If he can finish the job at the Players on the weekend, it will further cement the narrative of Clark rising for the big events heading into major season.
Scottie Scheffler insisted this type of performance was coming. At Bay Hill, he mowed down the field with a red-hot putter and claimed his second Arnold Palmer Invitational. (Next up: TPC Sawgrass.)
With a mere couple of taps of his club behind a ball in the rough, reigning US Open champion Wyndham Clark caused a stir on the television broadcast of the Arnold Palmer Invitational, and, of course, in many golf corners of social media.
A win is a win. It doesn’t matter if it’s 54 holes, Wyndham Clark is your new AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am victor. That comes with 700 FedEx Cup points, $US3.6 million and (apparently) an ice cream treat that’ll make LIV golfers second-guess their decision.
Word among the golf cognoscenti was that LIV’s financial proposal fell short of the ballpark Clark’s team had in mind and that LIV baulked at Clark’s counter-offer.
Wyndham Clark got an enormous rules break during his otherwise spectacular, record-breaking round of 60 in the third round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. And on the day after Groundhog Day in the US, he has some kind of critter to thank for it.
Clark’s 60 eclipsed the professional competition course record at Pebble Beach by two shots and the overall competitive record of 61, set by current DP World Tour player Hurley Long in the 2017 collegiate Carmel Cup.
Wyndham Clark, still waiting to hit his wedge shot from the fairway, then asked Thomas to mark his ball to avoid the possibility it could impede his own approach once it hit the green.
The new US Open champion dedicated his win to his late mother, Lise, who died in 2013 at age 54 due to cancer. She had taught him the mantra of “play big”, which Clark had held close to his heart.
To distill Wyndham Clark to tragedy may seem wildly unfair to him, his story, his play. But to define him by what he’s shouldered, from where he’s been to where he’s come – and knowing his mum would approve – says more about him than a score ever will.
Australian Golf Digest
