the abuse the Europeans received during last year\u2019s Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black<\/a>.<\/p>\nRory McIlroy received a reminder of that week when he issued a savage response to a heckler during his final round this morning.<\/p>\n
McIlroy’s savage response to fan heckle | 00:16<\/p>\n
But with a storm of nationalism created by US President Donald Trump\u2019s attendance, the vile behaviour of the home patrons was not surprising even though it was widely condemned.<\/p>\n
This time around was startling, however, because Clark is one of their own.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s the worst I\u2019ve ever seen a player treated, when you consider it was an American player on American soil,\u201d commentator Brandel Chamblee said on Live from the US Open.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, I\u2019ve seen foreign players, \ufeffI\u2019ve seen Colin Montgomerie get jeered over here \ufeffin a Ryder Cup and in a major championship. I\u2019ve seen Brian Harmon get jeered at The Open Championship on foreign soil.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I\u2019ve never seen a player on American soil get so jeered.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t remember it being present from the first tee on with every single shot he hit,\u201d Chamblee added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were times when he was standing over the shot, in the bunker on four, I heard people yelling \u2018hit it in the bunker\u2019, \u2018miss the green\u2019, cheering for every little miscue that he had today.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have never actually seen anything like that.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe made that putt at six and there was relatively little cheering. When he missed the putt at 17, there were cheers.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be able to put that out of our head, you\u2019re trying to win a US Open, you\u2019re trying to control your nerves (is so impressive).<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never seen anybody have to deal with that element in a major championship to the extent that I saw with Wyndham today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clark under pressure on final day | 01:24<\/p>\n
Clark certainly has new found sympathies for members of the European team in the Ryder Cup and the international team in the Presidents Cup – who will be led by Australian Geoff Ogilvy at Medinah in September.<\/p>\n
But Scheffler was not overly sympathetic towards his rival\u2019s plight.<\/p>\n
The world No.1 fell four shots short of his final round playing partner.<\/p>\n
He admitted that at times the tense atmosphere felt like it went too far.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, the crowd was tough today. 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,\u201d Scheffler said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut at the end of the day, I can\u2019t control fan behaviour. Being in the arena is not for everybody. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, there\u2019s been crowds that have been for me in my career; there\u2019s been crowds that have been significantly against me in my career.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Portrush was a scenario for me where Rory is in his hometown. Or not his hometown; he\u2019s in Ireland, not far from where he grew up. Crowds can be tough.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wyndham Clark is congratulated by Scottie Scheffler after winning the 126th U.S. OPEN at Shinnecock Hills Golf ClubSource: AFP<\/p>\n
The issue certainly made Scheffler grumpy, however, as he shut down a follow-up question from a journalist and stressed that Clark\u2019s treatment did not cross one line in particular.<\/p>\n
\u201cGuys, I\u2019m not going to sit here and talk about fans the whole time. Sorry,\u201d he replied.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a big proponent of controlling what I can control on the golf course. Like I said, you know, you like it when fans are cheering for you. I think when fans start to cheer against other players, albeit in a respectful manner, I think when it gets too far is when you have people screaming in guys\u2019 swings. That didn\u2019t happen today.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut that\u2019s as much as I want to elaborate. You can keep asking the questions if you want. I don\u2019t think I\u2019m going to have much better for you than that. If you want to talk about golf, I\u2019m happy to talk about golf.\u201d<\/p>\n
The animosity was not new for Clark, however.<\/p>\n
In 2023, he was also not the crowd favourite as the Los Angeles locals tried to will Californian Rickie Fowler to a maiden major triumph.<\/p>\n
On that occasion, Clark said that he and his sports psychologist Julie Elion – who featured during the broadcast this week – came up with a plan of every time he heard Rickie\u2019s name being called out to use it as a trigger to \u201cbe cocky\u201d and think of his goals.<\/p>\n
Clark was not as brash this time around, but adopted a similar approach.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, similar. Kind of remind myself of my process. Then I knew there was going to be a lot of whether it\u2019s negativity towards me or cheers for Scottie, so yeah, there was a very similar thing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnytime they said that, I replaced it with something positive either about myself or my game or what\u2019s going to happen. So it wasn\u2019t necessarily the motto of be cocky, but it was similar to that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Oakmont incident has certainly humbled him.<\/p>\n
It took a lot of work to lift himself off the canvas after hitting rock bottom.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, after what happened at Oakmont was obviously the lowest point. People probably didn\u2019t see what happened after, but you know, it was a really tough two, three days for me. I was in a dark place, didn\u2019t really go outside much. It was a really negative, dark place,\u201d Clark said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, I mean, at that moment I just felt a lot of my career, world ranking, reputation, everything just dwindling. That\u2019s a terrible feeling.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, I would say in that moment I definitely didn\u2019t think I\u2019d be here this year doing this, but with that being said, I did a lot of work in the off-season on my golf swing, on the things I needed to do. I would say as this year, I started hitting it better and started seeing the results, then yeah, I started gaining my confidence.<\/p>\n
\u201cComing into this, I really did have the feeling I could win, because I played amazing at Memorial. I played, I don\u2019t know, okay golf in Canada and still had a chance to win. I said, if I bring my A-game, I can definitely win this thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aussie duo secure top ten finish | 00:55<\/p>\n
Clark\u2019s work away from the golf course has been just as important in his turnaround.<\/p>\n
The anger management sessions have helped him become a calmer figure.<\/p>\n
\u201cMan, I\u2019m not getting angry as much as I used to. I think I get frustrated. My anger has kind of gone away, which is a huge blessing. I\u2019d say the frustration is kind of obviously there. Anyone gets it in golf,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, the anger, I\u2019m not as angry as I used to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s a combination of things off the course being great,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy game feels like it\u2019s in a good position. I\u2019m just happier where I\u2019m at in life. Then I think, you know, last year I got too caught up in things that really didn\u2019t matter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, Clark is hoping that he can put the Oakmont saga behind him.<\/p>\n
The two-time major champion does not want to the PGA Tour\u2019s villain.<\/p>\n
He is eager to simply let his game to do the talking going forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, I sure hope it closes the door on it,\u201d Clark said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI figured in my mind that this would maybe be the last time just because it\u2019s one year removed. I\u2019ll probably always get them, but I hope I don\u2019t become the heel of the PGA,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess if I am, any press is good press, right?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US Open champion Wyndham Clark overcame some of the worst treatment of an American on home soil by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":753147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-753146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=753146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/753147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=753146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=753146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=753146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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