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 at Los Angeles Country Club, after surviving a tense final round Sunday with an even-par 70 to finish 10-under par, 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 tied for 76th in last year’s British Open.
Those results are irrelevant now.
Clark is a major champion, his life forever changed.
His life changed for the bad a decade ago when his mother, Lise, died at age 55 from breast cancer when Clark was in college. Losing her sent him into a tailspin of anger that lasted through college and into his early professional career.
Ten years after her death, Clark won a major championship for his mother.
“I know my mom is proud of me,’’ Clark said. “I just wish she could be here and we could enjoy this. All I really wish is that my mom could be here and I could just hug her and we could celebrate together. But I know she’s proud of me. My mom was so positive and such a motivator in what she did. She called me ‘Winner’ when I was little. She had that mantra of ‘play big.’ ’’
Clark played bigger than the biggest stars in the sport this week.
“I feel like I belong on this stage,’’ Clark said. “Even two, three years ago when people didn’t know who I was, I felt like I could still play and compete against the best players in the world. I felt like I’ve shown that this year. I’ve come close. Obviously, everyone sees the person that hoists the trophy, but I’ve been trending in the right direction for a long time now.’’
He bagged his first career PGA Tour victory last month at the Wells Fargo Championship, a result that fueled his confidence.
“Obviously, it’s gone faster than I thought,’’ he said. “But I feel like I’m one of the best players in the world. Obviously, this just shows what I believe can happen.’’
During a week that 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 has 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 Sunday while Clark did so.
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 with a wedge in hand.
The 14th was the pressure-point moment of the final round.
Moments after McIlroy walked disappointedly to the 15th tee with bogey, Clark drilled a 3-wood onto the 14th green with his second shot, leaving himself a 25-foot eagle putt. He would two-putt for birdie to get to 12-under par, three clear of McIlroy with four holes to play.
Though it was shaky, Clark hung on from there, surviving a bogey on the short par-3 15th, the only bogey carded on the hole all day, dropping his lead to two, and then another bogey on 16, shaving the lead over McIlroy to just one with two holes to play.
Clark responded to his hiccup on 16 with a marvelous up-and-down for par from off the green on 17 to maintain his lead.
And then on 18, with McIlroy in at 9-under and Clark needing the par of his life to secure victory, he hit the fairway off the tee and hit the green with his approach, 60 feet away from the cup and nestled his birdie putt to tap-in range for the win.
“Wyndham was pretty much rock solid all day, and that was a great two-putt at the last,’’ McIlroy said.
Clark embraced his caddie, John Ellis, an accomplished player himself, having played in the 2008 and 2011 U.S. Opens. The embrace was physical and it was long and there were tears.
Fowler, Clark’s playing partner for the day, congratulated him and said, “Your mom was with you. She’d be very proud.’’
“Play big,’’ Clark’s mother told her son before she died. “Play for something bigger than yourself.’’
Clark did.
He played bigger than anyone else on this pressure-packed day and he played for his mother.
