Wyndham Clark's Comments About Pinehurst Could Mean We're In For Glorious Carnage At U.S. Open
The U.S. Open is typically the most-challenging major championship each year with players rarely taking scores deep. After the birdie fest that was last month's PGA Championship with Xander Schauffele winning at 21-under, most golf fans are hoping to see the USGA make Pinehurst No. 2 extremely challenging this week, and based on Wyndham Clark's comments, that may be exactly what we get.
Clark, the defending U.S. Open champion, spoke to the press on Monday and explained that the greens are already incredibly fast.
"They are extremely fast," Clark said. "If they get any firmer and faster, the greens, I mean, they'd be borderline. They are already borderline."
"You have to play a lot of break on these greens. When we're hitting lag putts and short putts, you have a 10-footer downhill, down-grain. Normally you're not more than four or five inches outside the cup on most greens. Here you're maybe playing 10 to 12 inches just so that you're not getting below the hole and having it run away."
Defending U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark shared quite the assessment of Pinehurst No. 2. (Michael Madrid-USA TODAY Sports)
The No. 4 player in the world describing the greens as "borderline" three full days before the tournament begins - plus with no rainfall predicted the rest of the week - sounds like the making of an incredibly difficult test the vast majority of the golf world would welcome with open arms.
Pinehurst No. 2's greatest defense is already their incredibly undulated and elevated greens. You couple that with the USGA making them as fast and firm as possible without getting too gimmicky and you've got your typical U.S. Open setup with the winning score potentially being right around even par.
In the three previous U.S. Opens held at Pinehurst No. 2 (1999, 2005, 2014) a total of four players have finished the tournament under par.
After eighteen players finished under par during the 2023 U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club and Clark's winning score being 10-under, we could see the USGA go on a bit of a revenge tour this week.
The best ball strikers on the planet will rise to the top, as they always do at major championships. This year's Masters was as firm and windy as we've seen it in years and Scottie Scheffler was still able to get to 11-under and win by four shots.