U.S. Open Round 3: Wyndham Clark Survives the Wind and Stretches His Lead to Six

Moving day at Shinnecock Hills turned into surviving day, and almost nobody survived it better than Wyndham Clark.

Clark shot an even-par 70 on Saturday in wind that gusted into the 40s early, reaching 7-under 203, the lowest 54-hole total in Shinnecock history. He leads the U.S. Open by six. Scottie Scheffler (69), Sahith Theegala (70), Tom Kim (72) and Sam Stevens (72) share second at 1-under 209. Only five players are under par, and Clark owns most of that real estate by himself.

A Brutal Saturday

The USGA got the U.S. Open it usually wants. Gusts reached the low 40s as the early groups went off, and even as the wind eased in the afternoon the greens firmed up and dried out. The third-round scoring average was 73.61, the highest of the week, and only two players broke par: Scheffler and Emiliano Grillo, who shot 67 in the worst of the morning wind and jumped from a tie for 46th into a tie for sixth.

Ten players started the day under par. Five finished it there.

Jail, Then a Jailbreak

Clark's 70 was not pretty for long stretches. He opened with a bogey and spent the middle of the round scrambling, saving par at the seventh, ninth, 10th, 11th, 13th and 17th. The one at 13 was a 15-footer that kept the round from leaking. He got up and down seven times in nine tries on Saturday and is 13 of 17 for the championship, per the USGA.

Then came the shot of the day. At the par-5 16th, Clark ripped a 3-wood from 275 yards that landed short, chased onto the green and stopped about 4 feet away. He made the eagle, the only one anyone had made at 16 all week according to the PGA TOUR, and that pushed him to 8 under and a seven-shot lead. A missed 5-footer for par at the last trimmed it back to six.

Clark said he was pretty satisfied with 70, and admitted he had hit some terrible shots along the way. That is the U.S. Open in one sentence: you can hate your swing and still love your scorecard.

Scheffler Refuses to Fold

Scheffler looked done early. He opened bogey, bogey and fell nine shots behind. Then he played the back nine in 32. The burst included a 65-foot chip-in at the 14th and three straight birdies, and he gave himself a 4-footer for birdie at the last that slid by. His 69 put him in Sunday's final group.

The stakes are almost too much. Scheffler is chasing the career Grand Slam, and Sunday is Father's Day and his 30th birthday. "There's a lot of stuff going on," Scheffler said, per the AP and the PGA TOUR.

The Contenders Who Stalled

Stevens had been within two shots of Clark on the front nine before three straight bogeys to open the back nine sent him to 72. Kim made four birdies and six bogeys for his 72. Theegala was the steadiest of the group, a 70 capped by an approach from 117 yards to about a foot for birdie at 18.

Xander Schauffele's day turned on a pair of double bogeys at the 10th and 12th. He birdied 13 and 15 to salvage a 73 and sits at even par alongside Grillo, Keith Mitchell and Sam Burns. Mitchell's 70 was his third straight round at par or better, and only he and Clark can say that this week.

Rory McIlroy made three straight birdies on the front nine, then gave it all back and more for a 73 that left him 10 behind. He left without speaking to the media.

Further down, Ryder Cowan is the low amateur by five at 2-over 212, with Jackson Koivun and 17-year-old Miles Russell at 217.

History Says Hold On

The numbers favor Clark. No player has lost a lead of more than five shots in 125 previous U.S. Opens. Greg Norman is the only player to blow a six-shot lead in any major, at the 1996 Masters. Clark is trying to become the first wire-to-wire U.S. Open winner since Martin Kaymer at Pinehurst in 2014, and he would join Raymond Floyd, Retief Goosen and Phil Mickelson as the only players to finish 72 holes under par at Shinnecock.

But Shinnecock has not been kind to front-runners, and none of the last four 36-hole leaders here went on to win. Clark's game has looked shakier each day, and Scheffler is now playing alongside him. Six shots is a lot. Eighteen holes at this place is a lot too.

Catch up on the week in our Round 1 and Round 2 recaps. Full scoring is on the official PGA TOUR leaderboard (opens in a new tab), and the USGA's third-round report (opens in a new tab) has more.

Sources: PGA TOUR, USGA (usopen.com), AP. More golf coverage on Undrafted.

Photo: PGA TOUR.