June 20, 2026<\/a><\/p>\nRELATED: Wyndham Clark will face a different kind of pressure as he tries to claim another major<\/p>\n
Being mentioned in the same breath as Tiger Woods and Billy Casper is no mean feat, and Clark could join them as co-owners of this niche achievement come Sunday evening. At first glance, that may seem more like a matter of luck than skill, but only two golfers have ever accomplished this feat for several reasons:<\/p>\n
The opportunities are extremely limited.
\nThe changes in time zone, weather, terroir and fans create very different competitive conditions.
\nU.S. Opens in California and New York take on added importance (and added pressure) due to the historic venues that play host in each state.
\nFinally, winning two U.S. Opens is hard to do, no matter where they\u2019re held.<\/p>\n
RELATED: Wyndham Clark calls lack of crowd, flat energy at Shinnecock \u2018unfortunate\u2019<\/p>\n
In 2023, Clark won the U.S. Open at LACC, California Dreamin\u2019 through his final round. Now at Shinnecock, he\u2019ll try to tap into that Empire State of Mind. Unlike at LACC, however, he\u2019ll have another little piece of golf history on his side. As Ray also explains, of the 13 players to hold a six-shot lead or better heading into the final round of a major since 1934, 12 have prevailed. The only who outlier? Greg Norman at the 1996 Masters. Even though Clark shares some of the maverick energy that ultimately doomed Norman, those sound like pretty good odds to us.<\/p>\n
MORE GOLF DIGEST U.S. OPEN COVERAGE<\/p>\n
U.S. Open 101: Answering all your frequently asked questions<\/p>\n
How to watch the 2026 U.S. Open<\/p>\n
Power Rankings: Every player in the U.S. Open field, ranked<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the record prize money payout for each golfer at the U.S. Open<\/p>\n
Video: Every hole at Shinnecock Hills<\/p>\n
Why can\u2019t the USGA get Shinnecock Hills right? Our interactive guide explains<\/p>\n
What\u2019s a \u2018good\u2019 shot at Shinnecock? The difference between our editos and tour average<\/p>\n
Breaking down Scottie Scheffler\u2019s chances to complete the career Grand Slam<\/p>\n
Every chip shot you\u2019ll see at Shinnecock Hills, explained<\/p>\n
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Heading into Sunday\u2019s final round at Shinnecock Hills, Wyndham Clark holds a commanding six-shot lead. It\u2019s never over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":751246,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[4225,64,63,755,138747,44,85,76226],"class_list":["post-751245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-article","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-golf-digest","tag-news","tag-sports","tag-the-loop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=751245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/751246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=751245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=751245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=751245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}