CNN
 — 

American golfer Wyndham Clark has reportedly been banned from Oakmont Country Club after he allegedly damaged the club’s venerated locker room at June’s US Open.

According to a letter from Oakmont Country Club president John Lynch sent to members that Golf Digest – which, like CNN, is part of Warner Bros. Discovery – obtained, the decision was made because of Clark’s “recent behavior.”

“Several of you have inquired about the situation involving Wyndham Clark and the steps being taken in response to his recent behavior. Following multiple discussions with the USGA and the OCC Board, a decision has been made that Mr. Clark will no longer be permitted on OCC property,” the letter said.

“This decision will remain in effect unless formally reconsidered and approved by the Board. Reinstatement would be contingent upon Mr. Clark fulfilling a number of specific conditions, including full repayment for damages, a meaningful contribution to a charity of the Board’s choosing, and the successful completion of counseling and/or anger management sessions.”

CNN Sports has contacted Oakmont Country Club for comment.

When approached by CNN Sports, the United States Golf Association – the governing body of golf in the US – declined to comment.

The course at Oakmont frustrated many of the world’s best golfers at this year’s US Open and only one player, winner J.J. Spaun, finished under par.

In what were tricky conditions, Clark – who won the US Open in 2023 – did not make the cut to play over the weekend and finished at 8-over par.

Following his missed cut, reports on social media circulated that Clark had caused damage to Oakmont’s lockers after one of his rounds. At the Travelers Championship in Connecticut a week later, Clark apologized for his actions.

“I’ve had a lot of highs and lows in my career, especially this year, some lows. I made a mistake that I deeply regret. I’m very sorry for what happened,” the 31-year-old told reporters at the tournament.

“But I’d also like to move on, not only for myself but for Oakmont, for the USGA, and kind of focus on the rest of this year and things that come up. I still want to try to make the Ryder Cup team. I still am on the outside looking in for the FedEx Cup. So I’m starting to move on and focus on those things.”

He was far from alone in his anger last weekend. Many players were seen throwing clubs, slamming them in frustration, and cursing the brutal course.

It’s not the first time this season Clark has expressed his anger on the course. At the 2025 PGA Championship, the world No. 28 threw his club after a drive, damaging a tee box.

Oakmont Country Club is next set to host the US Open in 2033. Clark will have an exception to qualify for the tournament through his 2023 victory.

CNN
 — 

Another major championship means another opportunity for Scottie Scheffler.

The 29-year-old world No. 1, who won his third major at May’s PGA Championship at Quail Hollow Golf Club, is favored to win this week’s Open Championship at Royal Portrush.

By winning, Scheffler would continue the trajectory he has been on over the last three-and-a-half years, aided by a patient approach to the game that’s led to 16 PGA Tour wins, three majors and counting.

If he were to capture a fourth major title in Northern Ireland, Scheffler would add to his growing resume. The list of men’s golfers capturing four major titles includes Old and Young Tom Morris – the father-son duo that hailed from the home of golf in St. Andrews, Scotland – and South African Ernie Els.

It would also be the third different major Scheffler has won, leaving him a US Open victory shy of the career grand slam. Only Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy have won all four men’s professional majors.

That doesn’t mean all that much to Scheffler, who rarely discusses the historical stakes of his victories. During his news conference at Royal Portrush on Tuesday, he discussed how quickly the satisfaction of winning dissipates.

“It’s great to win tournaments. It’s a lot of fun,” Scheffler told reporters. “Sometimes, the feeling only lasts about two minutes, it seems like, when you’re celebrating, and then it’s like, OK, now you’ve got to go do all this other stuff, which is great, but sometimes the feeling of winning only lasts a few seconds. It’s pretty exciting and fun, but it just doesn’t last that long.”

Scheffler’s unique admission hinted at a trait of his that has helped him reach his very best on the course.

One reason why Scheffler got to this point, and why he is the favorite this week, is his patience on the course. It is a mindset that was evident during his latest major victory.

Through two rounds of the PGA Championship in May, Scheffler was three strokes back of leader Kim Si-woo. He had not played superbly: he doubled bogeyed the 16th hole on the Thursday and admitted after his opening round he had room for improvement.

In the third round, Scheffler played his first 13 holes in one-under and sat two shots back of Bryson DeChambeau. But he took advantage of the next five holes, carding eagle on the drivable par-four 14th and birdie on 15, 17 and 18.

Scheffler put, and kept, himself in contention over the first 49 holes. However, those final five holes on the Saturday are what put him in control.

The final round was a challenge, as Scheffler was two-over on the front nine and briefly fell into a tie with Spain’s Jon Rahm.

Once again, though, he closed strong with a two-under 34 on the back nine. When he tapped in to close out the five-stroke win, Scheffler hugged his caddie, Ted Scott, raised his arms in the air and slammed his cap on the ground.

His focus and patience had, once again, paid off.

“When I stepped on the tee on Thursday, I’m not thinking about what’s going to happen on Sunday,” Scheffler told reporters after winning the tournament. “I’m preparing for a 72-hole event. That’s what I tell myself on the first tee: it’s 72 holes. That’s a lot of time. That’s a lot of holes. That’s a lot of shots.”

Scheffler’s patient approach has garnered praise from his peers. In a documentary released by the PGA Tour chronicling Scheffler’s 2024 season, a host of pros – including two-time major winner Collin Morikawa and Sweden’s Ludvig Åberg – heaped adulation on Scheffler’s patience and focus.

Woods, a winner of 82 PGA Tour events and 15 majors, even compared Scheffler’s mindset to his own.

“It’s over 72 holes, it’s not a sprint, this is over a marathon,” Woods said. “I think there’s the similarity between how we play the game.”

That mentality has shined throughout the last three-and-a-half years. It took a while, though, for Scheffler to develop it.

“I think when I was young, I would either hold it in or kind of blow up,” Scheffler said Tuesday. “Now, I think I do a better job of holding it in but also getting it over to the next shot and almost sharpening my focus to where I’m in a better spot after a bit of frustration than I am before, if that makes sense.”

Before the 2022 WM Phoenix Open, Scheffler was one of the best players on the PGA Tour without a victory. He won Rookie of the Year honors in 2020 and finished in the top 20 in all six majors he competed in across 2020 and 2021. He was also part of the victorious US team at the 2021 Ryder Cup, knocking off Rahm, then the top player in the Official World Golf Ranking, in the singles portion.

But Scheffler’s playoff victory against Patrick Cantlay in Phoenix was a launching pad.

“Definitely nice to get my first win under the belt, and I think the first one is probably always the hardest,” Scheffler told reporters at the time.

Scheffler won three more tournaments in 2022, including his first major at the Masters, and two tournaments in 2023, including the Players Championship.

In 2024, Scheffler was a machine. He won eight times, including a gold medal at the Paris Olympics, the Masters, the Players Championship and the Tour Championship – the last of which netted him the FedEx Cup and its $25 million payout. He became the first player to win at least seven events since Woods did so in 2007.

His encore this year was delayed by a month, due to a hand injury he suffered while making ravioli for Christmas dinner. While Scheffler hadn’t nabbed a victory by the end of April – he already won four times by that point a year prior – his worst finish was a tie for 25th at the WM Phoenix Open. He also finished fourth in his title defense at the Masters, three shots behind the victorious McIlroy.

In early May, Scheffler won the CJ Cup Byron Nelson tournament by eight strokes; his 31-under-par 253 total is the lowest 72-hole mark in PGA Tour history.

His PGA Championship victory two weeks later in Charlotte made him the third player since World War II to win three majors and 15 or more PGA Tour events before turning 29. The other two? Nicklaus and Woods.

His repeat victory at Nicklaus’ Memorial Tournament made it three wins in four tournaments. He and McIlroy are the only players to win three times on tour this season.

If Scheffler were to win this weekend, his 2025 season would match up favorably to 2024. This would be his first season with two major victories and would continue the rise that Scheffler himself cannot fully comprehend.

However, he has maintained that golf is not his primary focus. His wife, Meredith, son, Bennett, and his faith all usurp his day job.

“To have that kind of sense of accomplishment, I think, is a pretty cool feeling,” Scheffler said Tuesday. “To get to live out your dreams is very special, but at the end of the day, I’m not out here to inspire the next generation of golfers. I’m not out here to inspire someone to be the best player in the world because what’s the point?

“This is not a fulfilling life. It’s fulfilling from the sense of accomplishment, but it’s not fulfilling from a sense of the deepest places of your heart.”

One thing is for sure – all eyes will be on the favorite Scheffler to earn his first Open Championship this weekend.

CNN
 — 

Hands clasped to his head, knees pinned to the emerald turf, chest convulsing in frenetic, ragged breaths, Rory McIlroy looked like a man subjugated by the weight of the world. Then, he propped himself upright, lifted his head skyward and unleashed a primal, fist-pumping roar that reverberated with the release of a seemingly indomitable burden.

The images of McIlroy winning The Masters, finally capturing his white whale after a 17-year pursuit fraught with heartbreak, and the unbridled celebrations that followed will likely live long in the memory of anyone who followed that near-cinematic Sunday afternoon at Augusta National in April.

Eyes welling up with tears as he discussed the prospect of celebrating with his parents back home in Northern Ireland, the raw intensity of McIlroy’s body language was a fitting reflection of the summit he had just scaled. Victory had stamped his ticket for entry into the sport’s most illustrious member’s club as just the sixth men’s golfer to complete the career grand slam of all four majors.

Yet McIlroy isn’t done soul stirring. Far from it, the green jacket’s newest recipient believes that winning the Open Championship on home turf at Royal Portrush come Sunday could well top the realization of that “lifelong dream” three months ago.

“I think it would be just as emotional, if not more emotional, to do that than what I did in Augusta … and everyone saw the mess I was after that,” the 36-year-old told BBC Sport on Monday.

‘A win has the chance to resonate louder and longer’

Born and raised some 60 miles (96 kilometers) away in Holywood, a small town of little over 10,000 people just a 15-minute drive from the hubbub of the capital Belfast, McIlroy was always guaranteed to receive a hero’s welcome at the 153rd edition of the major this week.

Yet the magnitude of his spring success has only ratcheted up the fervor on Antrim’s north coast, with as many as 290,000 spectators expected to brave rain and biting coastal winds to watch the game’s best take on the testing Dunluce Links course.

Even as the world No. 2 – barely 12 hours after finishing joint runner-up at the Scottish Open in North Berwick on Sunday – shrugged off four hours of sleep to be one of the first golfers out for Monday’s practice round, fans followed in droves.

Many were repaid for their dedication when the five-time major champion closed his session by penning autographs, with Masters merchandise among the items thrust over the barriers to be signed.

“I’m so grateful and appreciative of the support that I get from home, and they really make me feel that out there,” added McIlroy.

“That’s an amazing feeling to play in front of that and to experience that, and I want to embrace that this week.”

The depth of national pride for a 29-time PGA Tour winner who, long before his crowning at Augusta, had assembled a strong case to claim the title of Northern Ireland’s greatest ever sportsperson goes some way to explaining why a victory at Royal Portrush could be more emotional than his Masters title.

Because while he might have already lifted a Claret Jug at Royal Liverpool in 2014 and completed the set 11 years later, a home major has the potential to top it all, believes Golf Digest senior writer Joel Beall.

“For what it means to him as a player, the Masters was always going to be more important,” Beall told CNN Sports.

“He had so many disappointments there, and it was standing in the way of the grand slam. But on a personal level, to do this in his childhood backyard, a win has the chance to resonate louder and longer than Augusta.”

The emotional stakes are also raised by the fact that McIlroy, as he did at Augusta, has psychological scar tissue from Royal Portrush.

It had started so well. Aged just 16, McIlroy had consolidated his reputation as a burgeoning golf phenom when he tore round Dunluce Links in a course record 11-under 61 at the 2005 North of Ireland Championship.

Though Ireland’s Shane Lowry holds the current all-time low-score after shooting 63 en route to Open triumph in 2019 following extensive renovations to the course earlier that year, McIlroy’s teenage achievement endures as a seminal chapter of his fabled career.

Yet as long-time friend Lowry powered to glory, McIlroy didn’t even make the weekend on the major’s long-awaited return to the venue. After decades of sectarian violence known as “the Troubles” had seen The Open kept away from Northern Ireland, McIlroy had been the center of attention as Royal Portrush played host for the first time since 1951, only to see his tournament instantly derailed by an opening quadruple-bogey eight.

After a closing triple-bogey saw the home star sign off with an eight-over 79, even a superb six-under 65 was not enough to make the cut, with McIlroy left fighting tears having missed out on the weekend by a single stroke.

Caught off guard by the ovation he received on the first tee six years ago, the five-time major champion believes he is now better prepared to not just deal with, but embrace, the adoration from behind the ropes.

“I was still a little surprised and a little taken aback like, ‘Geez, these people really want me to win,’” McIlroy recalled to reporters on Monday.

“I think that brought its own sort of pressure and more internally from myself and not really wanting to let people down. I learned pretty quickly that one of my challenges, especially in a week like this, is controlling myself and controlling that battle.

“I probably tried to isolate, and I think it’s better for everyone if I embrace it,” McIlroy added later. “It’s nice to be able to accept adulation, even though I struggle with it at times, but it’s also nice for the person that is seeing you for the first time in a few years. It just makes for a better interaction.”

Just how much inspiration McIlroy can extract from those interactions could hold the key to his hopes this week, Beall says.

“Rory now realizes what he does is a communal experience,” he told CNN Sports. “Harnessing that energy, letting it be an asset instead of a weight, will go a ways in determining how he does.”

McIlroy’s second place finish in Scotland on Sunday, two shots behind American Chris Gotterup, hinted at a timely return to his best play after what had been – by his golden standards – a slump in form.

The slam capture had sparked some predictions that a “shackles-off” McIlroy, who had already won the Pebble Beach Pro-Am and The Players Championship in a surging start to the year, could pave the way for a multiple-major season.

Yet a tied-47th finish at the PGA Championship was followed by a tied-19th outing at the US Open, and sandwiched by a missed cut at the Canadian Open. Resetting goals after the euphoria of The Masters had been a struggle, McIlroy admitted Monday.

“Talk about the pressure being off, yes, but anyone that sits up here at this table, we’re all competitors. We all want to do better. We all think we can just get a little bit extra out of what we have,” he said.

“I probably just didn’t give myself enough time to let it all sink in. But that’s the nature of professional golf. They do a very good job of keeping you on the hamster wheel, and you feel like it’s hard to get off at times, but it’s been an amazing year.”

With the small matter of a Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black in New York still to come in late September, there is ample opportunity for McIlroy to pen yet more history in 2025.

“I still feel like there’s a lot left in there,” he said. “The story certainly isn’t over.”