Wyndham Clark, past champs among those smiling after long day at soft Shinnecock

SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. – When the horn blew for darkness Thursday evening at Shinnecock Hills, the first page of this U.S. Open leaderboard read more like the silver trophy up for grabs this week:

>Wyndham Clark.

>Matt Fitzpatrick.

>Jon Rahm.

>Dustin Johnson.

>Gary Woodland.

>Rory McIlroy.

>Bryson DeChambeau.

>Not exactly the company in which you’d expect to find the guy with the crappy attitude. Yet, there Sam Stevens was, tied for second and the clubhouse co-leader after a 2-under 68.

>“I wouldn’t say I’m surprised,” Stevens said.

>But who was he kidding? The 29-year-old Stevens was a reserve on Oklahoma State’s 2018 NCAA Championship squad before dominating the mini-tours and earning his way to the PGA Tour four years ago. He’s played in seven majors before this week, never missing a cut, while reaching a career-best 39th in the world earlier this year. But Stevens’ surge has stalled in recent weeks, bottoming out at the Memorial Tournament, where Stevens missed the cut, losing nearly three strokes to the field each day and beating only three guys.

>Stevens skipped last week’s RBC Canadian Open, instead retreating home to Wichita, Kansas, with seemingly everything short of a bag full of broken clubs.

>“I've had a really crappy attitude,” Stevens admitted. “It’s kind of one of those things; it’s been a long season. … It's easy to get worn down a little bit, and I just haven't been as on top of keeping a good attitude as I should have been.”

>The time off with wife, Kelsey, and their four boys clearly recharged Stevens; he double-bogeyed his first hole of this championship on Thursday morning, needing over two hours to hit his first two shots thanks to a lengthy fog delay, then played his remaining 17 holes in 4 under with six birdies.

>“Weird start,” said Stevens, who was called off right before he attempted to swing a 6-iron to a flag that he couldn’t locate some 180 yards away at No. 10. When Stevens resumed his round, he couldn’t keep his second shot on the green, his ball riding the false front down to about 55 yards short of the flag. He then chunked the wedge shot, eventually holing out in six strokes.

>“But made a birdie on the very next hole, so it kind of felt like I settled in after that,” said Stevens, who was later matched by two Oklahoma Sooners, Max McGreevy and amateur Ryder Cowan, fresh off earning first-team All-America honors as a junior.

SOUTHAMPTON, NEW YORK - JUNE 18: Sam Stevens of the United States reacts after finishing his round on the ninth green during the first round of the 126th U.S. OPEN at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club on June 18, 2026 in Southampton, New York. (Photo by Mike Mulholland/Getty Images)

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With the USGA anticipating a windy championship, including gusts up to 40 mph on Thursday afternoon, Shinnecock was prepped cautiously. Add in a blanket of fog that didn’t fully burn off until mid-afternoon, and William Flynn’s design, though still plenty tough because of the blustery conditions, played softer than expected for the first round.

>McIlroy, who opened in 69, called the setup, which included green speed in the mid-10s, “prudent.”

>Brooks Koepka, the 2018 champion here who carded 73, had a different word for it.

>“It's just weird how soft the greens are,” Koepka said. “It's just odd. It's not what I remember. I mean, I understand why they're soft, I get that. It's not complaining. It's just a difficult day.”

>Shinnecock got progressively easier as the wind calmed in unison with the setting sun. Of the 17 players who enter Friday morning’s 6:30 a.m. restart under par, 11 of them had afternoon tee times on Thursday – all but two from that group were among the 50-plus players who didn't finish before the suspension.

>Fitzpatrick, Rahm, Johnson and Woodland are all 2 under with holes to play; Rahm only got in 13 holes.

>DeChambeau, through 16 holes, is among those at 1 under.

>They are all chasing Clark, who has in recent weeks rediscovered the form that helped him capture the U.S. Open three years ago at Los Angeles Country Club. Clark used a birdie-birdie-eagle stretch on the front side, his second nine, to push to 6 under and leads by four shots with two holes still to complete. Moments after the horn blew, Clark got up and down from a bunker to save par at the difficult, par-3 seventh, rolling in a tricky, 3-foot curler in the dark before heading inside.

>Clark knows a thing or two about crappy attitudes; he's had more than his fair share of unfortunate moments, including last year's missed-cut outburst at Oakmont that saw him leave behind two damaged lockers.

>"That was a really challenging time and something I've deeply regretted and feel awful that I did that," Clark said at the start of this week. "But there were so many good lessons in that that really taught me a bunch. I've really come a long way, and I'm excited for some redemption."

>He may polish Shinnecock's lockers tonight.