Wyndham Clark (-10) wins U.S. Open by 1 shot for his 1st career major - ESPN

LOS ANGELES — All week long, people were coming up to Wyndham Clark showing him pictures of his late mother, Lise, who lived in Los Angeles before her family moved to Colorado. They were photographs that Clark had never seen.

More than anything else, Clark certainly wishes his mother was around to see what he accomplished on Sunday.

Clark, who was ranked 293rd in the Official World Golf Ranking a year ago and had never finished better than a tie for 75th in a major championship, held off Rory McIlroy, world No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler and Rickie Fowler in the final round to win the 123rd U.S. Open at the Los Angeles Country Club.

Clark, from Denver, carded an even-par 70 on Sunday. His 10-under total of 270 was 1 stroke ahead of McIlroy, who failed to end a nearly nine-year drought without a major championship.

«I feel like I belong on this stage, and even two, three years ago when people didn't know who I was, I felt like I could still play and compete against the best players in the world,» Clark said. «I felt like I've shown that this year.»

Clark opened up a three-shot lead over McIlroy with four holes to play. Then Clark made back-to-back bogeys to trim it to 1. McIlroy could manage no better than par in his final five holes, leaving Clark to win it on his own.

On the par-4 18th hole, Clark hit his tee shot down the right side of the fairway. His second shot was short of the green, leaving him 59 feet, 9 inches to the hole. With a gallery of hundreds of fans gathering on the fairway behind him, he calmly two-putted for the victory. He buried his head in his hands and hugged his caddie, John Ellis.

With early mistakes knocking Fowler and Scheffler out of the hunt, it was a two-man battle down the stretch between