Wyndham Clark is confident at the US Open and it shows
When Wyndham Clark was a kid, his mother, Lise, put short notes in his backpack, little notes meant to cheer him up or motivate him during the day. Clark tried to hide the notes from classmates because they became a source of teasing, especially when he was younger.
During interviews in the 10 years since Lise Clark died of breast cancer at age 55, Clark has often said, “I’d give anything to have those notes right now.”
But Clark, one of the leaders after this week’s US Open second round, has no trouble remembering his mother’s most enduring messages — at least when it comes to his professional golf career.
“When my mom was sick,” Clark, 29, said on Friday, “I was in college and she said to me, ‘Hey, play big. Play for something bigger than yourself. You have a platform to testify, or help, or be a role model to so many people.’
“And I took that to heart. When I’m playing, I want to do it for her.”
Clark recalled the memory in the wake of two consecutive great rounds at the National Golf Championship at the Los Angeles Country Club. After shooting a sparkling 64 in Thursday’s first round, Clark followed it up with a three-under-par 67 that had his name topping the US Open rankings for several hours before the wave of golfers broke loose on Friday afternoon .
Clark’s remarkable play was no fluke. He has been steadily climbing the golf rankings with six top-10 finishes on the PGA Tour during the 2022-23 season. Last month, he took his first tour win at the Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte, NC, a milestone that Clark, now 32nd in the world, says has greatly strengthened his belief in himself.
“It was big, to me it felt like a big championship,” he said on Friday. “I just feel like I can compete with the best players in the world, and I consider myself one of them.”
A few years ago, Clark didn’t have the same confidence. In the months following the death of his mother, who had introduced him to golf as a toddler, Clark struggled on and off the course.
When he underperformed, Clark stormed off the golf course and, he said, “just drove off as fast as I could, I didn’t even know where I was going.”
“The pressure of playing golf and then not having my mom there and someone to call was really tough,” he said after his victory in Wells Fargo last month.
He missed cut after cut and dropped out of Oklahoma State University before finally settling at the University of Oregon. Slowly, he said, he found his balance. He debuted on the PGA Tour in 2017, and while adjusting to the vicissitudes of a professional golfer’s life took time, his play last season was consistent enough to earn more than $1.5 million in prize money.
“I built up my confidence little by little, which is obviously so important in this game – or any profession for that matter,” said Clark.
His confidence was on display as he played the LA Country Club’s diabolical par-5 14th hole on Friday. Clark’s second shot landed in a deep, gnarled rough about 30 yards from the green. His third required a gutsy flop shot from a sketchy lie that had to land with spin and precision on a lightning-fast, undulating green.
He kept the shot on the green, then drained the 4-yard putt for a spectacular birdie. After his round, Clark admitted with a big smile that his third shot was “very risky”.
He estimated that in a normal PGA Tour event, he would successfully execute the shot 70 percent of the time. However, Friday’s round was run under the crushing pressure of a US Open, so the chances of deflecting a bogey, Clark said, “were much smaller because you have the nerves.”
But Clark insisted that he was never in doubt about which shot to try.
He would play big.
“When I’m playing, I want to do it for her,” Clark said of his mother. “I want to show everyone who I am and how much fun I have playing.
“I walked down the fairway yesterday and smiled a little bit because I played well. And I say, ‘Man, I wish you could be here, Mom, because it’s a dream come true to do this at the highest level.’”
He added: “But I know she is proud of me. Thanks to her I am who I am today. I mean, I’m getting a little confused. I miss her, and everything I do here means a lot to her.