U.S Open Reflections

A Mighty Show Of Character From Wyndham Clark

Shinnecock finally delivered. I had my doubts, expressed them at the halfway point but I think you have to hand it to the USGA. The course evolved and in my opinion anyway, provided an excellent test over the weekend where those who performed the best throughout the bag were ultimately rewarded. Although I would have still liked to see some fairways narrower, if for no other reason than to ask guys like Wyndham Clark to work the ball at times against the wind and against their favoured shot shape to hold fairways. But that’s nitpicking. We can I think have confidence that Mike Whan and his teams of people are guiding the event in a direction that delivers good drama on great courses, in different parts of the U.S. I’m not sure the New York fans have done much for their (surely self proclaimed) reputation as being the best sports fans however…

It’s interesting for me as somebody who hasn’t used social media now for a couple of years, to see how the hate garnered online has manifested itself into what we saw over the weekend with regards to fan behaviour towards Wyndham. I know he damaged the locker at Oakmont, and I hear he showed little in the way of contrition initially but it seems to me that here is a man who has by and large atoned for his sins and has repeatedly apologised. So to see him receive the backlash and vitriol for his actions strikes me as a little over the top. I did see online one comment which saddened me and made me think about my own past and how poorly I’ve used social media myself at times. The accusation was that some golf podcasts (will remain un-named) have fuelled some of this with their repeated criticism of Wyndham Clark. I listened to one golf podcast’s daily reviews last week and one of the hosts was especially honest about his feelings towards Clark. Of course we’re all grown up and entirely within our rights to express an opinion, but I did agree with the sentiment that we (I include myself in this as a podcaster myself) do have to think about the way we convey a point of view and the words we use. This isn’t to accuse anyone of anything per se, just to point out that while social media bans are coming in across the globe for young people as we seek to protect them from the unwanted consequences of these often hideous platforms. We should recognise in ourselves how using it alongside other forms of media, it could be polluting our own behaviour. I’m not convinced adults are less affected than young people thanks to social media to be honest. The whole thing is a mess.

In the end, I found myself rooting for Wyndham Clark to win, especially once Scheffler three putted the 14th hole to fall out of contention. I thought Wyndham showed remarkable resilience and strength of character on the whole and was in complete agreement with his dad when while hugging him on the final green said “that’s the hardest round you’ve ever played.” Spot on I thought. To then have had the grace in his post round interview to acknowledge the crowd situation, own some of it again with more repentant language, and still not succumb to taking even an easy shot at the crowds and instead saying “I love you”, was mightily impressive. I can’t be certain I wouldn’t have suggested they (f)at least find some humour to accompany their disrespectful jeers in future.

I found his game interesting too. He didn’t look particularly comfortable all day Sunday, and this was evident as early as his tee shot into hole number two. The par three playing 250 yards or so, which was a five iron for Clark, started a long way left and never came back. If you saw the pre round coverage you might have picked up on the drill he was doing on the range. It all looked so convoluted that you’d be forgiven for thinking he was practising after missing the cut, but he of course wasn’t and there was method in the madness. Wyndham Clark likes to move left through the ball, and his tendency alongside that is to get steep. Great traits to have for strong iron play, less so with the driver. Everything he was doing in his warm up suggested to me he was working on a series of opposites. From the stick in his belt which would help him tidy up the relationship between arms and hips, to the ProSendr which ensures by keeping the right hand firmly in the cupped cast that the club head will remain behind you as you move into delivery as opposed to having the club head come “out” too early, to using a tee to hit shots to encourage clipping the ball and not driving into the turf. All of this thrown into the soup makes sense to me and I can see the logic in all of it. But nothing can fully prepare you for the kind of pressure he would’ve been feeling yesterday and his tee shot into hole two highlighted a quick return to his idiosyncratic faults. From there he hit a series of tee shots right, and looked to me to be struggling to fully release the club, which makes sense as he knew his path was already too far left, so matching up the club face to that would lead to a pull, which of course we saw on hole two, as well as hole number sixteen. Not to go into too much technical detail as to bore anyone, but I often think this is why playing great golf under pressure is so hard. Ideally you want a pattern of movement in golf that’s one side of neutral, either draw biased or as is more commonly seen nowadays, fade biased. But under pressure this pattern gets exaggerated and keeping it within the realms of neutral becomes harder. This is why so often under pressure you see guys hit a shot shape which has more curve than they would otherwise normally have.

This is also why back to my point at the top, I would’ve liked the see the USGA pinch the fairways in, as on holes like number three where the wind was off the left, Wyndham (and others who like the fade the ball) had extra room to accommodate his preferred shot shape. Given the greens were softer than normal for Shinnecock across the four days, I’m not sure quite enough was truly asked of some players to keep them in play from the tee. Maybe that’s an unfair observation and as mentioned above is just nitpicking.

I haven’t got much else to say on the U.S Open, other than how impressive I thought Sam Burns was. He’s a guy with major victories in him, that I am pretty sure about.

I’m in a blisteringly hot Italy now for my next event in Turin. I have had a nice two week break and believe I managed to make a bit of progress on things at home. Let’s see how it goes!

Thanks for reading and subscribing as always,

Eddie.