Wyndham Clark knew he wasn’t the fan favorite at the U.S. Open — even among his fellow PGA Tour players.
The first-time major championship winner spoke with SiriusXM Radio on Wednesday and said that during his historic victory, the crowd was decidedly not on his side — and admitted he was a little “pissed off” to hear everyone chanting for Rory McIlroy and Rickie Fowler.
“It kind of pissed me off walking around and everyone was chanting ‘Rickie’ and ‘Rory’ and I get it, they’re fan favorites, but everyone kind of wrote me off,” Clark said.
Clark, who entered golf’s third major at Los Angeles Country Club as a relative long shot to win the tournament, ended up finishing one stroke ahead of McIlroy and five ahead of Fowler — the latter of whom shot a U.S. Open record-tying 62 on the opening day of the tournament.
Clark began Sunday tied with Fowler — who despite top-three finishes at all four majors has yet to win one — and one ahead of McIlroy, who hasn’t won a major since the 2014 PGA Championship.
Fans in attendance at LACC were clearly pulling for the other two contenders over Clark — and even the PGA Tour pros who were watching from afar seemed to count the eventual champion out.
“Even JT in his tweet was like: ‘I see Xander coming out hot’ and this and that, no mention of me and I was like: ‘Alright, boys, you know, get ready for it,'” Clark told SiriusXM.
“JT” refers to two-time major winner Justin Thomas, who sent out a tweet on Sunday as the leaders were getting set to tee off mentioning just about everyone in contention besides Clark.
“Front 9 full of fireworks. I think Xander makes a run, Rory gets off to a hot start, becomes a 2 man battle between Rory and Rick. Whoever plays 13-16 the best is in the driver seat. My guess is Rick gets it done at -11. Excited to watch!” Thomas tweeted.
Coincidentally, after Clark’s comments, he and Thomas were paired together for the first round of the Travelers Championship on Thursday — and the two had a comical exchange on the green in the early going after Clark asked Thomas to mark his ball.
“Guy wins one f–king US Open and I gotta mark it from 80 yards,” Thomas was caught saying on a hot mic during the ESPN+ broadcast.