Los Angeles—Wyndham Clark said he was operating on feel as he drained a six-foot birdie putt at 18 on Saturday to seize a share of the US Open lead as darkness fell in Los Angeles.
“We played twilight golf,” said Clark, who pulled level with Rickie Fowler at the last thanks to his birdie and Fowler’s bogey — the combination erasing Fowler’s two-shot lead.
The drama unfolded in waning light more than four hours after the two teed off at 3:40 pm at Los Angeles Country Club.
“It’s a little ridiculous that we teed off that late,” said Clark, who captured his first US PGA Tour title at Quail Hollow last month.
“I would say right around hole 15 or 16 it started getting to where you couldn’t see that well.
“I 100 percent think my bogey on 17 was because I couldn’t see, and I think Rickie’s bogey on 18 was because he couldn’t see.”
Clark was in the fairway off the tee at 17, but hit his second shot into the native scrub of a barranca.
He opted to take a penalty drop and limited the damage to a bogey.
“I’m not trying to make an excuse, but it definitely was a challenge,” he said. “My putt on 17, I literally couldn’t see it, and we just played off of feel and how Rickie’s putt came in, and then my putt on 18, same thing.”
Fowler didn’t mention the light, or lack thereof, when discussing his bogey at the last.
“I hit a good putt,” he said, but he added that he, too, was surprised that the round played so late in the day—finishing around 8:00 pm.
“If it was a Tour event and you were away from the clubhouse you’d be looking around for them to blow the horn,” he said.
Fowler and Clark will be teeing off an hour and 10 minutes earlier in the final group on Sunday, both in search of a first major title and trying to hold off four-time major winner Rory McIlroy and former Masters champion Scottie Scheffler. AFP