Daydreaming at a trade parade on Long Island, New York — Boo, Windham Clark.
Boo boo.
Boo boo.
Clark is a two-time U.S. Open champion, but the scene at Sinek Hills Golf Club on the eastern end of Long Island, New York, felt as if he had traded in his golf polo for a Boston Red Sox jersey. and I ate my last cookie at Tate’s, a local favorite here. Several unsavory acts likely led to the unpleasant incident, including breaking lockers, throwing clubs, violating rules, and making comments, and it didn’t help that Sunday’s playing partner Scottie Scheffler was playing toward a career Grand Slam…his 30th birthday…Father’s Day.
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“Yeah, they definitely didn’t want me to win,” Clark said afterward.
“It’s pretty unusual at the British Open or at a major to see fans booing your shots or cheering your bad shots.”
He’s right, right?
Most likely, spectators who are not favorites will not be cheered. But bitterness? In individual golf tournaments, there is no away team or actual home team, so I’m purely wondering:
Why come to a golf event to hate?
How did you get here?
I feel like this is only going to get worse. In other words, the golf ball has come out of the sleeve.
Of course, I’m not completely naive and think I know the answer, but part of it is a desire to speak up and be talked about, but if you’re so inclined, please contact me at nick.piastowski@golf.com and share your thoughts. Even better, suggest a solution. I’ve said before that a ban on phones would help in this area, but this is happening at the Masters and the patrons are mostly well behaved.
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You can also boo with messages. I’ve heard worse things.
Let’s take a look back at the week of the U.S. Open at Sinekook and put that observation first. I’m going to try 49 more and just to spice things up, I’m going to throw in one of Long Island’s favorite sons, Billy Joel, in the mix.
2. Goldberg’s bagels and coffee also keep me energized.
3. Notably, Clark said he understands why fans aren’t on his side. He also joked about his antics with caddy Dave Perekoudas.
“If I heard someone cheering for me, I thought, ‘Oh, there’s one person who likes me,'” Clark said. “So we were joking around and making it a little bit more light-hearted.”
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4. What does it say that he still won the Clark match?
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Shinnecock’s U.S. Open crowd fiasco didn’t surprise us
Shinnecock’s U.S. Open crowd fiasco didn’t surprise us
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5. Scheffler was impressed.
“The crowd was tough today,” he said. “I mean, New Yorkers, they’re tough people. The fan turnout was pretty high. I like seeing the fans cheering for me. I think it can get a little over the top at times when the ball is about to go off the green and you start hearing the cheers. It felt a little too much for me.”
“But at the end of the day, I can’t control the behavior of the fans. Being in the arena is not good for anyone. You know, there have been some audiences that have been favorable to me during my career, and there have been audiences that have been significantly against me during my career.
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“Being in an arena isn’t something that everyone can do. I think that says a lot about Windham. It shows how he handled not only this golf course, but also today’s crowd, and he deserves to be a champion.”
6. I loved this story by Kevin Van Valkenburgh of Fried Eggs. We expect a lot from our athletes, he writes.
7. What is Clark’s total over-under in the majors? He’s 32 years old. Set the line to 2.5.
8. How many pros will call Julie Elian this week? She’s Clark’s sports psychologist.
9. She told Clark on the practice field before starting Saturday’s third round.
“It’s not what happens to us. It’s how we react to what happens to us.”
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10. I’ll never forget seeing Sam Burns playing with his son Bear as Clark was finishing up his final round.
11. Burns has come this close in back-to-back U.S. Opens. What is his career over-under in the majors? He is 29 years old. Set the line to 1.5.
12. Here’s a little look at the sportswriting process. Early Sunday morning, anticipating a Clark run, I started talking about Clark winning and no one else really losing, but then paused to follow Burns.
Let’s take a look at the winner’s work.
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Sam Burns learned the fate of the US Open. My father’s words bring tears to my eyes.
Sam Burns learned the fate of the US Open. My father’s words bring tears to my eyes.
by: Nick Piastowski
13. There were rebounders like Burns, who led after 54 holes a year ago but only shot an 8-over 78 on Sunday. Among this bouncing group was Keith Mitchell, who played the first nine holes of the tournament at 6 over par and then played 6 under golf.
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“We might not have won,” he said Sunday.
“You can always think about winning a tournament, but I think I won the week after I started.”
14. Another rebounder was Harry Higgs, who tied for 43rd on the PGA Tour this season with 6 of 6 missed cuts. His press conference after the second round on Friday was one of the best I’ve heard. You can see it here.
15. The other rebounder is Tom Kim, who peaked at No. 11 in the World Golf Rankings but fell to No. 141 last week. At the British Open, he was one of only three players to finish the week under par.
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“For the first time, I was able to experience a major championship right in front of my eyes,” Kim said. “This whole week I can go back and see how close I actually was. And I think we finished with a back three, so there were a lot of little things with little softs and if we had done better we definitely would have had a chance.”
“But I’m not going to look at a week that could have been. I’m going to look at a week where, you know, it didn’t turn out to be. This is my best finish in a major since the 2023 British Open and a lot of positives.”
“I think this will be a big boost for the rest of the season.”
16. Next up is Joaquin Niemann.
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5 under 65 on Friday. 2 over 72 on Saturday. Sunday 4 under 66. That’s 7 under golf.
He reflected on the incident Sunday after he shot an 8-over 78 on Thursday, including a two-stroke penalty for a club toss, turning a 9 on the sixth hole into an 11. Asked if he thought he was being made an example of, Neiman said he did.
“I didn’t mean to offend anyone,” Neiman said. “I think it was something more than that. It was more like against me. I was frustrated. I always had very high expectations. I was playing good golf. I knew it was going to be a tough week, a long week, a challenging week.”
“Once I looked at it and realized the best score I could do was an 8, I was so frustrated. I’m not happy doing that. I’m not proud of throwing a golf club. I guess in a way it makes sense, but I don’t know. But there’s nothing I can do about it. I feel like I learned from it.”
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“Honestly, it was a good pitch. (laughing here).”
“I’m never trying to offend anyone, including the volunteers who were there. I know they’re doing their job…and they’re doing their best. They’re not being paid to be there. They’re doing it because they love it. I was frustrated…
“It was just frustration, but more than that, it was the passion to be better.”
17. Music break! Below is Billy Joel’s No. 1 song.
18. Also this week, three athletes battling illness won. Collin Morikawa has been battling a back injury. After the second round on Friday, he said he was still feeling discomfort and was unable to comfortably hit cuts with irons in the right-to-left wind and “high bombs.” However, the two-time major champion tied for 17th place.
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19. A year ago, Sahis Segala suffered torticollis and neck injuries, missed events, and finished 147th in the PGA Tour’s regular season standings. At the British Open, Segala tied for 11th place.
20. After brain surgery in 2023, Gary Woodland suffers from PTSD, and his revelation of PTSD to Golf Channel’s Rex Hoggard during The Players Championship will go down as one of the moments of the year. The 2019 U.S. Open champion tied for seventh place.
twenty one. There were some good stories too. Local New Yorker James Nicholas, who hit the first pitch of the tournament, shot a 1-under 69 at Sundawi and tied for 65th place.
twenty two. We learned more about Myles Russell, the 17-year-old prodigy who emotionally took his father out of the crowd and carried his bag to the 18th hole on Sunday (Father’s Day).
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twenty three. We learned more about Jackson Koibun, a college megastar who will play professionally in the future. Russell and Koibun played together Saturday and Sunday.
twenty four. Despite missing out on the weekend, we learned more about Arni Sveinsson, who became the first Icelandic golfer to play in the U.S. Open. I wrote about him here.
twenty five. There was a sequel. Aaron Rye, JT Poston, and Alex Fitzpatrick showed persistence. In his first major tournament since winning the PGA Championship, Lai tied for 11th place.
26. Memorial winner JT Poston tied for fourth.
27. Alex Fitzpatrick earned PGA Tour membership in April after winning the Zurich Classic with his brother Matt and tied for 23rd place.
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28. We then learned more about Sam Stevens, who tied for seventh place, and had this exchange with a reporter on Saturday (reporter’s questions are in italics).
Sam, you’ve obviously been around for a while, but I think there’s going to be a lot of people who will turn on the TV tomorrow and say…
“Who the hell is Sam Stevens?” said Stevens.
Yeah, so who the hell is Sam Stevens?
“I don’t know. I think I’m an average PGA Tour player,” Stevens said. “Well, I don’t know. That’s a good question. I’m just a golfer.
“Well, I’m looking forward to tomorrow. I hope I can play well enough for more people to know me.”
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29. Adam Scott is also a winner. He is currently on a streak of 100 consecutive majors, starting with the 2001 British Open Championship. Clark was 7 years old at the time.
30. Music break! Below is Joel’s song No.2.
31. Scheffler thought this way. Although he wasn’t at his best, he tied for 4th place. That’s probably the best sign of who he is – just three players beat a fully charged Scheffler. That’s what Tiger did.
32. Scheffler will complete the Grand Slam next year.
33. What is his total over-under in the majors? He turned 30 on Sunday. Set the line to 7.5.
34. Will Bryson DeChambeau play in this weekend’s British Open and miss out on qualifying for every major tournament this year?
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35. I thought Jon Rahm would be in contention. He has had success with Poa Anua Green. However, he also missed the cut, playing the final 13 holes at 8 over par.
36. I’m about a 14 handicap. If I had been playing from the tips at Shinnecock and the wind had been terrible, I think I would have shot it – well, I would still have gone out.
37. I didn’t hear a single complaint about the course or setup, which was impressive considering everyone complained the last time Shiny hosted the US Open in 2018.
38. The lack of fans on Saturday was strange. I think there were about a dozen people in the audience following the second to last group.
39. I learned all about the “trade parade” traffic conditions in the area. Our lodging for the week was 19 miles from Shinnecock, and it took us an hour and a half to get to the course on Thursday. Saturday and Sunday? 20 minutes.
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40. Matt Fitzpatrick will win next month’s British Open Championship.
41. Lydia Ko won this week’s Women’s PGA and will now win four of the five women’s majors.
42. Music break! Below is Joel’s song number 3.
43. Here are some of this week’s favorite articles from GOLF.com’s on-site staff. I hope you liked my story about Sveinsson, the first Icelander from my batch to play in the US Open.
44. Michael Bamberger’s story about Clark was great.
45. Alan Bastable’s story about John Shippen was great.
46. Josh Berhow’s story here to close out the tournament was great.
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47. James Colgan’s story about the Turnesa family was great.
48. His story about Niemann’s penalty from Sean Zach was great.
49. The video below from videographers Darren Riehl and Emma Devine of Sunday’s play was great.
50. Wednesday I leave for another U.S. Open course, Pinehurst. This trip is a boys’ trip with my nephew, who just graduated from high school, and I. If there’s anything you need to do while you’re out, let us know at nick.piastowski@golf.com.
bonus! It’s story time on Long Island. That will tell you a little bit about me and also a little bit about the people here.
After graduating from college, I interned for a summer at Newsday Newspaper. The experience was amazing. We played at Bethpage. Ate at Friendly’s
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I went to some kind of club.
My internship training was in Philadelphia, and after driving out, another out-of-town intern and I looked for a place to grab a drink. We didn’t do any research, this was years ago when everyone had cell phones, but we found a place that looked like a busy road and saw a sign that said “Restaurant and Bar”. Hey, Applebee’s is a restaurant and bar. we pulled up. There was Valentine’s Day. Hmm, maybe it was something more luxurious. we went inside. There was a $50 cover charge. Oddly enough, New York is expensive.
I lined up at the bar and ordered a Long Island Iced Tea. I felt like I needed to do that. Anything. A woman was dancing on the right. Hmm.
To my left, my intern friend was frozen in place. She motioned for us to look behind us.
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The number of dancers has increased.
But I don’t have any clothes.
On our way out, another naked employee seemed to realize what had happened and told us about another bar just down the street.
Friendly people here.
The post Boo Windham Clark, Shinny, Trade Parade: 50 Thoughts on the U.S. Open appeared first on Golf.
