Wyndham Clark returns to the US Open at Shinnecock as a man reborn — or at least reranked. The 2023 champion fell as low as 45th in the world before reversing course; he arrives at Shinnecock sitting 34th with a win this season, and a girlfriend in Emily Tanner who, by some accounts, deserves a share of the credit.
The Fall, the Climb, and the Company He Keeps
Clark's arc is sharp in both directions. A US Open title in 2023 carried him to third in the world rankings — then form evaporated and he slid to 45th in 2025. The recovery to 34th, with a season win attached, has prompted OutKick's Culture Desk to make a public case for Tanner, described as an Instagram model who helped Clark rediscover his appetite for competition and his love of the game.
The argument is not as frivolous as it sounds. Personal stability has long functioned as an underrated performance variable at the elite level, and Clark's trajectory — sharp rise, sharper fall, measured recovery — maps onto that pattern clearly. Whether Tanner is the direct cause or simply coincides with a turnaround already in motion, the ranking movement is real.
Pochettino's Team USA Adds to the American Moment
Away from Shinnecock, the US Men's National Soccer Team is supplying its own contribution to the national sports mood. Under coach Mauricio Pochettino, the Americans beat Paraguay and then Australia, playing with a directness that observers contrast sharply with the cautious, draw-seeking approach of previous World Cup cycles.
Pochettino has built his squad around a blunt identity, captured in a line that has circulated widely: Americans don't take anything from anyone. The coach cuts an unconventional figure — described by those watching as dressing like someone heading to a 1993 grunge show — but the results have cut across demographic lines. Younger audiences who rarely engage with international soccer have tracked this run closely.
What Shinnecock Will Settle
For Clark, the wind at Shinnecock is the ultimate test of whether this rehabilitation is structural or situational. The course has a way of exposing both form and fortune, and a 34th-world-ranking arrival, however improved, will need to hold up under conditions that tend to humiliate.
Emily Tanner will likely remain in the sports-media conversation as long as Clark stays in contention. That, in itself, is a measure of how far his trajectory has swung — from champion, to afterthought, to a story worth following again.