Happy 30th Birthday Scottie But Can He Deny Wyndham Clark The US Open Trophy?

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World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler on this Father’s Day celebrates his 30th birthday but can he stop Wyndham Clark the reward of being handed a second US Open victory trophy in four years?

It is a big ask as Clark is rewriting Shinnecock Hills history.

The 2023 US Open champion posted an even-par 70 on day three to extend his lead to six strokes, putting him on the doorstep of becoming the first wire-to-wire U.S. Open winner since Martin Kaymer’s fantastic triumph at Pinehurst in 2014.

Clark brilliantly capped his round thanks to the only eagle ‘3’ this week at the par-5 16th with a 275-yard 3-wood second shot to set up a 4-foot putt.

“That’s what you have to make to win U.S. Opens,” Clark said of his par-saving putts.

“You’re not going to have too many birdie putts, and when you do miss, it’s really hard to hit a gimme.”

Scheffler shares second place with Sahith Theegala a distant six shots behind having signed for a third round 69 and also amazingly the only two players to break 70 on golf’s traditional ‘moving day’ after Theegala posted a level par 70 after a bogey on six and his only birdie at the last hole.

Also tied second is South Korean Tom Kim (72) and Sam Stevens (72).

Kim also today is celebrating his birthday as the three-time PGA Tour champion turns 24.

Incidentially, both Scheffler and Kim are vying to become the first player on record to win a major championship on their birthday; five players on record have won on the PGA Tour on their birthday, most recently Steve Flesch at the 2004 Charles Schwab Challenge

Scheffler was asked post his round his thoughts going into the final Shinnecock Hills round.

“I mean, I’d rather be leading,” he said laughing.

“No, I mean, after three days, like I said, I’ve been — we’ve been battling hard for a few days, and I did a good job of keeping myself in the tournament.

“I’ll need a really nice round tomorrow if I’m going to try and catch Wyndham”.

Emiliano Grillo posted the round of the day — a 3-under 67 — to join Xander Schauffele, Keith Mitchell and Sam Burns in a tie for sixth at even-par 210.

THIRD ROUND NOTES (USGA)

The third-round scoring average of 73.61 was the highest of the championship. Only four players finished the day in red figures.

Clark and Scheffler will tee off Sunday at 2:30 p.m. in the final pairing.

NOTABLE

  • Number of players under par through 54 holes in a U.S. Open a Shinnecock Hills:

    • 2026 – 5

    • 2018 – 0

    • 2004 – 7

    • 1995 – 2

    • 1986 – 0

  • Prior to Wyndham Clark’s eagle today, the par-5 16th was eagle-free this week — and hadn’t seen one during the U.S. Open since the second round of 2018.  Since the start of the third round in 2018, No. 16 has been played 516 times.

  • Wyndham Clark’s day did not start off as well as he might have hoped, becoming just the second outright 36-hole leader of a U.S. Open over the last 35 years to begin his round with a bogey or worse. Stuart Appleby did that in 2008 at Torrey Pines en route to shooting an 8-over 79.

  • Scottie Scheffler shot 32 on the back nine on Saturday, matching the lowest score of the week on the inward nine.  That stretch included three straight birdies (Nos. 14, 15 and 16) – marking the first time in his U.S. Open career that he made birdie or better on each of three consecutive holes. Scheffler had an inauspicious start to his round, posting bogeys on each of his first two holes of one major championship round for just the fourth time in his now-105 round major championship career.

  • Emiliano Grillo had the low round of the day, posting the lowest round of his U.S. Open career (67, -3).  In doing so, Grillo was the biggest mover on ‘Moving Day’, jumping 40 spots from T-46 to T-6.

  • The scoring average was 73.625 in Round 3 after being 73.277 and 72.252 in Rounds 1 and 2, respectively.  The field has, on average, been at least two strokes over par in each of the last 16 U.S. Open rounds played at Shinnecock Hills GC.



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