Wyndham Clark confident with Scheffler chasing at U.S. Open
Wyndham Clark says winning before gives him confidence as he takes a lead into the final round of the U.S. Open.
USGA
Editor’s note: Follow for the biggest updates and highlights from the final round at the 2026 U.S. Open.
Sometimes 72 holes just isn’t enough.
The 2026 U.S. Open could be heading into a playoff, and, when two players finish tied at Shinnecock Hills after four days of golf, that is when the U.S. Open does something no other major does. It breaks the tie with a format all it’s own, one it has not needed in nearly two decades. The playoff is short, it is unforgiving, and it can decide a championship in a hole or two.
Here is how it works:
How does a U.S. Open playoff work?
If players are tied after 72 holes, a two-hole aggregate playoff begins immediately, and the lower total over those two holes wins. If they are still level, it moves to sudden death, hole by hole, until someone wins. The USGA scrapped its old 18-hole Monday playoff in 2018 and has had the two-hole format ever since. It has not been used, however.
Which holes would Shinnecock use?
The two-hole playoff at Shinnecock would run on the 17th and 18th holes. The par-3 17th, nicknamed Rabit’s Foot, measures 176 yards. The par-4 18th plays 490 yards and ranked among the harder holes all week.
How is the U.S. Open format different from the other majors?
Every major breaks a tie in its own way. The Masters goes straight to sudden death, the PGA Championship uses a three-hole playoff, and The Open Championship plays four extra holes, sometimes three.
How many U.S. Opens have gone to a playoff?
USGA records list 32 playoffs across the championship’s first 105 tournaments. The number has not moved in a long time, because the U.S. Open has not needed a playoff since 2008. The current two-hole playoff has never been used.
When was the last U.S. Open playoff?
Tiger Woods beat Rocco Mediate at Torrey Pines in 2008, the last time the playoff was needed. They were tied after a full 18-hole Monday playoff, so it took a 19th hole, sudden death, to decide it. Woods won on a leg that turned out to be broken.
Famous U.S. Open playoffs
In 1913, 20-year old amateur Francis Ouimet beat British stars Harry Vardon and Ted Ray in an 18-hole playoff, the result that put American golf on the map. In 1950, about a year and a half after a near-fatal car crash, Ben Hogan won a playoff at Merion. Jack Fleck stunned Hogan in an 1955 playoff at the Olympic Club. A rookie named Jack Nicklaus beat Arnold Palmer in a playoff at Oakmont in 1962, in front of Palmer’s own crowd. In 1990, Hale Irwin won in extra holes and became the oldest U.S. Open champion at 45.
