U.S. Open Round 4 updates: Play underway, can anyone catch Wyndham Clark?

SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. -- The final round of the 2026 U.S. Open is underway, and one question hangs over the proceedings: Will Wyndham Clark flinch?

Clark held a six-stroke lead after 54 holes and has looked the part. As Shinnecock Hills tormented the contenders on Saturday, Clark floated above the carnage with impressive up-and-downs on repeat. Then, with an opportunity to take full control of the tournament, he stuffed his second shot into the par-5 16th and holed the putt for eagle. Clark's only nervy blip came at the 18th when he missed a short par putt to cut the lead from seven to six. Will that be a preview of heightened nerves?

Clark, the 2023 U.S. Open winner, could join illustrious company with a victory. The club of multi-time U.S. Open winners is elite. Jack Nicklaus. Tiger Woods. Ben Hogan. Sam Snead. Brooks Koepka.

Scottie Scheffler will try to keep Clark from joining that list. Scheffler is chasing his own history, needing just the U.S. Open to complete the Grand Slam. Scheffler is paired alongside in the final group.

Could anyone else make a push for the championship? Tommy Fleetwood shot 63 in the final round of the 2018 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills to nearly clip Koepka. Is that score out there on Sunday?

Follow along here for updates all day. Our on-site reporters, Paul Hodowanic and Will Gray, will be adding on-the-ground insight to keep you informed throughout the final round.

2:00 p.m.: It's been a quiet start to the final round. The course is gettable, but nobody anywhere near contention has made a massive move. Will that come from one of the final groups? Ludvig Åberg just shot 4-under 66. Could one of the players at 1-under fire the same and get to 5-under? Would that be enough to unseat Clark? As is always the case, the first few holes will tell us a lot. Clark is no stranger to pressure, but playing alongside Scheffler is a difficult place to be, no matter the size of the lead.

-- Paul Hodowanic

1:00 p.m.: If you were hoping for a crazy Tommy Fleetwood-type round from Rory McIlroy today, you aren't going to get it. McIlroy nearly drove the first green and still didn't manage to hit the green with his second shot. He made bogeys at the second and third holes, too. This won't be McIlroy's major. A thought that popped in my head: Was this McIlroy's last chance to win at one of the cathedrals of golf? He has said that it is important to him. He will be in his mid-40s the next time we are back here at Shinnecock.

-- Paul Hodowanic

11:00 a.m.: Let's set up the historic nature of Clark's lead for a second.

Thirty-nine players have had a 5+ shot lead entering the final round of a major championship. Thirty-three went on to win. The last such player to fail at converting such a lead was Jean Van de Velde at the 1999 Open Championship at Carnoustie -- he had a five-shot lead entering the final round and ended up losing in a 3-way playoff.

In each of the last 27 U.S. Opens, the eventual winner was either leading or within four strokes of the lead at the end of the third round. Of course, Clark is the only player within four of the lead.

There have been eight true wire-to-wire winners of the U.S. Open (outright lead at the end of all four rounds). Clark could be the ninth.

This is all heady territory and points to this afternoon going one direction.

-- Paul Hodowanic

9:35 a.m.: Sipping coffee and looking through the pin locations for this Sunday round. A few to keep an eye on ...

• No. 10 -- Sitting in the very front, just above a steep false front, expect this to be one of the most difficult approach shots on Sunday. Most players are driving it down the hill and leaving themselves an uphill wedge inside 70 yards. But with this location, it's going to be incredibly difficult to generate enough spin to keep this ball close. Any aggressive shots have the risk of coming back to their feet. It makes me wonder whether more players will lay back to the top of the hill to leave themselves a full wedge/short iron that they can better control spin with.
• No. 7. -- This 187-yard par-3 has proven difficult all week. Less than half the field has hit this green in regulation and this pin location tucked far on the left side could cause some challenges.
• No. 3 -- The safe play will be to bail to the front left of the green, but if anyone tries to go at this front right pin, they may have issues. Tucked in the very front corner, just five paces from the bunker, the slopes want to feed balls right into the greenside bunker, which will leave a short-sided, difficult up-and-down.

9:00 a.m.: Good morning. It's quiet here in the media center, but it won't take much for the energy to climb. Wyndham Clark leads by six strokes, but if there's a golf course and an opponent that you wouldn't want to face as you're trying to hold that lead, it would be Shinnecock Hills and Scottie Scheffler. We've got a while before the final group goes off, though. Here are some tee times to follow in the interim.

• 9:51 a.m. -- Miles Russell (a), Jackson Koivun (a)
• 10:02 a.m. -- Chris Gotterup, Robert MacIntyre
• 12:13 p.m. -- Rory McIlroy, Akshay Bhatia
• 1:35 p.m. -- Matt Fitzpatrick, Collin Morikawa
• 1:46 p.m. -- Tommy Fleetwood, Xander Schauffele
• 1:57 p.m. -- Sam Burns, Keith Mitchell
• 2:08 p.m. -- Emiliano Grillo, Sam Stevens
• 2:19 p.m. -- Tom Kim, Sahith Theegala
• 2:30 p.m. -- Scottie Scheffler, Wyndham Clark

-- Paul Hodowanic