Golf Briefing ⛳ | This is The Athletic’s newsletter for the 2026 U.S. Open. Sign up here to receive the Golf Briefing directly in your inbox.Good evening! Alex here, tagging back in to tell you about moving day at the U.S. Open. We’ll also hear from Gabby, who’s been doing some of the best original reporting at Shinnecock Hills this week. But first, the 54-hole leaderboard:1. Wyndham Clark (-7)
T-2. Scottie Scheffler, Sahith Theegala, Tom Kim, Sam Stevens (-1)
T-6. Emiliano Grillo, Keith Michell, Sam Burns, Xander Schauffele (E)Moving Day: Wyndham, rewardedTime and again today, it looked like Wyndham Clark’s lead was about to shrink. In the end, what had been a four-shot advantage got bigger.Clark’s even-par 70 in Round 3 leaves him six clear of anyone else, with a second U.S. Open in his grasp. It would come three years and three days after he won his first major at Los Angeles Country Club.The big margin (aided by an eagle at the par-5 16th hole) belies how hard Clark had to work during his third round. Clark hit a handful of confounding approaches, wasn’t always crisp with his wedges and needed to grit out a lot of pars. The best illustration came on Shinnecock Hills’ short par-4 13th hole, which lists at 375 yards on the scorecard. Here’s what Clark did:
