U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP 2026

June 21, 2026

Wyndham Clark

Shinnecock Hills Golf Club

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Please join me in welcoming the champion of the 2026 U.S. Open, Wyndham Clark. Wyndham, you join an elite group of two-time U.S. Open champions. When we say that in reference to our national championship, what does that mean to you?

WYNDHAM CLARK: Man, I mean, the first one was amazing, and this one seems even better. I think especially after such a sour taste last year in this championship, to have some redemption and win this again is -- I mean, gosh, it's almost surreal.

THE MODERATOR: Talk a little bit about what you were thinking last night. Large lead, long morning, I'm sure. Where was your head at, and what did you do today?

WYNDHAM CLARK: To be honest, I was really frustrated that I made some bogeys coming in, and I did everything I could to get over that because I thought I could have been, you know, at 9-, 10-under, which would have been a little better of a cushion with the best players in the world right behind me.

Then this morning it's just the anticipation. You have a pit in your stomach, and you just can't wait to get out there. So it's nerve-wracking, but once you get inside the ropes, you kind of get into your business. I kind of took care of business a little bit.

Q. You talked after the putt on 18 about winning over the crowd eventually. How much chirping did you hear? What do you have to do to win them over?

WYNDHAM CLARK: Man, they definitely didn't want me to win. It's pretty rare in an Open Championship or a major to have fans kind of boo against your shots or cheer for bad shots.

Yeah, I mean, that was tough, but I also like -- I mean, sometimes being the underdog is nice. I was in '23, and I kind of did the same thing. Anytime someone said something negative to me, I replaced it with something positive. You know, some of it's self-deserved. I kind of brought it on myself, but I also get it, too. Scottie was going for the career Grand Slam, and it hasn't happened very often.

Yeah, it was tough, but I'm proud of myself that I battled through. I mean, things really could have gotten away from me. I stood tough. Yeah, I would have liked to have won by more, but as long as you win, it doesn't matter.

Q. Your dad surprised you on the 18th green there. After all that you guys have been through, what did it mean to you to have him there to witness you win for the first time?

WYNDHAM CLARK: Yeah, I mean, he's never been there to see me win. Not only that, to finally have him there for a win is amazing, but especially on Father's Day. I know in '23 it was obviously a great Father's Day present for him, but I know he wanted to be there here in person.

So for him to surprise me was amazing, and so I can't wait to spend more time with my dad tonight and celebrating this, because it's not just my win. It's my team. It's John Ellis, who helped get me here; it's Big Wave; it's my agent; it's my swing coaches, my trainers, and then obviously my family.

There's a lot of people behind me, so I was happy that he could be here.

Q. Wyndham, it strikes me as hard enough to win a major championship without factoring in anything that's going on outside the ropes. I guess I'm just curious to ask you, how on earth do you find the focus and composure in that circumstance when the environment around you seems to be pulling against you?

WYNDHAM CLARK: I was kind of making jokes about it with Dave where if we heard someone cheer for me, I'd go, oh, there's one person that likes me. So we would kind of make jokes and make it maybe a little light-hearted.

But it's tough, man. I've played now a Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup on foreign soil, and it kind of had that atmosphere a little bit.

I also got good prep last week in Canada. They were pretty harsh on me the last day, so I think that all of that combined kind of led to this moment where, all right, I've been in this position. It sucks being the underdog or getting rooted against, but I can pull through, and there's nothing like winning kind of an away game, if you will.

Q. Wyndham, what you do think was the lowest moment for you? How far away did this feel?

WYNDHAM CLARK: I mean, after what happened at Oakmont was obviously the lowest point. People probably didn't see what happened after, but you know, it was a really tough two, three days for me. I was in a dark place, didn't really go outside much. It was a really negative, dark place.

Yeah, I mean, at that moment I just felt a lot of my career, world ranking, reputation, everything just dwindling. That's a terrible feeling.

Yeah, I would say in that moment I definitely didn't think I'd be here this year doing this, but with that being said, I did a lot of work in the offseason on my golf swing, on the things I needed to do. I would say as this year, I started hitting it better and started seeing the results, then yeah, I started gaining my confidence.

Coming into this, I really did have the feeling I could win, because I played amazing at Memorial. I played, I don't know, okay golf in Canada and still had a chance to win. I said, if I bring my A-game, I can definitely win this thing so...

Q. At what point today felt like the biggest adversity?

WYNDHAM CLARK: I mean, gosh, I think the bogey on 5 was just horrendous. I hit it -- we were trying to hit the shot we wanted to into the green, which is laying short and run up. It just flew 10 yards too far and obviously put me in a bad spot. So that was obviously very challenging.

Then, yeah, to bogey 17 was definitely a little bit of a shock. I have to give credit to Dave. He said, hey, we're right where we want to be. Yeah, it sucks that happened, but we have one-shot lead going into 18. We'd take this -- Wednesday night we would have said we would have taken this. Yeah, then we executed.

Those are probably two moments.

Q. 2023 when you were in that final group with Rickie, he was obviously the California kid. He was a favorite. I remember you telling us in this room you and Julie talked about every time someone would say Rickie's name, that kind of prompted you to, I think it was, be cocky and think of your goals. Did you have a similar mantra this week?

WYNDHAM CLARK: Yeah, similar. Kind of remind myself of my process. Then I knew there was going to be a lot of whether it's negativity towards me or cheers for Scottie, so yeah, there was a very similar thing.

Anytime they said that, I replaced it with something positive either about myself or my game or what's going to happen. So it wasn't necessarily the motto of be cocky, but it was similar to that.

Q. Then just curious, you guys were on the range. How often are you doing that with her? Is that before every round? Is that before specific important rounds? With Julie on the range before.

WYNDHAM CLARK: Yeah, sometimes. I think she kind of feels it out herself when she thinks maybe it's needed. You know, I'm good either way. I mean, sometimes it's nice just to be talking about nonsense while you're warming up so that you aren't too anxious before you go.

Then there's some good key things she says before I go of, like, hey, remind me of your goals, remind me of our intention today, et cetera. You know, it's nice when she's there.

Q. Can you talk through the decision to hit driver on 10 and the difficulty of the second shot as well?

WYNDHAM CLARK: Yeah, well, we kind of always have played it down there, and the wind wasn't directly down, so it was off the right, so we thought, okay, if we can get to where we have a wedge in our hand, as long as it's not down, we'll be able to hold the green.

Our other goal was to try to almost get on the upslope. So if we had the upslope, we would be able to get some height and stop it.

By no means did I think I could hit it as close as I did. That was definitely one of the better shots of the day.

I think in years past people have laid up in the back or farther back. We talked about it. I said, as long as we can hold the green, I would rather be 60 yards than 160 yards to try to hit it to 30 feet. Fortunately, I clipped it perfect and pulled off the shot.

Q. It looked like Ted Scott gave you an embrace on 18. Did Scottie have anything to say to you after what you powered through today as well?

WYNDHAM CLARK: Scottie, we're friends, and he's a class act. He just told me, congrats and great playing. Ted, he went out of his way to say, hey, that was -- took a lot of grit. No one was really pulling for you, and to battle through and win that was impressive. So that's what he said.

Q. What happens now when you get angry? How are you able to deal with it?

WYNDHAM CLARK: Man, I'm not getting angry as much as I used to. I think I get frustrated. My anger has kind of gone away, which is a huge blessing. I'd say the frustration is kind of obviously there. Anyone gets it in golf.

Yeah, the anger, I'm not as angry as I used to be.

Q. Why do you think that is?

WYNDHAM CLARK: I think it's a combination of things off the course being great. My game feels like it's in a good position. I'm just happier where I'm at in life. Then I think, you know, last year I got too caught up in things that really didn't matter.

Q. The dark place after Oakmont, the two or three days afterward, how did you climb out of it?

WYNDHAM CLARK: Man, it took a while. You know, I think, one, I have an amazing team around me, and they kind of -- we made a little cocoon, and they were there to help me through that time.

Then, yeah, there was a lot of things. I'm trying to -- I've kind of pushed that time out of my memory, but I do remember it being tough. You know, it didn't end because I was really trying to make the Ryder Cup. Obviously didn't, and that was also another just kind of jab to the stomach that I didn't make that.

So, yeah, I mean, it was a tough June to August last year, but I'm just happy I'm here on the other side of things.

Q. The tee shot on 16, I think you pulled it way left, and Bones on TV said, The lie is absolutely horrendous. What did you see?

WYNDHAM CLARK: I mean, it wasn't good. It wasn't good. The one thing is it's kind of wispy. The fescue has been kind of wispy. I felt like 75% of the time you would get a lie that you can advance it, and this one was kind of teetering. I could get to the back of the ball, and so I thought because it's wispy I and could get to the back of the ball, even though there was a ton of grass around me, I thought it could come out a little knuckly and jump.

It didn't quite do that, but I'm glad I pulled the shot off, because things could have gotten a little ugly there.

Q. Wyndham, you've effusively apologetic about last year. Do you feel like this closes the book on that? If it doesn't, do you accept kind of becoming the heel of the PGA?

WYNDHAM CLARK: I mean, I sure hope it closes the door on it. I figured in my mind that this would maybe be the last time just because it's one year removed. I'll probably always get them, but I hope I don't become the heel of the PGA.

I guess if I am, any press is good press, right?

Q. We heard Dave saying to you, "good process," a lot just before you went up to hit a shot. Can you talk about the significance of those words?

WYNDHAM CLARK: Yeah, I mean, my process is kind of, you know, picking the correct club, trusting that club, being assertive, having my intermediate target, and then, you know, pull the trigger and have it be very kind of simple and lack of clutter in my brain.

Every time he reminded me that, I get back into the shot rather than maybe the moment or that I just made a bogey or someone else made a birdie, so it gets me back into, hey, this is what I do to make a good shot, and I would do it. Granted, I didn't do it too often today, but the times that I did, it was really relieving.

Q. A couple of questions about the approach on 18. I was pretty close to you. I heard your caddie say something about, I want to remind you that the wind on 9 was dada-dada-dah. I was curious what he said. The second part of that question is your reaction after hitting that shot didn't seem to jive with where it ended up. I'm curious if you thought it was going to end up significantly worse than what it did?

WYNDHAM CLARK: Well, yeah, I mean, it was 167 front. I'm hitting 9-iron about 162. Wind was off the right, and we've been getting jumpers. So we were planning on it jumping.

So when in the air I saw that it didn't jump, I thought in my mind it only flew 160, so it wasn't going to get to the green. Fortunately, it got on the green in a good spot.

Then the reason he brought up 9 was we had a similar thing, and we hit an 8-iron, and it was, like, 210 front or something like that. The 8-iron almost got there. He's, like, hey, it's very similar wind, it's not going to affect, it's going to move it right to left. That was kind of the talk there.

Q. You had that trophy before. Is there anything you didn't get to do with it last time that you think you might try to do this year?

WYNDHAM CLARK: We abused it last time. I think this time I'll be maybe a little more respectful to it. I'm just kidding. We didn't do anything bad. We took it everywhere, did everything with it. I think winning something the second time I think you really appreciate what you did the previous time and how difficult it is.

It will more be -- I might give it to my coach. I might give it to my trainer. I might give it to the team and let them take it and enjoy it almost more than me.

Last time, you know, I was always in control of it. I think this is kind of a team win here.

Q. Are we going to celebrate with grape tonight?

WYNDHAM CLARK: We are definitely going to open up some grape. A lot of grape.

Q. That was actually pretty much my question. Do we have a type of grape picked out for the Claret Jug?

WYNDHAM CLARK: The last time the USGA opened up Screaming Eagle, so that's about as good of a grape as you can get. Hopefully they have something good this time. I will tell you it will be up to the brim.

Q. Julie mentioned you had a dream last night but obviously wouldn't go into specifics. I'm wondering if you could.

WYNDHAM CLARK: Oh, it was nothing prophetic or anything like that. It was more -- it was actually the craziest dream of my life, but I do not want to divulge what happened, because it was wild (laughing). Cannot be said in public.