Fans ejected as Wyndham Clark faces heckling at U.S. Open final round

Wyndham Clark’s bid for a wire-to-wire U.S. Open title was met by a gallery that crossed from noise into removal, with multiple fans kicked out early Sunday at Shinnecock Hills after heckling the leader. NBC confirmed that spectators were escorted out after similar remarks, as the final round in Southampton, New York turned into a test of how much crowd energy golf can absorb before it starts to distort the competition.

Clark entered the last 18 holes with a six-shot lead after 54 holes, the fourth-largest 54-hole advantage in U.S. Open history. The USGA said he was trying to become the first wire-to-wire U.S. Open champion in 12 years, a distinction that made every shouted comment feel louder and every mistake more consequential. Scottie Scheffler, the world No. 1, was in the final pairing and chasing the career Grand Slam, adding even more pressure and attention to the top of the board.

The heckling was not subtle. Fans shouted, “Don’t choke Wyndham!” and “Get in the bunker!” as Clark played through the final round, and the hostility appeared targeted rather than spontaneous. Golf has long depended on a kind of silence that lets concentration hold, but Sunday’s scene showed how easily that norm can be broken when spectators treat a championship like a spectacle to shape rather than a contest to witness.

Some of the animus traced back to Clark’s locker-room outburst at Oakmont last year, after he missed the cut by one stroke at the U.S. Open and damaged lockers. Oakmont Country Club later banned him from the property, and later reports said access would require repayment for damages, a charity donation and anger-management counseling. Clark has publicly said he was “embarrassed and ashamed” about the incident, and that history hovered over the final round whether the crowd intended it or not.

Before Sunday, Clark said he wanted to “win back the fans,” but he also called Saturday’s atmosphere “unfortunate” and “flat,” a sign of how hard it can be to settle into a major championship when the noise turns personal. The ejections at Shinnecock Hills drew a sharper boundary: fan intensity may be part of modern sports, but when it becomes targeted heckling or behavior that materially affects play, tournament officials are now more willing to step in.