LOS ANGELES — Wyndham Clark, who is contention for the U.S. Open title Sunday, took an indirect shot at the U.S. Golf Association for late tee times Saturday that he said cost him and Rickie Fowler strokes during the third round.
Clark, who teed off last with Fowler at 3:40 p.m. local time (6:40 p.m. ET) and finished at 7:56 p.m. (10:56 p.m. ET) Saturday at Los Angeles Country Club, partly blamed darkness for his bogey at No. 17 and Fowler’s bogey at No. 18.
“I literally couldn’t see it,” he said of a putt on No. 17, “and we just played off of feel.”
Clark, 29, didn’t stop there.
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“I mean, it’s a little ridiculous we teed off that late,” Clark said. “I would say right around hole 15 or 16 it started getting to where you couldn’t see that well. I mean, I don’t personally understand why we teed off — we played twilight golf.
“So it’s kind of tough and it’s crazy to think that we’re doing that on the last two holes of a major when we could have teed off two hours earlier. Hopefully tomorrow we don’t have that issue.”
Clark and Fowler at scheduled to tee off Sunday at 2:30 p.m. local time (5:30 p.m. ET), which is 1 hour, 10 minutes earlier than Saturday.
The USGA, which runs the U.S. Open and sets the tee times, did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Clark’s remarks. The late tee times Saturday allowed NBC to air its broadcast during prime time.
Clark and Fowler head into the final round Sunday atop the leaderboard at 10 under.
Clark won his first PGA Tour event in May at the Well Fargo Championship. He has never finished better than tied for 75th at a major.