss, knowing why I’m missing it, and then working on speed with my putting, working on my wedges, getting a better combo so that it’s not as erratic. So even though I wasn’t hitting it my best off the tee — I was still number one and driving off the tee, which is crazy. My iron play is just something I got to work on, man. I got to get it better.”

Unlike Jon Rahm, DeChambeau has been playing a pivotal role in securing outside investment for LIV Golf. Asked if his focus on YouTube and the future of LIV was impacting his play in the majors, DeChambeau dismissed that idea, saying that he just hasn’t felt as good as he used to over the ball and that he and his team are trying to recreate the feeling he had when he shot 58 at LIV Greenbrier in 2023 while noting that it wasn’t long ago he was one of the best major performers on the planet. Things change quickly in professional golf.

“Everybody’s going to have their opinion on it,” DeChambeau said. “But I can tell you I’ve been working harder on my game this past year after the Masters than I have in the past three, four years. The amount of effort I’ve put into understanding my golf swing and what makes that thing come out — what makes the golf club come out more effectively and more efficiently is mindboggling. But I haven’t figured it out. I’ve been working with a great team. We just haven’t cracked the code on why I did what I did at Greenbrier.

“Put one foot in front of the other and keep going,” DeChambeau said to end the video. “There’s not much more I can do than that. Just last year, before the U.S. Open, I was one of the best major championship performers in the world. Come one year later, everybody says I’m the worst. It just is what it is. It’s life, it’s golf. Things don’t always go your way. But guess what? Keep going.”

With LIV Golf on a break, DeChambeau’s next chance to “keep going” will come at the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale, where he will look to try not to miss all four major cuts in 2026.

The post ‘Everybody says I’m the worst’: Bryson DeChambeau explains major issues after U.S. Open MC appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘It was unfair’: Major champ laments fan treatment of Wyndham Clark appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘It was unfair’: Major champ laments fan treatment of Wyndham Clark appeared first on Golf.

The best golfers have short memories. The worst golf fans don’t. Matt Fitzpatrick found that out last week at Shinnecock Hills.

Paired with Wyndham Clark in the third round of the U.S. Open, Fitzpatrick was struck by the volume and intensity of spectator abuse hurled at the eventual tournament winner.

Fitzpatrick’s not naive. He knows that Clark has done himself no favors with assorted displays of bad behavior, none more notorious than his locker-wrecking outburst after missing the cut at last year’s U.S. Open.

“I’m not condoning what he did at Oakmont,” Fitzpatrick told GOLF’s Subpar podcast this week. “It was not really the smartest thing to do.”

Still, he figured the outrage would fade.

“Part of me thought, give it two to three months and everyone would forget about it and you’d never hear about it again,” Fitzpatrick said.

He was wrong. Turns out fans’ memories are long.

“Since you’ve been out there, do you remember a time where fans were as hard on a guy throughout the entire event as they were with Wyndham Clark this week?” podcast co-host Drew Stoltz asked.

Fitzpatrick said he didn’t. And called it “unfair.”

As a veteran of four Ryder Cups, Fitzpatrick has, of course, heard heckling before. He has also encountered it in stroke-play competitions. Battling Scottie Scheffler down the stretch at the RBC Heritage in April, Fitzpatrick triumphed in the face of fans who barked at his ball to get in the bunker. But the scene at Shinnecock, he said, was different.

“Having an American fan base root against an American player is odd,” Fitzpatrick said.

No matter the format, Fitzpatrick noted, the best way to deal with haters is to put on blinders — not to mention earplugs — and play your best. On that front, he said, Clark impressed him with his shot-making and his comportment.

“The guy’s leading the tournament, making putts, doing what he needed to do,” Fitzpatrick said. “Every time on Saturday, he was faultless.”

The following afternoon, after hoisting the trophy, Clark said he hoped he’d won a few fans over. Maybe he has. For now, he’s got Fitzpatrick in his camp.

“I’ve spent a little time with Wyndham,” Fitzpatrick said. “I really like him. I think he’s a good guy.”

You can listen to the entire episode here or watch it on YouTube below.

The post ‘It was unfair’: Major champ laments fan treatment of Wyndham Clark appeared first on Golf.

The post Booing Wyndham Clark, Shinny and Trade Parade: 50 thoughts on U.S. Open appeared first on Golf.

The post Booing Wyndham Clark, Shinny and Trade Parade: 50 thoughts on U.S. Open appeared first on Golf.

DAYDREAMING IN THE TRADE PRADE, LONG ISLAND, N.Y. — Boo, Wyndham Clark. 

Booooo. 

Boooooooo. 

Clark is your now two-time U.S. Open winner, and the scene at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, on the eastern end of Long Island, N.Y., felt as if he traded in his golf polo for a Boston Red Sox jersey and ate the last cookie at Tate’s, a local favorite here. Some unpleasant actions — a locker smash, a club throw, a run-in with the rules, some comments — likely led to the unpleasantries, and he also wasn’t helped that his Sunday playing partner, Scottie Scheffler, was playing for the career grand slam … on his 30th birthday … on Father’s Day. 

“Man, they definitely didn’t want me to win,” Clark said afterward. 

“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.”

He’s right, right?

Maybe a crowd un-favorite isn’t cheered. But vitriol? In individual golf tournaments, there aren’t away teams, nor are there really home teams, so I’m genuinely wondering then:

Why would you come to a golf event to hate?

How’d we get here?

This also seems like it’s only going to worsen, isn’t it? The golf balls are out of the sleeve, so to say. 

I’m not completely naive, of course, and I think I know the answers — among them being the lust to be loud and the desire to go viral — but, if you’re so inclined, you can reach out to me at nick.piastowski@neatly-delicate-grub.edgecompute.app to share your thoughts. Or better yet, offer a solution. I’ve said in this space before that banning phones would help — this is done at the Masters, and the patrons mostly behave.

You can also just boo me in a message, too. I’ve heard worse. 

As we look back at the U.S. Open week that was at Shinnecock, let’s make that observation No. 1 then. We’ll try for 49 more, and, to help the mood, we’ll mix in some Billy Joel, one of Long Island’s favorite sons. 

2. I’m also being fueled by a bagel and coffee from Goldberg’s. 

3. Notably, Clark said he understood why fans weren’t on his side. He also joked about the distaste with his caddie, Dave Pelekoudas. 

“If we heard someone cheer for me,” Clark said, “I’d go, ‘Oh, there’s one person that likes me. So we would kind of make jokes and make it maybe a little light-hearted.”

4. What does it say about Clark’s game that he still won?

News

Shinnecock's U.S. Open crowd debacle shouldn't have surprised us

By: James Colgan

5. Scheffler was impressed.

“The crowd was tough today,” he said. “I mean, New Yorkers, they are tough people. There was a good turnout from the fans. You like seeing the fans cheer for you. I think sometimes it can get a little too much when, you know, balls are kind of going off greens and you start hearing cheers. That felt a bit much to me.

“But at the end of the day, I can’t control fan behavior. Being in the arena is not for everybody. You know, there’s been crowds that have been for me in my career; there’s been crowds that have been significantly against me in my career. …

“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.”

6. I liked this story here from the Fried Egg’s Kevin Van Valkenburg. He writes that we expect a lot from athletes. 

7. What’s the over-under on total majors Clark will win? He’s 32. I’ll set the line at 2.5. 

8. How many pros are calling Julie Elion this week? She’s Clark’s sports psychologist. 

9. Before he started Saturday’s third round, she told Clark this on the range: 

“It’s not what happens to us. It’s how we respond to what happens to us.”

10. I won’t forget seeing Sam Burns playing with his son, Bear, as Clark was finishing his final round. 

11. Burns has now come thisclose in back-to-back U.S. Opens. What’s his total majors over-under? He’s 29. I’ll set the line at 1.5. 

12. Here’s a bit of a look at the sports writing process. Early Sunday, in anticipation of a Clark runaway, I’d started on a story saying that while he won, no one else really lost, but I paused it to follow Burns. 

Let’s continue that winners piece now. 

News

Sam Burns learned U.S. Open fate. Dad's words then bring him to tears

By: Nick Piastowski

13. There were the rebounders, like Burns, who a year ago, led after 54 holes, only to shoot an eight-over 78 on Sunday. Also among this bounceback group was Keith Mitchell, who played his first nine holes of the tournament at six-over par, then played six-under golf after that.

“I might have not won,” he said Sunday, “but I felt like I achieved a lot more than potentially I thought I was going to after about two hours into the round.

“You can always look at winning a tournament, but I think I won the week after the start.”

14. Another rebounder was Harry Higgs, who tied for 43rd after going six for six in missed cuts this season on the PGA Tour. His press conference after Friday’s second round was one of the best I’ve heard, and you can watch it here. 

15. Another rebounder was Tom Kim, who’d been as high as 11 in the world golf ranking but entered last week at 141st. At the Open, he was one of just three players to finish under par for the week. 

“You know, for the first time, I was able to really taste a major championship right in front of my fingertips,” Kim said. “I can go back this whole week and just see how close I actually am, and I think I finished three back, so a lot of little soft, small stuff that if I had done better, I definitely would have had a chance.

“But I’m not going to look at the week of what could have been. I’m going to look at the week where, you know, I haven’t had — this is my best finish in a major since the British Open in 2023, so a lot of positives.

“I think this is going to give me a big boost for the rest of the season.” 

16. Then there is Joaquin Niemann. 

Five-under 65 on Friday. Two-over 72 on Saturday. Four-under 66 on Sunday. That’s seven-under golf. 

After an eight-over 78 on Thursday, which included a two-stroke penalty for a club toss, turning a nine on the 6th hole into an 11. Sunday, he was reflective about the incident. After being asked if he thought he was being made an example of, Niemann said he thought he was. 

“I was not trying to offend anyone,” Niemann said. “I think it was something more — it was more something kind of like against me. I was frustrated. I had my expectations, which are always super high. I was playing good golf. I knew it was going to be a tough week, a long week, a challenging week.

“After seeing that and knowing that the best score I could do was an eight, it kind of frustrated me a lot. I’m not happy doing that. I’m not proud about throwing a golf club. I get I deserve it in a way; I don’t know. But there’s nothing I can do. I feel like I learned from it.

“To be honest, it was a good throw. [Here, he laughed.]

“I never try to offend anybody, not even the volunteers that were there. I know they do their job … and they do the best they can. They don’t pay them to be there; they do that because they like it. I was frustrated. … 

“It was just frustration, but it’s more because of the passion that I have to get better and better.”

17. Music break! Below is Billy Joel song No. 1:

18. Also winning this week were a trio of players fighting ailments. Collin Morikawa has fought a back injury; after Friday’s second round, he said he still feels uncomfortable, and that he couldn’t comfortably hit cuts with irons into right-to-left wind and “the high bomb. But the two-time major winner tied for 17th.    

19. A year ago, Sahith Theegala fought an oblique and a neck injury, missed events and finished 147th in the PGA Tour’s regular-season standings. At the Open, Theegala tied for 11th. 

20. Following a brain procedure in 2023, Gary Woodland has been managing PTSD, and his revelation of it, to Golf Channel’s Rex Hogaard during the Players Championship, will remain as one of the moments of the year. The 2019 U.S. Open winner tied for seventh. 

21. There were also good stories. James Nicholas, a native New Yorker who hit the tournament’s first ball, shot a one-under 69 on Sunday, and he tied for 65th.

22. We learned more about Miles Russell, the 17-year-old prodigy who touchingly brought his dad out from the crowd on Sunday — Father’s Day — to carry his bag up the 18th hole. 

23. We learned more about Jackson Koivun, the college megastar who will play as a pro going forward. On Saturday and Sunday, Russell and Koivun played together. 

24. We learned more about Arni Sveinsson, who, though he missed the weekend cut, became the first golfer from Iceland to play in a U.S. Open. I wrote about him here. 

25. There were also continuations. Aaron Rai, J.T. Poston and Alex Fitzpatrick showed stickiness. In the first major since his PGA Championship win, Rai tied for 11th. 

26. J.T. Poston, the Memorial winner, tied for fourth. 

27. Alex Fitzpatrick, who earned PGA Tour membership in April after a win with his brother, Matt, at the Zurich Classic, tied for 23rd. 

28. And we found out more about Sam Stevens, who tied for seventh — and on Saturday had this exchange with a reporter (the reporter’s questions are in italics):

Sam, you’ve been around for a while, obviously, but I think a lot of people are going to turn on their televisions tomorrow and say …

“Who the heck is Sam Stevens?” Stevens said. 

Yeah, so who the heck is Sam Stevens?

“I don’t know. I’m an average PGA Tour player, I guess,” Stevens said. “Yeah, I don’t know. That’s a good question. I’m just a golfer.

“Yeah, I’m excited for tomorrow, and hopefully I can play well enough to help a few more people get acquainted with who I am.”

29. Adam Scott is another winner. He’s now played in 100 straight majors, a streak that started with the 2001 Open Championship. At that time, Clark was 7.  

30. Music break! Below is Joel song No. 2.  

31. A Scheffler thought. He wasn’t at his best — and tied for fourth. That is maybe the best sign of who he is — a less than fully charged Scheffler was bested by only three players. Tiger did that type of thing.  

32. Scheffler completes the grand slam next year.  

33. What’s his total majors over-under? He turned 30 on Sunday. I’ll set the line at 7.5. 

34. Does Bryson DeChambeau make the weekend at the Open Championship — and avoid missing the cut at every major this year? 

35. I thought Jon Rahm would contend. He’s had success on poa annua greens. But he also missed the cut, playing his last 13 holes at eight-over par.  

36. I’m about a 14-handicap. Had I played from the tips at Shinnecock and the wind was at its worst, I think I would have shot — hell, I’d still be out there.  

37. I didn’t hear one complaint about the course or the setup, which was impressive considering seemingly everyone complained in 2018, the last time Shinny hosted a U.S. Open.  

38. The lack of fans on Saturday was odd. I think there were about a dozen spectators following the penultimate group. 

39. I did learn all about the “Trade Parade” traffic of the area. Our lodging for the week was 12 miles from Shinnecock — and on Thursday, it took an hour and a half to get to the course. Saturday and Sunday? Twenty minutes. 

40. Matt Fitzpatrick wins the Open Championship next month. 

41. Lydia Ko wins this week’s Women’s PGA, which would give her four of the five women’s majors.  

42. Music break! Below is Joel song No. 3:

43. Here are a few of my favorite reads this week from the on-site GOLF.com staff. From my batch, I hope you’ll like my story here on Sveinsson, the first Icelander to play in a U.S. Open. 

44. From Michael Bamberger, his story here that looked at Clark was great. 

45. From Alan Bastable, his story here on John Shippen was great. 

46. From Josh Berhow, his story here that wrapped up the tournament was great. 

47. From James Colgan, his story here on the Turnesa family was great. 

48. From Sean Zak his story here on Niemann‘s penalty was great. 

49. From videographers Darren Riehl and Emma Devine, the video below wrapping up Sunday play was great. 

50. Wednesday, I’m off to another U.S. Open course — Pinehurst. The trip is a boys trip for me and my nephew after he just graduated high school. Let me know at nick.piastowski@neatly-delicate-grub.edgecompute.app if you have must-dos when you’re out there. 

Bonus! Time for a Long Island story. It’ll tell you a little about me, and it’ll tell you a little about the folks out here. 

After college, I interned for a summer at Newsday newspaper. The experience was great. Played Bethpage. Ate at Friendly’s 

Went to a certain type of club. 

Training for the internship was in Philly, and, after driving out, another out-of-town intern and I looked for a spot for a drink. We’d done zero research, and this was a few years before everyone had a cellphone, but we found what looked like a heavily trafficked road and saw a sign for “a restaurant and bar.” Hey, Applebee’s is a restaurant and bar. We pulled up. It had a valet. Hmm, maybe it was something more upscale. We walked in. There was a $50 dollar cover charge. Odd, but New York is expensive. 

I made a bee line to the bar and ordered a Long Island iced tea. Felt like I needed to. Whatever. To my right, a woman was dancing. Hmm. 

To my left, my intern friend was frozen. She motioned to look behind us. 

More dancers. 

But no clothes. 

On the way out, another no-clothed worker must have made sense of what happened, and she told us about another bar right down the street. 

Friendly folks here.  

The post Booing Wyndham Clark, Shinny and Trade Parade: 50 thoughts on U.S. Open appeared first on Golf.

The post Shinnecock’s U.S. Open crowd debacle shouldn’t have surprised us appeared first on Golf.

The post Shinnecock’s U.S. Open crowd debacle shouldn’t have surprised us appeared first on Golf.

My parents tell me there used to be a time when it was hard to be a jackass.

The problem wasn’t necessarily a lack of willing participants (in the long history of the world, the human race has never wanted for ignorance). Rather, the constraining factor was a social environment that disincentivized displays of stupidity. Through sheer force of collective human spirit, my parents tell me, we were able to push problematic ideologies, flagrantly immoral beliefs, and generally gross displays of sensitive masculinity straight into the societal gutter where they belonged.

The reason wasn’t high-mindedness, it wasn’t sanctity, and it certainly wasn’t hegemony. It was something much simpler: shame.

On Sunday afternoon at Shinnecock, the crowds at the U.S. Open showed us that if shame ever really did exist, it has long since left us. For the second time at a major golf event on Long Island in the last 10 months, the fans in attendance spent most of the afternoon proudly bearing their ignorance, loudly rooting against the wire-to-wire winner (and several other players, including Rory McIlroy) in a way that forced the USGA to deliver a mid-tournament apology via NBC.

The 24 hours since have featured no shortage of hand-wringing over the whole affair, including several suggestions that Long Island receive banishment from the major championship rota altogether. As a Long Islander who is proud of his golfing heritage and the people who protect it, I’m galled by those suggestions. As a journalist who has witnessed both major Long Island golf events of the last 10 months, I can’t say I disagree with them.

The crowds at Shinnecock were not the worst I’ve seen at a golf tournament. They were not especially vile or “over the line.” Nobody yelled in a backswing or cursed out a parent. In fact, for a few seconds on Sunday, I realized that I wasn’t really hearing the jeers because I have grown so accustomed to them. And then I thought for a few seconds more, and I realized that I felt shame. Is the only time we can agree the house is on fire after it has already been scorched to the ground?

I came of age in the time of social media. I was in high school when I made my first accounts on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram. We didn’t know anything about algorithms then, we were just posting into the abyss. Tech leaders made the idea of the “virtual town hall” sound exciting and civic-minded, and for a little while we proved them right. Then, after we were addicted, we realized we were condemned to spend the rest of time remembering why nobody likes attending town halls in the first place: The most obnoxious people tend to do the most speaking.

On Sunday at the U.S. Open, we saw what happens when our lives revolve around those “virtual town halls” — and when those town halls have altered their rules to intentionally inflame every one of our sensibilities. The audience was not cheering but dunking. The yellers were not fans but commenters. The players inside the ropes were not people at all.

To be alive is a beautiful thing, and to be alive outside the ropes on Sunday at U.S. Open is particularly vibrant. There is a beautiful, historic golf course on display, an incredible achievement in the offing, and a whole bunch of regular guys competing to see the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. To flatten that experience into our internet cubbyholes of virtue and anger — and then to act on those feelings in broad daylight without an ounce of empathy for the shared humanity of the people around you? It is not just wrong, it’s sad.

My parents tell me that empathy has always been a human strength. It has always been something to work toward, slowly and painfully. It is worth it because it brings us closer to one another, and whether you believe in a god or not, there is something holy about the experience of being known.

Still, if we could not bring ourselves to empathy — because of a feeling we could not buck or a contender in a golf tournament we did not particularly like — there was a time when we could still force ourselves to find our better angels.

Not because we were better, smarter, or knew more. But because we felt an emotion that appears to be fading only in the people who need it most — a feeling familiar to too many golf fans on U.S. Open Monday on Long Island and all over the world.

Shame.

The author welcomes your comments at james.colgan@neatly-delicate-grub.edgecompute.app.

The post Shinnecock’s U.S. Open crowd debacle shouldn’t have surprised us appeared first on Golf.

The post Wyndham Clark’s Ping putter deal couldn’t have been timed any better appeared first on Golf.

The post Wyndham Clark’s Ping putter deal couldn’t have been timed any better appeared first on Golf.

Wyndham Clark may owe at least a piece of his U.S. Open title to his Ping Scottsdale TEC putter that he shouted out in his post-round interview Sunday.

Clark has a Ping deal now, but he first switched to the wand back in March without a contract. Ping announced a unique putter-only deal with Clark on the eve of the U.S. Open last week, a first for the company in more than 50 years of sponsoring Tour players.

Now, the company has its first major victory in over a decade and the potential for a gear-industry disruption.

For the first two-plus months that Clark had the all-white, center-shafted putter in his bag, he did so without incentive. It was a bit of a wild journey to get there.

The now two-time major winner’s previous equipment contract with Titleist expired at the end of last year, leading him to become one of the most high-profile gear free agents to start 2026.

Clark joked at the Memorial earlier this month that he was “dating” different clubs at the beginning of the year as he cycled through both drivers and putters. With the flatstick, he settled into a L.A.B. Golf DF3 at the end of last season, moving away from the counterbalanced Odyssey Jailbird with which he won the 2023 U.S. Open, but it wasn’t long before he switched things up.

First, he started playing the grip upside down. Then he bought a new Bettinardi putter at his home course pro shop and gamed it at the Players. Two tournaments later, Clark walked on to the Ping Tour truck to have some work done to his G440 Max 3-wood.

PING Scottsdale TEC Ally Blue Onset CB Custom Putter

Buy Now$399.00 from Fairway Jockey

View Product

ALSO AVAILABLE AT: PGA TOUR Superstore

“During a discussion in Houston regarding his equipment, we noted he was using a center-shafted onset putter and how we just introduced two new onset mallets in our Scottsdale TEC line,” Ping Player Development Manager Dylan Goodwin, who worked with Clark on the switch, told GOLF. “We explained the technology and our philosophy on torque. He liked the look of both models and the principle behind them. He requested we build both to his specifications at the time.”

Unlike the L.A.B. or the Bettinardi Antidote models Clark was using, Ping’s Scottsdale TEC Onset models are not “zero-torque” putters. Instead of the shaft going through the center of gravity of the head, Ping places the shaft directly in front of the CG to create stability by “pulling” the majority of the mass.

Clark tried out both the Scottsdale TEC Ally Blue Onset and Ketsch Onset models and found the Ally Blue, with a slightly more face-balanced design with five degrees of toe hang versus 15 on the Ketsch, better fit his stroke. Specifically, he noted an improved start line, fixing a left miss.

He put a standard 35″ Ally Blue Onset model in play in Houston and used it for two events before going back to the Ping Truck at the RBC Heritage. There, Clark asked for a new Ally Blue Onset CB to match the same specs of the counterbalanced Odyssey Jailbird 380 he used to win the 2023 U.S. Open.

Clark was part of maybe the wildest gear story of 2023 when he earned his first two victories, including the major at the Los Angeles Country Club, with a counterbalanced Jailbird with lead tape covering the entire sole. Rickie Fowler was the first player to switch to that kind of build, and Clark asked for the “Rickie-build.” Both players, along with Keegan Bradley, a longtime user of the head, won that year.

Putters

Wyndham Clark signs Ping's first putter-only endorsement contract

By: Jack Hirsh

At the time, the Jailbird was a potentially forgotten-about Odyssey head, but within one summer it became the company’s flagship mallet and was back in production. Clark wanted that same heavy feel again.

“We initially built a standard 370g head at 38” with a SuperStroke 3.0 17” grip,” Goodwin said. “However, he felt this setup lacked the head feel and control he prefers. To address this, we built two new options: one with a standard head weight and a 17g tip weight, and another with a 400g head featuring tungsten in the sole plate. Since Wyndham adds lead tape to the sole regardless of the initial build, he found the 400g head too heavy with the added tape, but the 387g head (which finished at 400g with the lead tape) was perfect.”

Clark excelled with the added stability both from the shaft and CG placement, as well as the overall weight. It showed in the stats.

“Since I switched to this Ping putter, it’s been amazing,” Clark said at the RBC Canadian Open two weeks ago. “Now I feel like all the hard work I’ve put into my swing is paying off because when I hit the greens or hit it close, I’m actually making the putts, where maybe earlier in the year I wasn’t.”

After finishing 4th in the field at Shinnecock in SG: Putting, Clark has risen from 155th on the PGA Tour in the stat, where he was losing .725 strokes a round, to 43rd, gaining .239 strokes. He’s also 5th in putting average at 1.702.

“I played some ugly golf the last two days, but my putter and short game kind of kept me in it,” Clark told NBC’s Mike Tirico Sunday after hoisting the U.S. Open trophy.

There’s no telling whether Clark’s improvement will lead to the same fever around the Ally Blue Onset that surrounded the Jailbird three years ago, but it’s safe to assume that at least a few have jumped off the shelves in the last few hours.

Not since TaylorMade’s 2022 signing of Scottie Scheffler has a company pulled off a better-timed sponsorship agreement than Ping just did.

Wyndham Clark’s putter Specs:

Ping Scottsdale TEC Ally Blue Onset CB
Loft: 3˚
Lie: 70˚
Length: 38″
Headweight: 400g (17g tip weight + 13g lead tape)
Insert: PEBAX
Grip: SuperStroke Tour 3.0 17″

Want to find the best putter for your game in 2026? Find a club-fitting location near you at True Spec Golf.

The post Wyndham Clark’s Ping putter deal couldn’t have been timed any better appeared first on Golf.

The post At U.S. Open, Wyndham Clark fought for hearts and minds appeared first on Golf.

The post At U.S. Open, Wyndham Clark fought for hearts and minds appeared first on Golf.

Which is tougher: battling your swing or your reputation?

Wyndham Clark served as an interesting case study on Sunday afternoon at Shinnecock Hills.

“Get in the bunker!” one spectator bellowed in a Long Island accent as Clark’s first tee shot took flight in the final round of the U.S. Open. The ball found the fairway, but never mind that. Nine months and 60 miles removed from the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black, New York partisanship was back on proud display.

And it wasn’t just the locals getting in on the action.

“Canada hates you,” another voice chimed in. When even our nice neighbors to the north have turned against you, you know you’re in dire need of damage control.

News

Insiders Only At Shinnecock Hills, this road gives public a peek behind the hedges 

By: Nick Piastowski

In fairness to Clark, that’s just what he’d been doing. All week long on the windswept East End, the notoriously hot-tempered 2023 U.S. Open champion had been sounding the same contrite refrain: He was sorry, okay? Could people please forgive him? That locker-wrecking tantrum at Oakmont last year was carried out by him in body, not in spirit. It wasn’t, he insisted, who he really is.

Whether that was true hardly seemed to matter. If there’s one thing fans like better than worshipping a hero, it’s hating on a villain. And with Scottie Scheffler—the beloved birthday boy, vying to complete the career Grand Slam — playing alongside Clark in the final pairing, the galleries had both.

Luckily for Clark, the crowds weren’t especially large or loud, not by major-championship standards. But they made themselves heard, yelling for his ball to “bite” when it needed to roll and for it to “get legs” when it needed to stop.

It got bad enough that several of the harshest hecklers were escorted from the grounds.

As if public sentiment weren’t enough, Clark’s ball-striking also turned against him. He hit just three greens in regulation on the front nine, and as he scrambled toward the clubhouse, his lead over Sam Burns shrank to a single shot.

But where his long game faltered, his short game held firm, most crucially on the par-5 16th, where, after another drive into the fescue, he salvaged birdie with a slippery putt from off the green.

The response was notable: a smattering of cheers amid the boos and barbs.

Then came the 18th.

One final test. One final par save from off the fairway in front of fans who’d spent the week pulling for almost anyone else.

“New York didn’t really like me,” Clark said during the trophy ceremony. “But I love you guys. I get it.”

More golf claps. Progress, maybe, on the PR front.

Clark had won the competition that really mattered. The fight for hearts and minds will go on.

The post At U.S. Open, Wyndham Clark fought for hearts and minds appeared first on Golf.

The post Wyndham Clark’s U.S. Open winning driver setup is proof that there’s always room to tinker… properly appeared first on Golf.

The post Wyndham Clark’s U.S. Open winning driver setup is proof that there’s always room to tinker… properly appeared first on Golf.

Wyndham Clark won the 2026 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills with a TaylorMade Qi4D in the bag featuring a Project X Titan Yellow golf shaft for his second win in a month’s time. He’s played four different driver combinations this year, including a different Qi4D + Titan Yellow build that won the CJ Cup.

Here’s what he ended up changing for his U.S. Open winning driver setup, including an accidental entry into the lead-tape army.

At the CJ Cup, Clark won with a TaylorMade Qi4D 10.5º driver and a Project X Titan Yellow 60 TX golf shaft at 45.00″ cut length. That shaft change came from a Titan Black he had played the previous week and was finalized the night before he teed off at the CJ Cup. I’d say that switch worked out considering his two victories in four weeks of time. But at the RBC Canadian Open, he ended up switching from that 10.5º head to a 9º head.

Let’s do some gear nerd math here together. Clark’s driver features 3g weights in the for and aft toe and 9g weights in the for and aft heel positions. This is 2g lighter than the stock weights of (2) 9g weights and (2) 4g weights, which loses a swingweight point. TaylorMade Tour Rep Adrian Rietveld then added 8g of hot melt to the head on the heel side of the driver a bit more rear-center in the head. That 8g adds about 4 swingweight points to the build for a net total of 3 added swingweight points. Assuming the driver is stock at about D2 in his 45.00″ cut length that means that with the Titan Black in the driver he was probably swinging his driver around a D5 swingweight, which would be considered pretty heavy by most standards.

By switching to the counter-balanced Titan Yellow, the driver naturally came down to his playing swingweight of D3 which is a much more “standard” swingweight for a driver. The beauty of switching to the Titan Yellow is that he didn’t really have to change feels from his Titan Black, but the performance benefits came alive immediately. In my own testing, this was the biggest benefit I found when comparing the two shafts. I was incredibly impressed by the yellow. Compared to the Black, he added just a touch of spin and launch when he was in the 10.5º head. He had stated that he may have sacrificed some distance doing so, but his confidence to hit fairways grew significantly. Keep in mind his “loss of distance” is probably equivalent to going from about 320 to about 310, or something along those lines.

Gear

Wyndham Clark's clubs: The new Ping putter he credits for U.S. Open win

By: Jack Hirsh

I asked Project X’s Jackson Bragg about the feel similarity between Titan Black and Titan Yellow. Normally with a counter-balanced part you have to sacrifice some feel. The handle gets really stiff because of the added weight and material under the hands in order to create that higher balance-point. The answer is in their new Synex material; a brand new multi-axial carbon fiber matrix that they say reinforces the outer structure and increases hoop stiffness without having to add more and more material. Jackson (who help to design the Titan family of shafts) thankfully gave me a very cool gear dork answer.

“Synex technology debuted in the Titan Black as a way to maintain stiffness while delivering a smoother, more elastic feel in the handle than our previous HZRDUS lineups offered. Highlighted specifically with the EI Bump from the handle to midsection, new for Project X lineup in 2026. With the Yellow, our goal was to make the club as counterbalanced as possible without the boardy, overly firm handle that typically defines a counterbalanced profile, where added mass in the handle is what dictates the balance point. Synex let us shift the balance point nearly two full points from Titan Black to Titan Yellow without the handle ever feeling stiff or unresponsive. Across the Titan family, the increased EI bump produces a more elastic handle paired with a firm mid and tip section. In the Yellow specifically, the counterbalance gives fitters and builders the ability to use mass to dictate the release pattern into the ball with mass strategically placed in the clubs head resulting in more speed and control.”

Thanks to physics we also know that a heavier driver head swung at the same speed will produce more ball speed. So he’s got that going for him as well. It seems like this driver combination really hit home for Wyndham with him winning in his first week. So why did he switch for the U.S. Open?

At the Canadian Open he ended up switching the 10.5º head out for a 9º of the same model, built up the same way. He sets the shaft to the upright side of the sleeve with a bit lower loft, same as the 10.5º and it’s mostly a visual thing. Rietveld told me that Clark has to see the face sit a little bit open, it’s one of his non-negotiables. By going down to the 9º head they were able to drop him from 2800rpms of spin down to 2400rpms of spin, which resulted in a tad bit flatter flight that didn’t rise to it’s peak height so much and both carried and rolled out a bit more. The 9º head we saw in play at the US Open also had lead tape on it compared to the hot melt they used in the 10.5º head. Why? There aren’t any equipment trucks at the RBC Canadian Open! They didn’t have access to a hot melt gun, so they had to stay old school and get the tape out.

Project X Titan Black Wood Shaft

You can only evolve so many times. Then you have to reinvent. Designed and engineered in our R&D Lab in San Diego, CA, Titan Black is built to meet the demands of today’s faster, more aggressive swingers. A more elastic handle section progressively firms through the mid and tip, delivering a smooth feel with added stability where it matters most. Synex Technology utilizes multi-axial carbon fibers to reinforce the shaft’s outer structure, increasing hoop stiffness from the handle through the mid-section for efficient energy transfer and enhanced control. By blending feel and stability, Titan Black gives players the confidence to swing faster without sacrificing dispersion or consistency.

Buy Now$350.00 from Fairway Jockey

View Product

You may have also noticed that he’s got a ton of weight in the heel. That combined with sitting on the upright side of the sleeve creates what we would assume is a very draw-bias driver build, but Clark likes to hit a cut. In his case it’s actually nearly a straight ball. This is one of the cheat code type set-ups that Johnny and I talk a lot about on the podcast. Building something on paper that does one thing knowing that you want to take those benefits and do the opposite. Having a draw-bias set-up for a player that likes to work the ball from left to right creates a beautiful little pull-cut machine in the hands of a proper athlete. Knowing that his path will be a little bit from the outside and the face will want to open up a bit they take the weight and move it towards the heel to make sure that the driver head is effectively stabilized “square” through impact.

A lot of what I’ve gathered here leads me into a guess about what went down this year for Clark, and why he’s had so much recent success. Keep in mind that Clark has never been shy about his mental health struggles and his desire to find peace standing over the golf ball. To be clear, this is completely my take; I have not backed this up from any of the reps or anybody in Clark’s camp. Combined with the success he’s had playing the Ping Scottsdale TEC Ally Blue Onset that’s quite literally built and designed to quiet the mind, and his reliance on performance changes that inspire confidence, I think this driver search ended up being a really cool example of laying crumbs to a final destination.

Playing with spin off the tee can be very, very comfortable. It’s something I’ve done myself for many years. I like to have spin because I feel a bit more in control of the golf ball. Clark was not driving the ball well at the end of last year, or the beginning of this year, but he was taking the right steps to make changes with the people he trusts. He’s been working with the Project X team for a long time and trusts their guidance with the new product. In fact, the last time a Project X shaft won a major was his other U.S. Open win at LACC. Once he switched to the 10.5º Qi4D and the Titan Black, he started to get his confidence and his feels back.

So you take that successful combination and you tweak it a little bit. Change the shaft to add a touch of spin and focus on hitting more fairways. Win a tournament. Take that fresh batch of confidence and roll it into another small tweak. Switches to the 9º head with everything else remaining the same, and now he’s back at nearly perfect launch conditions and he’s going home tonight with a U.S. Open trophy that he’s going to “fill with grape.”

News

Wyndham Clark holds on at Shinnecock, wins 2nd U.S. Open title

By: Zephyr Melton

The moral of the story here for any gear heads reading is that it’s okay to tinker, even when you’re doing well. There is, however, a proper way to do things, and it never hurts to have supervision. I won’t even seriously consider a change in my bag anymore unless it’s supervised by one of the fitters that I trust, and that knows when to tell me that I am off-base on something. I have access to some amazing individuals, but anybody can do the same. I always recommend finding a fitter in your area that you really get along with, and sticking with them as you make changes. Having somebody in your corner who really knows your swing, what you like and don’t like, as well as what to maybe suggest to test is a great resource.

The post Wyndham Clark’s U.S. Open winning driver setup is proof that there’s always room to tinker… properly appeared first on Golf.

The post Confirmed U.S. Open venues through 2051: The complete list appeared first on Golf.

The post Confirmed U.S. Open venues through 2051: The complete list appeared first on Golf.

As we’ve seen time and again at venues like Shinnecock Hills, Pebble Beach and Pinehurst No. 2, the right course is central to what makes the U.S. Open such an illustrious championship. After all, the world’s best players aren’t just competing against each other—they’re also battling some of golf’s most iconic and demanding layouts.

Recognizing the importance of these historic venues, the USGA has already mapped out much of the U.S. Open schedule through 2051, relying on a rotation of championship-tested courses that have helped define the tournament’s legacy.

Future U.S. Open host courses

Pebble Beach Golf Links 

Framed by the rugged Pacific coastline, Pebble Beach Golf Links remains one of the game’s great stages and will again welcome the U.S. Open in 2027, 2032, 2037, and 2044.

Pinehurst No. 2 

Following its successful 2024 championship, Pinehurst No. 2 returns in 2029, 2035, 2041, and 2047, continuing its role as one of the USGA’s primary anchor sites.

Merion Golf Club 

Having hosted five previous U.S. Opens, including Ben Hogan’s iconic 1950 playoff victory, Merion Golf Club will welcome the championship three more times over the next 25 years—2030, 2040, and 2050—with the 2030 event marking the 100-year anniversary of Bob Jones completing the Grand Slam with his 1930 U.S. Amateur triumph.

Riviera Country Club

After hosting a wide range of championships—including the 1948 U.S. Open, 1983 and 1995 PGA Championships, the 1998 U.S. Senior Open, the 2017 U.S. Amateur, and the 2026 U.S. Women’s Open—the USGA returns to Riviera Country Club for the 2031 U.S. Open.

Oakmont Country Club

Just outside Pittsburgh’s Steel City, this time-honored cathedral of golf is known for producing some of the game’s most dramatic, high-pressure finishes—a reputation that will continue as the USGA returns in 2033, 2042, and 2049, further extending its legacy as the most frequent host in championship history.

Oakland Hills Country Club

Following a major restoration in 2021, this Donald Ross-design located just outside Detroit returns to the U.S. Open rotation in 2034 and again in 2051. 

Winged Foot Golf Club 

Renowned for delivering some of the most demanding tests in U.S. Open history, Winged Foot Golf Club will host the championship in 2028.

Shinnecock Hills Golf Club 

Known for its windswept, links-style layout, Shinnecock Hills Golf Club is one of America’s oldest—and most demanding—golf clubs. The U.S. Open is scheduled to return to the iconic Long Island course in 2036.

The Country Club

The storied Brookline venue cemented its place in golf history when it hosted the unforgettable 1913 U.S. Open. After a celebrated return in 2022, the Massachusetts masterpiece will add another chapter to its storied legacy when the national championship returns in 2038.

Los Angeles Country Club 

After a successful U.S. Open debut in 2023, Los Angeles Country Club will welcome the championship again in 2039.

Inverness Club

Steeped in history dating back to 1916, this distinguished venue has crowned champions including Ted Ray, Billy Burke, Dick Mayer, and Hale Irwin. The USGA will return to Inverness Club in 2027 for the U.S. Women’s Open and 2029 for the U.S. Amateur, before bringing the U.S. Open back in 2045.

A handful of future championships—2043, 2046, and 2048—remain without announced host sites as the USGA continues to shape the championship’s long-term future.

The post Confirmed U.S. Open venues through 2051: The complete list appeared first on Golf.

The post Scottie Scheffler leaves U.S. Open fixated on 1 conundrum appeared first on Golf.

The post Scottie Scheffler leaves U.S. Open fixated on 1 conundrum appeared first on Golf.

SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. — Scottie Scheffler is confused. Sure, he’s the best in the world at playing this impossible game. He’s improved every year since turning pro. He wins more frequently than any golfer since Tiger Woods. But he’s puzzled right now, confronting a conundrum.

What is happening in his first rounds? 

Scheffler was stuck on that thought Sunday night, about 20 minutes after his first attempt to finish the career grand slam had finished.

“At the end of the day, I don’t know exactly what it is,” he said. “I’ve been pretty good in first rounds over the last few years, and for some reason, the sharpness just hasn’t been there early in tournaments. I haven’t had those leads that I’ve needed in order to win tournaments. I’ve been playing catch-up all year.”

It would have taken a final-round 67 — rather than the 71 he logged — to get into a playoff with Wyndham Clark, the U.S. Open champ, but what Scheffler seems zeroed in on is that Thursday 72. It was eight shots worse than Clark’s opening 64 and it created a divide the world No. 1 couldn’t close over 54 holes in about 54 hours. If he had another 18, he might have gotten closer. If, if, if. 

For now, as onlookers, the smartest course of action seems to be to shrug it off, to stay the course, to trust in Scottie. He remains the most gifted golfer we’ve seen in ages, and his Thursday hiccups are most likely just hiccups. It would feel improper and surprising if Scheffler never bags a U.S. Open, if he never finishes off his career grand slam. He’s finished top 10 at this event five times. We’ll comfortably pick up the Slamspeak next June, and with even greater fervor. It’ll be at Pebble Beach, a course he knows far better than Shinnecock.

Still, it’s worth bookmarking our shoulda-coulda thoughts. They’re not nothing. Scheffler’s season, though brilliant via big-picture analytics, has been defined by Thursday letdowns with self-inflicted errors. It keeps happening. He hasn’t had many 36-hole leads. He hasn’t had many 54-hole leads. His 2026 has left him shaking his head at times, so much that simply being in the final pairing Sunday felt, “good to be kind of back in the arena [and not] on the outside looking in.”

And what to make of the grand slam? This was only Scheffler’s first chance, but it was one of his best chances in a U.S. Open. For now, that’s no big deal. That’s a step in the right direction. But the longer that box remains unchecked, the more difficult the chase will start to feel. If I had only … only worsens over time.  

Phil Mickelson had 34 cracks at the U.S. Open and came up empty 34 times. Since winning the 2017 Open Championship, Jordan Spieth has had 10 tries at the PGA, and has never gotten close. Tom Watson ended his career with 10 top 10s at the PGA but zero firsts. Many single-name legends of the sport reached the same imperfect tally: Trevino, Snead, Arnie. Even Byron Nelson, whose event gave Scheffler his first PGA Tour start, fell just shy. 

The good thing for Scheffler? He probably isn’t remotely worried about any of that. Still, his memory is good enough to remember slipping the green jacket onto Rory McIlroy’s shoulders when he finished his slam.

If Scheffler is aware of anything in particular, it’s how tight the margins will be and how specific his task. The requirement — winning the toughest tournament of the year, with one chance every year — feels almost unfair. Does Scheffler have 20 more tries? Is it more like 15? Fewer than that? At the U.S. Open, opportunities slip away before you can register them as opportunities. His first round felt mediocre on Thursday morning. On Thursday evening it was a thorn in his side. On Sunday night, it was the only thing he could cite to explain why Wyndham Clark was holding the only silver missing from Scheffler’s trophy case. 

“Yeah,” he said to finish his press conference, “that’s as good as I’m going to be able to elaborate.”

It was the final answer of his press conference Sunday night, and a sufficient one for the moment. There’ll be time for him to solve the grand-slam quest; as he wrapped up Sunday he was trying to solve something a bit simpler. It was Father’s Day and his young son, Bennett was seated on the floor next to him, cooing out of sight from the cameras. It was Scheffler’s 30th birthday, too. Life outside of golf was reaching back out to grab him. Scheffler rose from the podium, slid on a backpack inscribed with the name of his second son, Remy, scooped Bennett into his arms and moved on from Shinnecock. 

“Alright buddy, let’s go get dinner,” he said, with the peace of someone who doesn’t think like the rest of us do.

“Pizza? Pizzaaa.”

The post Scottie Scheffler leaves U.S. Open fixated on 1 conundrum appeared first on Golf.