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Wyndham Clark spent much of Sunday afternoon hearing cheers for everyone but himself.

The grandstands and six-deep galleries packed around Shinnecock Hills revelled in his mistakes, groaned when he escaped trouble and reserved their loudest support for his playing partner, the world No 1 Scottie Scheffler. Several spectators were removed from the course after directing abusive comments at him, the United States Golf Association confirmed. By the time Clark finally tapped in on the 18th green to secure his second US Open championship in four years, the 32-year-old from Colorado felt he had won more than a golf tournament.

“They definitely didn’t want me to win,” Clark said afterwards, seated beside the trophy he’d nearly let slip away. “It’s pretty rare in a [US Open] or a major to have fans kind of boo against your shots or cheer for bad shots.”

For a player whose public image was badly tarnished after last year’s locker-room smashup at Oakmont, the reception hardly came from out of nowhere. Clark acknowledged that some of the hostility was self-inflicted. “Some of it’s self-deserved. I kind of brought it on myself,” he said. “But I also get it, too. Scottie was going for the career grand slam, and it hasn’t happened very often.”

What impressed Clark most was not that he won, but how he won. His yawning six-shot advantage entering the final round shrank to one on several occasions, yet he never surrendered the lead and hung on with a three-over-par 73. “It was tough, but I’m proud of myself that I battled through,” he said. “Things really could have gotten away from me. I stood tough.”

The victory completed an extraordinary turnaround from a period Clark described as one of the darkest stretches of his professional career. After missing the cut at Oakmont last year and damaging lockers in frustration, Clark found himself dealing not only with a regression in form but with the reputational fallout from an incident that has dogged him since.

“After what happened at Oakmont was obviously the lowest point,” he said. “People probably didn’t see what happened after, but it was a really tough two, three days for me. I was in a dark place, didn’t really go outside much. It was a really negative, dark place.”

At the time, Clark feared much more than a missed cut. “I felt a lot of my career, world ranking, reputation, everything just dwindling,” he said. “That’s a terrible feeling.”

The player who arrived at Shinnecock this week bore little resemblance to the one who left Oakmont in disgrace 12 months ago. Clark credited changes to both his game and his outlook. “I did a lot of work in the offseason on my golf swing, on the things I needed to do,” he said. “As this year went on, I started hitting it better and started seeing the results. Then I started gaining my confidence.”

He also learned to handle adversity differently. Asked how he coped with a gallery that overwhelmingly wanted someone else to win, Clark disclosed the simple mental trick he leaned on. “Anytime someone said something negative to me, I replaced it with something positive,” he said.

At times he even found humour in the situation. “I was kind of making jokes about it with Dave,” Clark said, referring to caddie Dave Markle. “If we heard someone cheer for me, I’d go: ‘Oh, there’s one person that likes me.’ So we would kind of make jokes and make it maybe a little light-hearted.”

Years of experience in hostile environments helped. Clark pointed to Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup appearances away from home and even last week’s Canadian Open as preparation for what awaited him on Long Island. “It sucks being the underdog or getting rooted against,” he said. “But I can pull through, and there’s nothing like winning kind of an away game, if you will.”

The support he did receive came from those closest to him. Among the surprises waiting on the 18th green was his father, who had never previously been present for one of Clark’s victories and who took an overnight flight from Denver to be there for the finish. “He’s never been there to see me win,” Clark said. “Not only that, to finally have him there for a win is amazing, but especially on Father’s Day.”

A year ago Clark wondered if he would ever fully escape the shadow of Oakmont. On Sunday he was asked whether a second US Open title might finally turn the page on that chapter. “I sure hope it closes the door on it,” he said.