Wyndham Clark searches for golfers, who should continue a year after the player’s heartbreak.
Getty Images
Ponte Vedera Beach, Florida – They say failure is the greatest teacher in life. Falling is the only way we understand the heights of climbing.
Perhaps it is true for some people, depending on the stage of life in which they exist. But in professional golf competitions, the possibility of failure is greater, and success (the arrival of the top of the mountain) can usually be the key to unlocking everything.
For Wyndham Clark, his victory at the 2023 Los Angeles Country Club Open showed him his abilities — a place he could have on an elite men’s professional golf course.
“I bet most people would say they lost a lot. I lost a lot in my career,” Clark said Wednesday at TPC Sawgrass before the 2025 Player Championship. “I feel like I’ve learned these lessons, so it’s great to learn how to win and have that feeling and accept that feeling, what that might mean for my future and the moments ahead, what I can rely on in similar situations, what I learned during LACC.”
Clark served as a U.S. Open victory, but Clark arrived at TPC Sawgrass and last year’s player championship heartbreak is still fresh. The wounds of his tournament bird attempts emanate from hole 72, so vicious that what could have happened and what has happened since.
“What I get now is – if I want to, if I have all the loopholes, you have putts and force the playoffs, and I miss you very much, you’re frustrated,” Clark said on Wednesday. “But I think, I’m 16 years old, 17 years old, if I want 18 years old, forcing the playoffs and winning somehow in the playoffs, my idea is probably one of the best results in player history and will be shown on all the different highlights for a long time. I’m looking at little things like this, like people, which can be a really cool moment for myself and my career.”
“It may be impossible in the end:’PGA Tour-Liv trades take different shapes in players
go through:
Josh Schrock
Clark competed in the flagship event of the PGA Tour last year and won the rainy pebbled beach professionals under his belt. He finished second in the Arnold Palmer Invitational and is undoubtedly one of the best players in the world.
Then there are lips.
Clark then missed the layoffs in three of four majors, finishing at the U.S. Open with the only time he saw the weekend at the top of golf, those making the narratives that the world remembers.
The type of lips is the type that Clark doesn’t want to be associated with, and may not be the catalyst for his slides. But he returned to his journey to find Wyndham Clark, who canceled the trophy on LACC, which probably started with the place where the golf god denied him.
“The lips are obviously tough, but that’s not where I feel I’m lost,” Clark said. “But at that time, I felt like I was playing some of the best golf balls, definitely some of the most stable golf balls on the PGA Tour. Then, I kind of did a great job at Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) and then dropped a little a year.
“I want to try to reintegrate with that high-quality golf ball. I think the consistency is so great, always just knocking on the door.”
Just like a golf course, finding a consistent quality game starts with a feeling. This is not tangible – not pure iron or bubbled drive. This is something that only Clark can tell. The joy that comes from the version you desire for yourself. No sacrifice of gifts.
“The biggest thing I have is to reach my potential, to change every day and every game, but when I lack focus, I get frustrated, or I’m angry there, or I’m playing a role there, or I’m emitting a shot or not reaching my potential,” Clark said. “These are things that frustrate me. When I’m having fun on the golf course, I feel like I’m playing those things to the maximum. My caddie is having fun. I’m really embracing this moment. These are things I want to go back to because I think when I’m in that state, I’m going to play my best golf ball.
“I wish I was there this week and if not, I wish I had worked hard to get there in the next few weeks.”
Clark’s definition of victory promoted his rise and caused the ground to move under his feet.
Victory and success develop expectations. Expectations, especially those that are not met, can cause you to press and cause joy to slide out of your fingers. This is true for golf at any level. The endless pursuit of capturing and bottled feeling can drive anyone crazy, especially the longer you can avoid.
“It’s frustrating,” Clark said. “It’s fun, how you get successful, and you win professionally, you win some competitions, and then everyone wants you to do it all the time. [Scottie Scheffler] It’s very impressive to keep doing this, but no one else really does.
“It’s a little bit particularly putting some inappropriate pressure on me…it’s tough because sometimes your expectations are biased by the media or outsiders. My thing is, I just want to re-scort the golf ball and enjoy it, rather than putting up those expectations because they’ve improved a little. I feel like it hurts me a little bit.”
Clark has started six games this season. Each Datagolf, his top ten, ranked 69th among at least 10 shotlink players. He ranks 75th in SG: 96th from the tee, 30th around the green and 74th in putters.
He made two shots from 36-hole leader Shane Lowry in the Arnold Palmer Invitational last weekend, but his chances quickly evaporated over the weekend due to Saturday’s 76 Saturdays.
He arrived at TPC Sawgrass and was still looking for golf and joy, and he won the championship and humiliated golf royal family in a course last year.
The search may end this week. This may be a stepping stone to the destination he wants. Otherwise, since fate rejects his game against players’ championship history, he may find his own missing feeling again week by week.
Josh Schrock is a golf writer and journalist. com. Before joining golf, Josh was an insider of Chicago Bears in NBC Sports. He has previously reported 49 people and fighters in the NBC Sports Bay area. Josh, an Oregon native and UO alum, spent time hiking with his wife and dogs, pondering how ducks will be sad again and trying to become half-mature. For golf, Josh will never stop breaking the 90s and never lose confidence that a major drought in Rory McIlroy will end. Josh can be contacted at josh.schrock@golf.com.
