Wyndham Clark holds off Rory McIlroy to win US Open for first major title

LOS ANGELES — When it’s your time it’s your time.

This week was Wyndham Clark’s time.

It was not Rickie Fowler’s time.

It was not Rory McIlroy’s or Scottie Scheffler’s time again.

The 29-year-old Clark is a major champion, winner of the 123rd U.S. Open, after surviving a tense final round Sunday with an even-par 70 to finish 10-under, one shot clear of McIlroy, whose drought without a major championship is careening toward a decade.

Clark entered the week having played in six career majors, missing the cut in four of them. In the two in which he made the cut, Clark finished tied for 75th in the 2021 PGA Championship and he tied for 76th in the last year’s British Open.

Those results now are irrelevant.

Clark is a major champion, his life forever changed.

On a week that, for so long, looked like it was going to be about Fowler winning his first career major to complete what has been a marvelous renaissance of his career that had been wayward for the past three years, Clark quietly hung around.

He played solid, clutch golf and seized the moments when he had to.

The other contenders around Clark, all of whom have far more accomplished résumés, consistently failed to seize the big moments on Sunday.

There was McIlroy three-putting the par-5 eighth hole to make one of the most disappointing pars of his career and then bogeying the par-5 14th hole. McIlroy birdied the first hole and proceeded to par the next 12 holes before the bogey on 14.

Pars were never going to be good enough, just like his 2-under final round at the 2022 British Open wasn’t enough to hold off winner Cam Smith, who was posting a 64.

Fowler, perhaps mentally exhausted from the weight of having at least a share of the lead for all four days, lost his putting touch Sunday. Really, Fowler looked like he lost it on Saturday in the third round, when he missed a short par putt on the 18th hole to relinquish sole possession of the lead.

On Sunday, Fowler never found his putting mojo. When he missed a 5-footer for par on No. 11 and then got into trouble on 12 after a poor tee shot that led to another bogey, Fowler fell back to 6-under for the tournament, five shots behind Clark.

At that point, Fowler, who’d feasted on the front nine for the better part of the first three rounds, was 4-over through 12 holes in the round.

McIlroy, meanwhile, failed to take advantage of the par-5 14th, where his tee shot landed in the rough, forcing him to lay up to the fairway. He then hit a poor third-shot wedge from 125 yards away that landed short of the green and plugged in the grassy side face of the bunker.

McIlroy actually caught a break and got a free drop from the embedded lie into the greenside rough. He chipped on and left himself an 8-foot par, which he missed, dropping him to 9-under par, two shots behind Clark.

This was the pressure point of the final round. This is where matters were decided.

Moments after McIlroy walked disappointedly to the 15th tee, Clark drilled a 3-wood onto the 14th green with his second shot, leaving himself a 25-foot eagle putt.

Clark would two-putt for birdie to get to 12-under par, three clear of McIlroy with four holes to play.

On the short 15th hole — the easiest hole on the course — Clark, who at the time was 16-for-18 putting from 5-10 feet for the week, missed an 8-foot par putt and took bogey to drop to 11-under par, two ahead of McIlroy.

It was the only bogey made on 15 all day.

Clark compounded his troubles on the difficult par-4 16th, where he hit his tee shot into a fairway bunker. He’d hit the fairway in two of the first three rounds, but the pressure is quite a bit different on Sundays than it is on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Clark pitched out of the bunker and stuffed his third shot to within 7 feet for par, which he would lip-out and take bogey to drop to 10-under and one shot ahead of McIlroy.

McIlroy, up ahead on 17, caught a massive break when he yanked his drive left and the ball bounced from the rough into the short grass of the second fairway. From there, he would hit his approach onto the green and two-putt for par to stay at 9-under.

Clark responded to his hiccup on 16 by piping his drive into the 17th fairway. But he missed the green left with his approach shot. A day earlier, Clark hit his approach on 16 into a penalty area to the right of the green and had to take unplayable lie.

Undaunted, Clark pitched his chip to within a foot for a massive par save to stay at 10-under.

Up ahead, McIlroy, likely needing birdie, hit a 351-yard drive into the center of the fairway on 18, leaving him with 181 to the flag and left his approach left of the flag, 41 feet away.

While McIlroy assessed his birdie putt on the 18th green, Clark walked over the bridge from the 17th green to the 18th tee to play the biggest hole of his life.

McIlroy two-putted for par to finish the tournament at 9-under with a final-round even-par 70, leaving Clark needing a par to win.

Clark’s tee shot sliced to the right but stayed in the 58-yard fairway. He hit the green with his approach shot, 60 feet away from the cup. He left his birdie putt a foot away for a tap-in for the win.

Clark embraced his caddie, John Ellis, a player himself, having played in the 2008 and 2011 U.S. Opens. The embrace was physical and it was long and there were tears.

Before Clark’s mother, Lise, died at age 55 in 2013 as a result of breast cancer, she told her son, “Play big. Play for something bigger than yourself.’’

He did.

Clark played big and he played for his mother.