One of the most fundamental pillars in sports is that every single fan has the right, and maybe even a responsibility of sorts, to pick a side. Sometimes the side you choose wins, and sometimes it loses.
In golf, the latter happens far more often than the former, but sometimes an outlier emerges where the typical formula is flipped on its head, and a player almost nobody latched onto is left standing in the winner’s circle all by their lonesome.
Wyndham Clark was that outlier at the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills, and it’s a role he not only looked comfortable playing across four days and 72 holes of major championship golf, but one he had to play.
Beyond the typical touch of arrogance and brashness that we see from various figures in sports deemed a “villain” by the masses — who it’s worth pointing out almost always enjoy success — Clark has well-accounted-for baggage.
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During the final round of the 2025 PGA Championship, Clark violently threw his driver behind him after an errant tee shot. The club ended up breaking, and the head of the club went through an advertisement sign just a few feet away from a volunteer on the tee box. He apologized for the incident the next day.
Just a month later, after missing the cut by a shot at the 2025 U.S. Open at Oakmont, Clark took apart two lockers inside the clubhouse in frustration. Weeks after damaging the lockers, Oakmont barred him from the property.
Clark first apologized for the incident at Oakmont the following week at the Travelers Championship, and has done so on multiple occasions since, while explaining that he regretted his actions.
Clark has done what anyone else in his situation would do: continue to apologize, begin to say the right things and try to move past the very public mistakes.
Actions, however, do have consequences, and when a former major champion throws a driver through a sign and destroys two lockers inside a clubhouse, the consequence is the removal of the benefit of the doubt.
The reality is that Clark’s apologies fell on deaf ears, and no matter how genuine a message he’s tried to articulate about regretting his mistakes, the public’s mind has been made up. Fair or unfair, Clark has dues to pay.
There are easier places to start paying those dues than a U.S. Open at Shinnecock, but it’s fair to say he put down quite the down payment with his performance.
From the moment Clark grabbed the lead on Thursday and the first round ended with him four shots clear of the field, the pitchforks were out, and they only got sharper as the week went on. From fans to legacy media to non-traditional media, every corner in the golf space was filled with people actively pulling for Wyndham to implode with the sense of pride unlike anything in recent memory.
Given the sheer volume of it, you couldn’t help but become numb to all the vitriol towards Clark on social media through the opening three rounds.
WYNDHAM CLARK SURVIVES HOSTILE CROWD AND SAM BURNS CHARGE TO WIN SECOND US OPEN AT SHINNECOCK HILLS
While Clark passed his first three tests of the week and carried a six-shot lead into the final round, Sunday’s dose of hatred made the previous three days look like a post-dinner stroll in a gated community. But again, one of the key pillars in sports is choosing a side, and it just so happened that nine out of every 10 fans on property at Shinnecock on Sunday chose violence against Clark.
Countless shouts for his ball to find a bunker the millisecond after he made contact with it, cheers when an approach shot rolled off the putting surface, and minor roars after each of his five bogeys during the final round. NBC reported during the telecast that some fans who were shouting things at Clark were removed from the property by authorities.
Before Clark had even made the turn on Sunday, the classless crowd had lost containment, and Clark was paying his dues in the form of taking every lick imaginable from the galleries while trying to become a two-time U.S. Open champion.
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Sunday was an 18-round fight Clark would have never signed up for, but it was the only one in which he could actually convey an impactful message.
Just like Clark’s outbursts at last year’s PGA Championship and U.S. Open resulted in consequences for his actions, the same can be said for his resume. As a former Ryder Cup player who won the U.S. Open in 2023 and has a pair of signature event victories on the PGA Tour, Clark wasn’t going to suddenly start getting back into any good graces of fans by getting into the mix on some minor stage.
No, Clark was going to have to run through a fire to see what was on the other side, and what has to be there after going wire-to-wire at Shinnecock Hills for his second major title is respect.
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You can not like Wyndham Clark; you can fault him for his actions and how he handled himself in the immediate aftermath. You can choose not to believe anything he says is sincere, and that his two mistakes at previous majors simply reflect who he is.
That would be a bit harsh and even more hypocritical as one human to another, but that’s all fine — you have the right as a sports fan to pick your side. It doesn’t mean you can’t also tip your cap to what Clark accomplished at one of the game’s most iconic venues with the entire world seemingly rooting for his demise.
As cliché as it sounds, maybe Clark successfully playing the role he forced himself into is a sign of him maturing as a person. Only time and future actions will tell, and the golf world will undoubtedly be tuning into one of the sport’s true characters.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. — On another day in another world, the talk Sunday afternoon might have centered on lethargic Belgium, which looked so beatable, or the heroic play of Iranian keeper Alireza Beiranvand, who made one of the saves of the tournament to help salvage a scoreless draw.
But here came Iranian coach Amir Ghalenoei to shatter the illusion that the afternoon might be about the game itself.
“We were in war conditions for six months, we didn’t have our league operating,” Ghalenoei said. “We had only one FIFA [friendly] date and it took us 40 hours to go and play a match outside of Iran. And our league was not operating and everybody knows about the visa situation, and they know what happened to us coming to the U.S.”
Just like Iran’s opening match here at the renamed Los Angeles Stadium, Ghalenoei said Iran had travel issues and was told it needed to return to its base camp in Tijuana immediately after the game instead of staying the night to recover.
(The fact that flying after the game and recovering afterward is normal practice for many teams — the USMNT, for example, did so Friday after playing in Seattle — seems not to have entered this equation.)
“We’ve only been here 16 hours and we have to fly back at 4 p.m.,” Ghalenoei said. “We don’t even have enough time to recover. And our players have needed time to recover, to be prepared, but we need to go to the airport and go back to Tijuana.”
Whoever wins a group that looks wide open right now — Iran’s last game is against Egypt, Belgium’s against New Zealand — would be a likely Round of 16 opponent for the USMNT. If it’s Iran, that would be the most geopolitically meaningful sporting event in some time.
Every match of the FIFA World Cup will air on either FOX or FOX Sports 1. If you don’t have cable, you can take advantage of a DIRECTV free trial to stream it all.
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If anything, Iran could have been disappointed it didn’t win Sunday. Beiranvand’s save on Maxime De Cuyper in the 59th minute, getting his hand to a shot after having dived the opposite way, kept the game scoreless before Iran played the last 24 minutes up a man after Nathan Ngoy was red-carded for denying Mehdi Taremi a clear goal-scoring opportunity.
The Belgians could rightly claim to have had more opportunities — and far more possession — before then. But without star winger Jeremy Doku (respiratory infection), the Red Devils played without pace and lacked creativity.
Though Belgium will be favored to beat New Zealand and ultimately reach the knockouts, two draws from two games in what looked like a winnable group should leave the team plenty nervous.
“We should have won this match today but when there are so few matches in the group you cannot miss an opportunity and we did,” Belgium coach Rudi Garcia said. “We have to show our best football. We have a lot of work [to do].”

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Omaha police identify woman killed in Saturday shooting
Omaha police have identified the woman shot and killed on Saturday morning near 24th and Lake Streets.
Omaha police have identified the woman shot and killed on Saturday morning near 24th and Lake Streets.That woman is being identified as Jamise Thompson, 28. According to police, Thompson was taken to the hospital with multiple gunshot wounds after a shooting near 24th and Lake around 3:15 a.m. on Saturday. She later died from her injuries.Omaha police said a 16-year-old was found near Florence Boulevard and Lake Street. He was also taken to the hospital, but he is expected to survive.Anyone with any information is asked to contact Omaha Crime Stoppers at 402-444-STOP.Make sure you can always see the latest news, weather, sports and more from KETV NewsWatch 7 on Google search.NAVIGATE: Home | Weather | Local News | National | Sports | Newscasts on demand |
Omaha police have identified the woman shot and killed on Saturday morning near 24th and Lake Streets.
That woman is being identified as Jamise Thompson, 28.
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According to police, Thompson was taken to the hospital with multiple gunshot wounds after a shooting near 24th and Lake around 3:15 a.m. on Saturday. She later died from her injuries.
Omaha police said a 16-year-old was found near Florence Boulevard and Lake Street. He was also taken to the hospital, but he is expected to survive.
Anyone with any information is asked to contact Omaha Crime Stoppers at 402-444-STOP.
Make sure you can always see the latest news, weather, sports and more from KETV NewsWatch 7 on Google search.
NAVIGATE: Home | Weather | Local News | National | Sports | Newscasts on demand |

The mayor of San Antonio has called for the cancelation of Kanye West’s concert at the city’s Alamodome, scheduled for the Fourth of July.
Weeks after Florida senator Rick Scott urged the Tampa Sports Authority to cancel West’s upcoming concerts at Raymond James Stadium, San Antonio Gina Ortiz Jones similarly lobbied against the rapper performing in the Texas city.
“I support canceling the @kanyewest concert,” Jones wrote on social media. “Military City USA should not host someone with a record of hate speech and antisemitic comments in a city-funded facility like our Alamodome—not ever, and certainly not on July 4th, our Nation’s 250th birthday.”
The rapper’s recent tour has been plagued with cancelations due to West’s history of antisemitism. In April, Wireless Festival, the music festival set to take place in London’s Finsbury Park neighborhood, canceled this year’s event — which was to be headlined by West — after the country denied his visa. Shortly after, the rapper’s planned concert in Poland was also canceled in connection to his antisemitic comments and praising of Nazism.
In January, West published a full-page Wall Street Journal advertisement apologizing for years of antisemitic and other controversial comments. The rapper linked his outbursts to a long history of mental health struggles that left him in a “fractured state,” during which “I gravitated toward the most destructive symbol I could find, the swastika, and even sold T-shirts bearing it,” he said. “I regret and am deeply mortified by my actions in that state, and am committed to accountability, treatment, and meaningful change. It does not excuse what I did, though. I am not a Nazi or an antisemite. I love Jewish people.”
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Despite his apology, West has continued to find opposition when scheduling his world tour, though he’s still managed to perform this year in countries like Turkey, the Netherlands, and Georgia, as well as Inglewood, California’s SoFi Stadium.
Despite both Scott’s and Ortiz Jones’ protestations, West is still scheduled to perform in Tampa Bay on June 26 and 28, as well on San Antonio on July 4. “Standing up to antisemitism is exactly what it takes to achieve a more perfect Union,” Ortiz Jones added.

Spain will look for a stronger showing in their second match as they take on Saudi Arabia in Group H action on Sunday. Spain, the pre-tournament favorite, were forced to settle for a scoreless draw with Cabo Verde in their opener. Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, finished in a 1-1 draw with Uruguay, leaving Group H wide open as each squad has just one point entering Sunday.
Kickoff for Spain vs. Saudi Arabia is noon ET from Atlanta Stadium. The latest Spain vs. Saudi Arabia odds from FanDuel Sportsbook list the Spaniards as -1100 favorites (risk $1,100 to win $100) on the 90-minute money line, with Saudi Arabia at +2000 and a draw at +1100. The over/under for total goals is 3.5. Mikel Oyarzabal has the shortest odds as an anytime goal scorer at -160, with Lamine Yamal at -135.
Before locking in any Spain vs. Saudi Arabia picks or World Cup 2026 predictions, you need to see what proven soccer expert Martin Green has to say.
After working in the sports betting industry for several years, Green became a professional sports writer and handicapper and has covered the game worldwide. Last year, Green was profitable in multiple areas on his soccer picks, including the Champions League (+211.25) and Bundesliga (+100). He’s also been red-hot in 2026, posting an 18-8 record over his last 26 UCL picks, returning nearly $1,000 in profit. Anyone following could have seen HUGE returns!
Now Green has turned his attention to Saudi Arabia vs. Spain in the 2026 World Cup, and revealed his best bets.
One of Green’s Spain vs. Saudi Arabia predictions: He is leaning Under on total goals (3.5), as he believes Spain have a chance to keep a clean sheet, but is unsure if they will fully fix their own offensive woes in this matchup.
Green has found a critical x-factor and locked in two best bets as well!
What are the best bets for Spain vs. Saudi Arabia? … Join SportsLine now to see Martin Green’s best bets for Spain vs. Saudi Arabia, all from the soccer expert who is on an 18-8 run on UCL picks!