We’ve seen this Wyndham Clark at the U.S. Open before

SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. – We have seen this Wyndham Clark before.

The cocky walk. The booming drives unencumbered by the wind. The whipping fade that drops into the centers of fairways and greens on repeat. The aggressive putts that scare every hole even when they don’t go down.

Clark burns bright. He plays loudly when things are going well and when they aren’t, and he has made quite the noisy introduction at Shinnecock Hills. He backed up a first-round 64 with a gritty 69 to take the outright lead into the weekend.

This is the U.S. Open player who thwarted Rory McIlroy at Los Angeles Country Club and, for a moment, however brief, ascended to one of the best players in the world. He caught fire then.

Has he again?

As the rest of the morning wave scooted backward on Friday, Clark held pace and validated his torrid Thursday when he took advantage of benign conditions. That was his round to go get it, but Friday was when he took control. It was the more impressive of the two rounds, even with the five extra strokes it took to finish, battling and separating from a pack that was exposed by the wind and firming greens.

It made one thing clear: there are 36 holes still to play at this U.S. Open, but nothing Clark does should surprise you. He’s dangerous.

Clark showed signs of this play in recent weeks. He won THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson, but that was the opposite type of test. Clark won it with a 60 on the final round as he fired at every flag and excelled when forced to be aggressive. This is a different animal. He played well at the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday, but a U.S. Open comes with its own set of mental circumstances, particularly for Clark.

It’s an examination that exposes any weakness or insecurity, however small. Clark isn’t far removed from rock bottom. He has admitted he began this year with uncertain expectations. His 2025 was poor. He didn’t make it past the first round of the Playoffs and was a non-factor other than three weeks around The Open Championship. Was he going to tumble further down the depths of pro golf? The sport can cut you down as quickly as it crowns you.

That’s where we detour and mention the Oakmont of it all. Clark shot 74-74 to miss the cut there last year and smashed a locker on the way out. A picture of the damage surfaced on social media. He’s spent the last year answering for it. As his game struggled, so did his mental game. He couldn’t go from event to event without being asked about Oakmont. He was asked about it again on Friday, a reminder that your shortcomings can follow you longer than your successes.

“I've gotten a lot of grief since last year, rightfully so,” Clark said. “The thing that's unfortunate is that's not who I am, what happened last year.

“I'm hoping I can win back the fans that I had or some new fans because it was a terrible incident. You know, I really feel like I can show people that I'm fun and outgoing, I'm fierce, competitive, love the game, respect the game, and I just had a bad moment.”

That’s a separate journey that will persist past this week. But the bad golf of last year? He can put that to bed.

Clark has already done a lot of that work. He started working with swing coach Pat Coyner over the offseason, and the two have rebuilt his swing back to where it was in 2023 when he won his U.S. Open. Good golf followed, and so did his confidence. But it’s hard to trust it again fully until weeks like this. Clark began his second round with eight pars and a three-putt bogey at the ninth. That threatened to let the field back into it, but Clark found the green at both 10 and 11 and nearly made a pair of birdies. He missed both, but steadied the ship at a vulnerable time. The birdies would come at 12 and 13, the first a product of a wonderful iron shot that stopped within 5 feet. The second was a 29-foot bomb putt that pushed the lead to four strokes.

The last five holes were the folcrum, as Clark managed wayward tee shots at the 14th, 15th and 16th holes. He emerged from that stretch 1-over, but he easily could have played it in 3-over or worse. Then, for added measure, he poured in a 33-footer at the last to leave no doubt, 7-under overall.

“I really felt like I could be in double digits, but you know, the great thing about that is I didn't feel like I had my best, and I still am leading as of right now,” Clark said.

Whichever way you lean on Clark, the closing stretch delivered optimism. The believers will latch onto the saves and the triumphant putt at the end. The detractors will point to the string of missed fairways as a chink in the armor and the lengthy putt as an unsustainable blip.

Clark has gotten used to dealing with both sides. He’s walked this line before. The weekend will be nothing new.