CaddyBytes

2026 U.S. Open Final Round Recap & Highlights

The 126th U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills closed with Wyndham Clark back on top of the championship stage. What looked like a runaway six-shot lead entering Sunday turned into a full final-round stress test, but Clark survived the squeeze and finished at 4-under after rounds of 64-69-70-73 for a 276 total, one shot clear of Sam Burns.

CaddyBytes ⛳ 2026 U.S. Open Final Round Recap: Sunday at Shinnecock started with the broadcast reminder that this championship does not play favorites. Clark had a six-shot cushion, but a U.S. Open lead is never truly safe when the greens are firming, the wind is working, and every missed fairway can turn into a survival hole.

Clark began the day at 7-under with Scottie Scheffler in the final pairing, and the early story had all the pressure angles: Scheffler chasing a major, Clark trying to join the two-time U.S. Open champion list, and Shinnecock waiting to see whether the leader would blink. The round did not stay comfortable for long.

Sam Burns made the championship come alive. He started the day six back, then kept stacking pressure with aggressive iron play and clutch putting. The highlight stretch showed him getting within five early, capitalizing at the par-5 fifth, then rolling in a long birdie at the eighth from roughly 49 feet to tighten the board. Suddenly Clark’s lead was no longer a cushion. It was a fight.

Clark’s middle stretch became the danger zone. A few of the par-save miracles that had protected him earlier in the week stopped falling, and the lead was cut all the way to one shot. That was the moment the final round shifted from procession to championship test. Burns was charging, several players still believed they had a path, and every Clark swing carried scoreboard weight.

The shot that defined Clark’s Sunday came late. After finding trouble off the tee, he muscled the ball out of the rough, worked it onto the green to a place most players would have been happy to two-putt from, and then poured in the birdie. It was the kind of major-championship moment that turns a shaky lead back into a winning one — not perfect golf, but tough, timely golf.

Burns still would not go away. He kept attacking through the closing stretch, hit the shots he had to hit, and had a late look that could have pulled him level. His closing 67 was the best score among the top finishers on the board and nearly stole the championship. Instead, he finished alone in second at 3-under, one shot short after rounds of 71-68-71-67.

Tom Kim finished third at 1-under after a closing 70, staying inside the top three while the course kept taking shots from most of the leaderboard. Scheffler could not turn the final pairing into a Sunday charge, but a closing 71 left him tied for fourth at even par with Keith Mitchell and JT Poston.

The board behind them had plenty of Sunday movement. Joaquin Niemann closed with 66, while Tyrrell Hatton and JT Poston each shot 67. Gary Woodland and Justin Rose posted 68s, and Tommy Fleetwood, John Parry, Aaron Rai, and Rose all ended the week tied for 11th at 2-over.

Final-round takeaway: Clark did not cruise to the trophy. He had to protect it. Burns turned the final round into a real chase, Scheffler never found the full Sunday run from the final pairing, and Kim stayed steady enough to finish third. In the end, Clark’s week was built on the same formula that wins U.S. Opens: survive the bad patches, take the few birdies the course gives, and keep the disaster number off the card.

Championship summary: The 2026 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills belongs to Wyndham Clark at 4-under. After opening with a brilliant 64, holding the lead through the weekend, and surviving a final-round push from Burns, Clark finishes as a two-time U.S. Open champion with one of the more stressful one-shot wins a six-shot Sunday lead can produce.

Video courtesy of USGA / YouTube.