Wydnham Clark deserved better than the grief he was given by the fans last week at the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills in the Hamptons area of New York.
To set the stage, Clark entered the final round with a six-shot lead, and that combined with his behavior a year ago when he missed the Open cut at Oakmont, then trashed the clubhouse, made him a big target on Sunday.
Much of the hatred came from his behavior last year after missing the cut at the Open at Oakmont Country Club. He missed the cut, then trashed some of the locker room at the iconic golf course.
I also think the New York sports crowd was looking for any reason to see Clark blow a big lead and give the popular Scottie Scheffler a chance to win his career Grand Slam.
It was bad.
Every time he hit a bad shot or missed a big putt, the crowd cheered. It was obvious on the TV coverage and some of the other players commented on the fans’ behavior throughout the round.
It got so bad, there were fans removed from the tournament on Sunday. What a badge of honor that must be for someone – getting thrown out of a golf tournament for behavior issues.
Then again, these are the people that likely embrace the fact they got thrown out. True role models for the youth of today.
Some nationally threw shade on the New York sports fans and while they certainly can be brutal, in New York, I heard horrible heckling of Colin Montgomerie at the Olympic Club in San Francisco in the 1998 Open.
It’s not specific to a geographic region but rather can be anywhere as long as long as alcohol is involved at a sporting event.
The huge difference here is how the golfer handled the situation.
Monty tried to give it back to the fans, which is a huge mistake when dealing with a mob mentality. Clark handled the situation about as well as I have ever seen an athlete do so.
He was prepared thanks in large part to his sport psychologist Jule Elion, who Clark started working with in 2022.
His outlook was not to confront the negativity but rather channel it into positive thoughts. Although this heckling was so bad at times Sunday, Elion had to step away from the course for a while during the final round.
Clark persevered. He even went as far to say much of the heckling was self-deserved for his conduct in the past.
At the start of the day, I was not rooting for Clark but rather the golfers I had selected in fantasy golf. But the difference was, I wasn’t rooting against Clark.
After listening to the crowd who was energized as the six-shot lead as whittled down to one shot, I started rooting for Clark and when it was finally clinched, I was happy to see him win the tournament.
It was his second Open championship as he won in 2023 as well. You have to obviously have world class talent to win an Open but what Clark showed on Sunday was world class mental ability.
And he woke up Monday morning with a $4.5 million paycheck, much better than the hangover so many of the hecklers undoubtedly had.