{"id":507284,"date":"2026-06-19T03:57:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T03:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/507284\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T03:57:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T03:57:08","slug":"clark-leads-as-darkness-descends-on-shinnecock-hills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/507284\/","title":{"rendered":"Clark leads as darkness descends on Shinnecock Hills"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wyndham Clark seized the lead at the US Open as the delayed opening round finally ran out of light at Shinnecock Hills.<\/p>\n

Clark, the 2023 US Open champion at LA Country Club, carded five birdies and a wonderful eagle with just the only bogey to sit four two clear of his nearest challengers.<\/p>\n

Behind the American was a log-jam of competitors on two-under-par, including Dustin Johnson, Matt Fitzpatrick, Gary Woodland and John Rahm – all of whom still had holes to play from their opening rounds as the hooter sounded.<\/p>\n

“That two-hour fog delay was very helpful, and it was really nice it (the wind) laid down so it definitely helped those last six, seven holes we played,” said Clark, a winner at The Los Angeles Country Club in 2023.<\/p>\n

Early finishers Sam Stevens, amateur Ryder Cowan and Max MacGreevy hold the clubhouse lead on that two-under-par mark.<\/p>\n

Earlier in the day, Rory McIlroy opened with a round of 69<\/a> that looked like it would be a shot or two better until the Masters champion stumbled late on with bogeys on his final two holes.<\/p>\n

Still, it was a solid opening round and 11 strokes better than his Thursday effort here in 2018. That 80 was the joint-worst of his major career and led to him missing the cut.<\/p>\n

“With the conditions today, anything under par or anything around even par is a good score,” said the world number two, who is seeking to win his first US Open title since making his major breakthrough in 2011.<\/p>\n

“It was a day to really just keep yourself in the tournament and not shoot yourself out of it, which is exactly what I did eight years ago here.”<\/p>\n

The highlight of McIlroy’s round was the 396-yard drive and a pitching wedge to 11 feet which demolished the 597-yard fifth hole, playing downwind, for his first US Open eagle since Erin Hills in 2017.<\/p>\n

P\u00e1draig Harrington struggled to a 77 although he did manage to par his last seven holes with the majority of the damage done to his card on the front nine.<\/p>\n

Graeme McDowell started fast but eventualyl signed for a 76 while Shane Lowry sat on four-over-par with four holes to play when play was halted.<\/p>\n

Lowry got off to an excellent start with a birdie at the 10th – his first – but struggled thereafter, registering a double-bogey on the par-5 16th, with three further bogeys in his first 14 holes. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wyndham Clark seized the lead at the US Open as the delayed opening round finally ran out of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":507285,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-507284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/507285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}