Wyndham Clark’s U.S. Open win on Father’s Day is also a tribute to his late mom
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LOS ANGELES — The U.S. Open wrapped up, as it always does, on Father’s Day. Golf’s newest champion would be the first to tell people he always has been a mama’s boy.
Wyndham Clark’s victory Sunday will be remembered for how a 29-year-old newcomer to the big time held off some of the biggest names in the game to stamp a poignant exclamation mark on a U.S. Open that had been, to that point, kind of hard to love.
Clark’s mother, Lise, died of breast cancer in 2013, a family tragedy that sent him spiraling. The win brought with it a chance to share memories and a chance to reflect on the long road between then and now.
“I didn’t show any emotion off the course, but when I was on the golf course I couldn’t have been angrier,” Clark said of his state of mind when he first learned of his mom’s diagnosis. “I was breaking clubs when I didn’t even hit that bad of a shot. I was walking off golf courses.”
The road back led him to leave college at Oklahoma State for a fresh start at Oregon. It involved a relatively quick rise for an aspiring pro golfer but one pushed off course by typical slumps and close calls that led to more than one crisis in confidence.
“I’ve had many times where I’ve gone home and was yelling in my car and punching things and just so mad that I’m like, ‘Why can’t I do what my peers are doing?’ ” Clark said.
Through it all, he kept in mind what his mother used to tell him about his golf game: Play big.
“She called me ‘Winner’ when I was little, so she would just say, ‘I love you, Winner,’ ” Clark said.
Becoming a winner Sunday meant holding off the first- and third-ranked players in the world: Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler. All three leaders shot even-par 70 in the final round. Clark’s 70 was good enough to beat McIlroy by one and Scheffler by three.
“I guess you’re just hoping for the other guy to slip up or make a mistake or give you a glimmer of hope,” McIlroy said. “Wyndham was pretty much rock-solid all day.”
Clark stayed cool when trouble beckoned as it always does at what’s known as golf’s most exacting test, even when it isn’t. He saved bogey after whiffing his third shot from the heavy greenside rough on the par-5 eighth. He made an up-and-down par save on No. 9 from a knee-high lie in the rough.
He hit big shots under pressure, nailing a 228-yard fairway metal to 20 feet to set up birdie for a three-shot lead over McIlroy on the par-5 14th. Then, with his lead down to one, he hit the green from 200 yards on No. 18 and two-putted from 60 feet to seal the deal.
“An up-and-coming star,” his caddie and onetime assistant coach at Oregon, John Ellis, called him. “If he wasn’t one before, he is one now. First time he has actually competed in a major for a chance to win, and he shows he can handle the heat.”
With the sun setting on the year’s third major, Clark had nothing to gripe about. He was near the 18th green holding the trophy and taking pictures with his caddie, Ellis, and also his sister, his girlfriend and dozens more friends and family who have been along for this ride.
All in all, a perfect way to celebrate Father’s Day.
Well, almost perfect.
“All I really wish is that my mom could be here and I could just hug her and we could celebrate together,” Clark said “But I know she’s proud of me.”