Wyndham Clark wasn't handed US Open, so let's give him the credit he deserves

Paul Lawrie probably knows how this one could play out. Instead of giving credit where credit is due, and in this instance we are talking, of course, about Wyndham Clark, the main focus as the dust settles on the 123rd US Open is going to be on Rory McIlroy.

Wyndham Clark shows off the trophy after winning the 123rd US Open at The Los Angeles Country Club. Picture: Andrew Redington/Getty Images.

In other words, not the player who deserves credit for pulling off a memorable maiden major win but the person most people thought would come out on top at the end of the final round at The Los Angeles Country Club but didn’t.

In 1999, Lawrie produced a brilliant closing 67 at Carnoustie before playing out of his skin in a four-hole play-off to win The Open, yet, to this day, the Aberdonian’s feat still isn’t acknowledged the way it should by some due to Jean van de Velde’s horror 72nd-hole.

There was no such late drama in California on Sunday but don’t be kidded into thinking that Clark only came out on top in the third major of the season due to shortcomings in McIlroy’s game.

Yes, the Northern Irishman’s putter turned cold at an inopportune time, as had been the case when he was also chasing victory in the final round of the 150th Open at St Andrews last July, and couldn’t buy a putt all day.

Overall, though, it was a polished closing effort as he hit 15 out of 18 greens in regulation and there was only one tee-to-green shot - his wedge from 125 yards that led to an untimely bogey at par-5 14th - that he’d want to hit again.

If you need convincing that he played well over the four days, McIlroy’s 271 total is the lowest in the history of the US Open by a player who didn’t win and that was down to the way Clark handled the biggest test by far of his career to date.

You wouldn’t have known that he’d missed the cut in four of his previous major appearances and finished T75 and T76 in the other two as he coolly went about his business. You also wouldn’t have known that, just a few weeks prior to being in this position, he’d not won on the PGA Tour before ticking that box in the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow.

In a moment of adversity, when he went completely under the ball in a barranca on the left side of the eighth green, he managed to limit the damage to just a bogey by playing a delightful fourth shot from the rough.

His up and down to save par from a nasty spot at the next hole was sheer brilliance and the one when emulating the feat two holes later even more impressive before displaying a silk-like touch once more at the 17th after a three-shot lead with four holes to play had suddenly become just one.

Yes, he was helped by the fact that McIlroy’s solitary birdie of the day came at the opening hole, world No 1 Scottie Scheffler putted poorly for a few holes, Rickie Fowler had an off day and Cameron Smith had been too far back at the start of the final circuit to lay a glove on him.

However, Clark never looked as though he didn’t feel comfortable being the person with a big target on his back for most of the day and his lag putt from 50 feet at the last to leave himself a tap-in for victory was a thing of beauty given what was at stake.

As, of course, was Lawrie’s 4-iron at the 18th in that play-off 24 years ago, when the Scot deserved his place in the limelight and now Clark does, too, because this major is about him now in terms of history and not about McIlroy.