US Open golf 2026: final round updates as Wyndham Clark starts with big lead – live

Key events32m agoPreambleMeanwhile here’s a reminder of how easily a six-shot advantage can be whittled away on a major-championship Sunday …The Masters 1996: Faldo triumphs as Norman blows six-shot lead - as it happenedRead more… plus memories of Brooks Koepka nearly letting a seven-shot lead slip.

Suffice to say, Wyndham Clark, as dominant as he’s been so far, won’t be taking anything for granted just yet.Brooks Koepka survives mini-meltdown to retain US PGA ChampionshipRead moreA six-shot lead, though. Courtesy of an old Joy of Six, here’s the story of how Arnold Palmer came from seven back in 1960 (though to be clear, 54-hole leader Mike Souchak was only two ahead of the field going into the final round).

double quotation mark“You’re dead,” scoffed golf writer Bob Drum. He’d just been asked by Arnold Palmer, two times a Master but yet to land his national title, if a final-round 65 could win the US Open. “Nah, you’re too far back, Arnie.

That would do nothing.” Palmer threw his half-eaten cheeseburger down – it was lunch between the third and fourth rounds of the 1960 tournament at Cherry Hills near Denver, the final 36 holes in those days all played on the Saturday – and left the locker room in the lofty state of high dudgeon. In fairness to Drum, his was a reasonable, if slightly tactless, response.

Palmer came into the Open as the favourite, fresh from winning at Augusta, but he pushed his opening tee shot into a ditch, double bogeyed the first hole, and never quite got going. He’d putted poorly, and after three rounds was seven shots behind the leader Mike Souchak. There were 13 other players in between the two, including four-time winner Ben Hogan, Gary Player, former champ Julius Boros, the pop singer Don Cherry (!)

and a promising young amateur called Jack Nicklaus. Yep, Arnie was dead. Except, of course, Arnie wasn’t dead.

Steam trailing from his lugs – “I was a little angry at Drum and his attitude,” recalled Palmer – he took to the first tee and attempted to drive the green at the short par four. His ball rolled to 20 feet. He didn’t make the eagle putt, but birdie was a good enough start.

Come the 4th, he’d made four of them in a row. By the 7th, he’d made another two, by which point he was jigging across the turf in a syncopated manner, repeatedly tossing his visor into the air in celebration. A shot was dropped at 8, but he still reached the turn in 30 strokes, a new tournament record.

That pique-fuelled charge – followed by one last birdie at 11 – was enough to land Palmer the title. Souchak, unnerved by the ear-splitting noise generated by Palmer’s gallery – which now included Drum, the player greeting the hapless scribe on his arrival with a raised eyebrow and a wry “fancy seeing you here!” – fell apart.

Young Nicklaus briefly held the lead but, callow and nervous, naively elected to putt over a ball mark and three putted, all momentum lost. Finally Hogan, who had hit 34 out of 34 greens in regulation on the final day going up 17, dumped his approach in water while striving too hard to nudge ahead of Palmer, then got wet again from the tee at the last. Palmer’s seven-shot comeback was the greatest in US Open history, the visor he launched on the final green still, it’s said, in orbit.

Nice that Arnie celebrated so well while the going was good, because a mere six years later, he would, unlike his cap, come crashing back down to earth. The Joy of Six: US Open golf glory | Scott MurrayRead moreThere were only two rounds under par yesterday. Emiliano Grillo shot 67 in the windiest of the conditions; Scottie Scheffler carded 69 after coming home in 32 strokes.

It was tough. And it’s tough again today, of course … just not so tough.

There isn’t as much wind, and though the greens are still hard and fast, there’s already been evidence that something is out there for someone. Maybe it’s already been done, because already there have been three sub-70 rounds this morning/afternoon, one more than the whole of Moving Day. Peter Uihlein, who shot 80 yesterday, has finished his week with a 66, a score that’s only been bettered in this tournament so far by Wyndham Clark (64), Collin Morikawa (65) and Joaquin Niemann (65), and matched by Xander Schauffele (66) and Dustin Johnson (66).

James Nicholas has followed up yesterday’s 82 with 69. And Ben James has shot 67. So it’s on.

Possibly. Another final round of 63 for Tommy Fleetwood? Let’s rule nothing out.

An 83 is realistic too.Brooks Koepka wins US Open 2018 – as it happenedRead moreIf Wyndham Clark doesn’t turn the 126th US Open into a procession, we’ll have one heck of a story on our hands. After a third round of 70 mainly constructed on a foundation of world-class scrambling, but also featuring one of the great US Open fairway woods to set up eagle at 16, Clark established a six-stroke lead …

-7: Wyndham Clark -1: Scottie Scheffler, Sahith Theegala, Tom Kim, Sam Stevens E: Emiliano Grillo, Keith Mitchell, Sam Burns, Xander Schauffele +1: Tommy Flee