LOS ANGELES — Wyndham Clark will begin the ultimate round of the U.S. Open in an unfamiliar place: In contention to win a serious championship.
The 29-year-old native of Colorado and resident of Scottsdale, Ariz., is tied for the lead with Rickie Fowler at 10-under par at Los Angeles Country Club after he shot a 1-under 69 within the third round Saturday.
Entering this week, Clark had played in six major championships and had missed the cut in 4 of them, including the 2 U.S. Opens for which he had qualified, in 2021 and 2022.
He made the cut in two majors, ending tied for seventy fifth within the 2021 PGA Championship and tied for 76th within the 2022 British Open.
On Saturday, though, Clark hardly looked like a player without lots of positive major-championship experience.
That was true even after he carded a bogey on the seventeenth hole with an approach shot so poor that he needed to take a penalty drop and dropped two shots behind Fowler heading into the ultimate hole of the round.
Clark delivered a clutch bounce-back birdie on 18 while Fowler, who had been leading the tournament because the opening round on Thursday, three-putted the ultimate hole to relinquish the only real lead.
On Sunday, Clark, just five weeks faraway from his first profession PGA Tour victory within the Wells Fargo at Quail Hole, and Fowler again can be the ultimate pairing.
“I’m not an enormous scoreboard watcher, but walking up there [on 18] I sort of knew where we were at and I actually desired to be in that final group,’’ Clark said. “Every shot matters out here. Making bogey [on 17] didn’t cost us the tournament, and it actually was one in all the most important points of today.
“Yeah, there’s lots of emotion. It’s a U.S. Open and I desired to be in that final group.’’
Clark and Fowler hold a one-shot lead over Rory McIlroy, who’s attempting to win his first major championship since 2014, and a three-shot lead over Scottie Scheffler, the No. 1 ranked player on this planet.
It figures to be quite a final round.
“I felt like I handled all of it rather well,’’ Clark said of his third-round performance. “At the tip, I felt like I handled all of the adversity, and I feel like my best round remains to be on the market.’’
As Clark has positioned himself for a Sunday run at crucial title of his profession, he has been doing it not for himself, but for his late mother, Lise, who died in 2013 in consequence of breast cancer.
Because she was the one that introduced him to golf and was his most ardent supporter, her death rocked him a lot he was on the point of quitting the sport.
Without her, Clark suffered from bouts of depression and anger, which tempted him to walk away.
Ten years later, though, Clark is stronger than ever — mentally and in his golf game. And he owes all of it to his mother.
After he shot 67 on Friday, Clark referred to a moving moment he experienced in the course of the opening round, through which he shot a 6-under 64
“I used to be walking down [a fairway] and I sort of was just smiling as I used to be playing well, and I’m going, ‘Man, I wish you possibly can be here, mom, since it’s a dream come true to be doing this at the best level in front of family and friends which can be out here,’ ’’ Clark said. “Yeah, I wish she could possibly be here. But I do know she’s pleased with me, and he or she’s made a big impact on my life. I’m who I’m today due to her.
“She was sort of my rock and my always-there supporter. I’m getting a bit choked up [talking about her]. She’s the whole lot, and I miss her, and the whole lot I do out here is lots for her.’’
