Wyndham Clark Is In Position to Add to His Fast-Growing Reputation at the Players
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — The sample size is small, but still impressive. Wyndham Clark has three PGA Tour victories, all of them big, one of them a major championship.
He’s a seeking a fourth here at the Players Championship, a week after coming in second at another of the PGA Tour’s biggest tournaments. And he’s starting to develop the reputation of a player who performs best in those moments.
“I guess you guys could say what you want on that,’’ Clark said Friday after shooting a second straight 7-under-par 65 at TPC Sawgrass. “I just really don't know what it is. I would like to play great every week.
“I really looked at how Scottie (Scheffler) has been playing this year and last year and I use him as someone to try to keep up with, and he plays good every week. So my thing is just try to be consistent, and with our schedule now, too, you kind of only play big events, so that's part of it as well.’’
Clark, who started on the back nine, got hot when he made the turn, birding four straight holes from No. 1 through 4. He added birdies at the sixth and the ninth for a front-side 30 and a five-shot lead over Matt Fitzpatrick — who preceded him by a year as champion at the U.S. Open – and Maverick McNealy.
A year ago at this time, Clark, 30, was outside of the top 100 in the Official World Golf Ranking in search of his first PGA Tour title. He’d been on Tour for the better part of four years, searching and tinkering and dealing with the ups and downs of professional golf life.
Last year he struggled with his putting despite, as he said, hitting the ball well enough to contend. He tied for 27th at the Players but then was fifth the following week at the Valspar Championship. Something clicked. Another top five followed during the week of the WGC-Match Play Championship.
“And then I went on to win and had a great year,’’ Clark said.
He left out the part that he wasn’t eligible for the Masters. Seems almost odd now, but Clark didn’t qualify for the 2024 Masters field until he won the Wells Fargo Championship, his first PGA Tour victory and one that came at what was then called a designated event.
A bit more than a month later, Clark dueled Rory McIlroy over the back nine before prevailing by a stroke at Los Angeles Country Club to claim the U.S. Open.
That life-changing victory understandably came with plenty of attention and expectations. Clark didn’t post a top-10 again until the Tour Championship, where he was third overall in the 72-hole portion of the event, a result that gave him some much-needed confidence.
“That kind of got me back on track,’’ Clark said. “Then when we went into the offseason and I worked on a lot of things. Then we kind of hit the ground running at the beginning of the year, had some solid finishes.
“Then obviously win at Pebble. So, yeah, I think anytime you win a big event, it's really hard to keep your mind present and on the next thing because there is so much that goes on. You do have so much media obligations, and you really can't — things don't slow down it seems like for at least a week or two after you win a big event.’’
The win at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in February came at one of the Tour’s newly-named signature events and included a third-round 60 that saw him flirting with 58 for a good part of the back nine. That gave him the lead — and a victory a day later when the tournament was shortened due to poor weather.
Last week at Bay Hill, Clark gave himself a chance for a third signature event win when he put himself in position during the third round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational. But he couldn’t keep up with Scheffler, the guy whose consistency he covets.
Scheffler, who is the No. 1-ranked player in the world, shot 69 on Friday and trails Clark by six shots. He has five top-10s and has not shot over par this year.
“I have so much respect for Scottie and his game and consistency and he really is kind of the meter right now of where you want to try to be,’’ Clark said. “He's pushed me to be better and it's fun to watch him and so I'm really trying to catch him. I really owe a lot to him to some of my good golf of late.’’