Fowler, Clark share US Open lead with major champions chasing them

LOS ANGELES: Rickie Fowler only had 3 1/2 feet left for par on what should have been his last shot Saturday in a US Open round filled with far bigger moments. At stake was his first 54-hole lead in a major. Shockingly, he missed and slipped into a tie with Wyndham Clark.

Fowler wasn’t the least bit bothered.

He knows what to expect by looking ahead at a final round on a Los Angeles Country Club course getting tougher by the minute, and by looking behind at some of the players chasing them — Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler, Dustin Johnson.

“It would be nice for that one to go in,” Fowler said. “Really doesn’t matter — having the lead, being one back, two back — you’re going to have to play good golf tomorrow. Bummer to have that one slip away, but tomorrow is a whole new day.

“That’s kind of when the tournament really starts.”

Fowler brought the buzz to the US Open with a 70-foot birdie putt only to lose the lead with a three-putt bogey on the 18th hole, which turned into a two-shot lead and a tie for the lead when Clark boldly took on a tight pin he could barely see for a closing birdie.

Clark’s birdie put him — and not McIlroy — in the final group. And he knew it.

“I wanted to be in the final group. Every shot matters out here,” Clark said.

For all the drama over the final hour — big putts, Scheffler’s eagle-birdie finish, Xander Schauffele going from a crash to a recovery to another crash — McIlroy played a steady hand with one birdie and one bogey over his final 14 holes.

He had a 69 that left him one shot behind, poised to end nine long years without a major.

“It’s nice to be in the hunt,” McIlroy said.

Fowler had to settle for an even-par 70. Clark escaped big trouble from the barranca right of the 17th