One of the most fundamental pillars in sports is that every single fan has the right, and maybe even a responsibility of sorts, to pick a side. Sometimes the side you choose wins, and sometimes it loses.
In golf, the latter happens far more often than the former, but sometimes an outlier emerges where the typical formula is flipped on its head, and a player almost nobody latched onto is left standing in the winner's circle all by their lonesome.
Wyndham Clark was that outlier at the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills, and it's a role he not only looked comfortable playing across four days and 72 holes of major championship golf, but one he had to play.
Beyond the typical touch of arrogance and brashness that we see from various figures in sports deemed a "villain" by the masses — who it's worth pointing out almost always enjoy success — Clark has well-accounted-for baggage.
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During the final round of the 2025 PGA Championship, Clark violently threw his driver behind him after an errant tee shot. The club ended up breaking, and the head of the club went through an advertisement sign just a few feet away from a volunteer on the tee box. He apologized for the incident the next day.
Just a month later, after missing the cut by a shot at the 2025 U.S. Open at Oakmont, Clark took apart two lockers inside the clubhouse in frustration. Weeks after damaging the lockers, Oakmont barred him from the property.
Clark first apologized for the incident at Oakmont the following week at the Travelers Championship, and has done so on multiple occasions since, while explaining that he regretted his actions.
Clark has done what anyone else in his situation would do: continue to apologize, begin to say the right things and try to move past the very public mistakes.
Actions, however, do have consequences, and when a former major champion throws a driver through a sign and destroys two lockers inside a clubhouse, the consequence is the removal of the benefit of the doubt.
The reality is that Clark's apologies fell on deaf ears, and no matter how genuine a message he's tried to articulate about regretting his mistakes, the public's mind has been made up. Fair or unfair, Clark has dues to pay.
There are easier places to start paying those dues than a U.S. Open at Shinnecock, but it's fair to say he put down quite the down payment with his performance.
From the moment Clark grabbed the lead on Thursday and the first round ended with him four shots clear of the field, the pitchforks were out, and they only got sharper as the week went on. From fans to legacy media to non-traditional media, every corner in the golf space was filled with people actively pulling for Wyndham to implode with the sense of pride unlike anything in recent memory.
Given the sheer volume of it, you couldn't help but become numb to all the vitriol towards Clark on social media through the opening three rounds.
WYNDHAM CLARK SURVIVES HOSTILE CROWD AND SAM BURNS CHARGE TO WIN SECOND US OPEN AT SHINNECOCK HILLS
While Clark passed his first three tests of the week and carried a six-shot lead into the final round, Sunday's dose of hatred made the previous three days look like a post-dinner stroll in a gated community. But again, one of the key pillars in sports is choosing a side, and it just so happened that nine out of every 10 fans on property at Shinnecock on Sunday chose violence against Clark.
Countless shouts for his ball to find a bunker the millisecond after he made contact with it, cheers when an approach shot rolled off the putting surface, and minor roars after each of his five bogeys during the final round. NBC reported during the telecast that some fans who were shouting things at Clark were removed from the property by authorities.
Before Clark had even made the turn on Sunday, the classless crowd had lost containment, and Clark was paying his dues in the form of taking every lick imaginable from the galleries while trying to become a two-time U.S. Open champion.
Sunday was an 18-round fight Clark would have never signed up for, but it was the only one in which he could actually convey an impactful message.
Just like Clark's outbursts at last year's PGA Championship and U.S. Open resulted in consequences for his actions, the same can be said for his resume. As a former Ryder Cup player who won the U.S. Open in 2023 and has a pair of signature event victories on the PGA Tour, Clark wasn't going to suddenly start getting back into any good graces of fans by getting into the mix on some minor stage.
No, Clark was going to have to run through a fire to see what was on the other side, and what has to be there after going wire-to-wire at Shinnecock Hills for his second major title is respect.
You can not like Wyndham Clark; you can fault him for his actions and how he handled himself in the immediate aftermath. You can choose not to believe anything he says is sincere, and that his two mistakes at previous majors simply reflect who he is.
That would be a bit harsh and even more hypocritical as one human to another, but that's all fine — you have the right as a sports fan to pick your side. It doesn't mean you can't also tip your cap to what Clark accomplished at one of the game's most iconic venues with the entire world seemingly rooting for his demise.
As cliché as it sounds, maybe Clark successfully playing the role he forced himself into is a sign of him maturing as a person. Only time and future actions will tell, and the golf world will undoubtedly be tuning into one of the sport's true characters.
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