CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA | It has been a year now since Wyndham Clark arrived.
He had been around for a few years, nibbling at the edge of PGA Tour victories, finding ways not to win, kicking himself for the missed opportunities and charging headlong and headstrong toward the next chance.
Clark showed up at the Wells Fargo Championship one year ago ranked 80th in the world, believing in himself but wondering if that was enough.
One year later, Clark is ranked third in the world. He’s the defending champion at Quail Hollow Club this week, the reigning U.S. Open champion, winner of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am where he made history by shooting 60 at Pebble Beach and one stroke away from a playoff in the Players Championship two months ago.
In a sport that has its shooting stars, the 30-year-old Clark appears to be more than that. He is one of the new forces in professional golf, as likely to win any week as anyone not named Scottie Scheffler.
“I like to think this is just the beginning, and hopefully it’s the start of a lot of really good golf in the future years,” Clark said this week.
All it took was five years on the PGA Tour and a handful of ego-bruising Sundays to catch what Clark had been chasing.
Asked if the 54-hole lead he carried into the final round of the 2023 Wells Fargo Championship was the first Saturday night lead of his tour career, Clark shook his head and talked like a man detailing the battle scars on his body.
Golf is not a one-dimensional game, and for all of his immense power and potential, Clark was often his harshest critic. He burned himself with his own fire.
“I can list them off for you because I remember all the ones that I didn’t win. Honda my rookie year I had a lead. Then, let’s see: I led – I believe I led at Waste Management one time. I also had it in the Bahamas; no, Bermuda; sorry, Bermuda. And then, I think, in Dominican,” Clark said as if the images were literally flashing before his eyes.
The path to Clark’s Wells Fargo Championship victory took a necessary step in late 2022 when he grudgingly agreed to meet with mental coach Julie Elion.
Golf is not a one-dimensional game, and for all of his immense power and potential, Clark was often his harshest critic. He burned himself with his own fire.
Even now, the ashes of those fires aren’t far away.
“I learned a lot of ways of how to not win. There was a lot of hard work and sweat and tears and anger and frustration in these four or five years leading up to winning at Quail Hollow and … honestly, I think is part of the reason why I won [the U.S. Open] at [Los Angeles Country Club],” Clark said.
“It’s against a similar field at an iconic golf course. And then you go to the U.S. Open last year and I found myself in a position on Saturday, Sunday and I just kind of went back to the moments I had at Quail Hollow. So, I really leaned on that experience that helped me push it over the edge to win a major championship.”
There are lessons in learning what not to do.
When he was in contention, Clark found himself getting too fast in almost everything he did. His mind began racing. His swing got steeper. He let the moment control him rather than controlling the moment himself.
Clark learned to slow down. He learned to retrain his thoughts. He was able to trust his swing under pressure.
He outplayed Rory McIlroy on Sunday at the U.S. Open to win his first major championship just six weeks after getting his first PGA Tour victory. He made the U.S. Ryder Cup team, and he played Pebble Beach like no one ever had.
If Scheffler – who’s in the midst of an extended break awaiting with his wife, Meredith, the birth of their first child – is the guy standing in Clark’s way, he’s good with that.
Clark finished second to Scheffler at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March and, a week later, burned the edge with a putt that would have tied Scheffler on the 72nd green at TPC Sawgrass.
Like the best ones tend to do, Clark now relishes his chances to win, having a different catalog of results to underpin his confidence.
“Even though I had won three times prior to those two second-place finishes, I still was learning. I just think the more I put myself in that situation, the better I’m going to get and learn. And as you put yourself in those positions, you want to be in those positions more,” Clark said.
If Scheffler – who’s in the midst of an extended break awaiting with his wife, Meredith, the birth of their first child – is the guy standing in Clark’s way, he’s good with that.
“What Scottie is doing is unbelievable. It’s Tiger-esque. He’s the best player in the world right now; there’s no doubt about it. But what’s great about it is he’s challenged I think all of us including myself to improve our games and to push our games to new levels. Which I think Tiger did to everyone else,” Clark said.
“I’m hoping I can continue to challenge him and by the end of this year or next year or two years, maybe there really is kind of a rivalry between us. I mean, there definitely isn’t anything negative against us because we do have a great friendship, but it’s more of an inside-the-ropes rivalry, which is kind of fun.”