Windham Clark woke up Saturday morning with a four-stroke lead over The Players.
The reigning U.S. Open champion waltzed around TPC Sawgrass for two days, consistently posting 65-second cards to take control of the championship.
But he didn’t have the same command on Saturday, and by the time he exited the par-4 12th, his lead had evaporated. Clark’s playing partner, Xander Schauffele, had just made his sixth birdie of the day to match Clark at 16 under.
After four holes, the pair were stuck at 17 under and one of the world’s most famous par 3s awaited them.
Clark took to the tee with a sand wedge and hit one of the most nerve-wracking shots in golf history. It landed 20 yards in front of the green, creating a large splash.
NBC reporter John Wood, a former PGA Tour caddy, said on the television broadcast: “He was over that shot for much longer than any other shot today.”
“He seemed almost frozen by it.”
He only hit 102 yards on the 124-yard par 3. Big failure For a player worthy of his talent. But instead of going to the drop zone to his left, Clark decided to retee his shot.
“Fortunately, I got the first move so I had a little bit of time to think about it,” Clark said of his chunk on Monday.
“I asked my caddy, John, [Ellis]And he said:[drop zone is] It’s too close to attack. ” So the easier shot is to do it again. We had a good club. To be honest, I had a bad swing and chunked it, so if I had gotten closer, I think it would have been a tougher shot. ”
Clark made a wise choice, as his redo landed 6.5 feet from the cup.
After that, he made bogey 4. pulled out a fist pump.
“[That was] Large scale. It’s a shame that this was the worst swing of the day on a hole that is so iconic and so fraught with trouble. But yeah, I followed it up with a great swing and a great putt,” Clark explained.
This is why we love Wyndham-Clark. He has a tendency to bounce back, especially when the odds are against him.
Remember the 8th hole at LACC last year? A putt on the 17th here could end up yielding the same payout. #player pic.twitter.com/fpOFjghFnm
— PlayingThrough (@_PlayingThrough) March 16, 2024
“Tomorrow we will be in the final group, which is huge. I hope it will be a big point in the tournament and we will look back afterwards. [Sunday] And then you look at that hole and say, maybe that was the shot and putt that meant everything. ”
Clark missed a lot of putts Saturday. The short mistakes in numbers 8 and 9 immediately come to mind.
“Sometimes you apply pressure and try to force the issue. I thought I did a great job,” Clark added.
“If I had made the par putt on the 8th and the birdie putt on the 9th, it might have been a completely different round. I could have been 19 or 20. [under]Then you can have a different conversation. ”
Clark tried for a birdie from 10 feet on the 14th, but it too missed on the low side.
But Clark bounced back with a 6-foot shot on the 17th. Had he missed that, he would have lost momentum heading into Sunday’s final round.
Instead, he dropped just one stroke and was at 16 under, trailing Schauffele by one stroke going into the final 18 holes.
“I think everyone has at least one round where they have to really try and make a par putt or a bogey putt or whatever,” Clark said.
“That’s what I felt like today. I woke up laser locked and focused and had a great round and hopefully a great finish here.”
Still, Clark felt he played good golf, and he did. His two-under 70 at TPC Sawgrass was a respectable round, especially when everyone was chasing him.
But now he will have to corner Schauffele on Sunday, and considering Clark has won three times in the past nine months, he has all the talent in the world to do so.
Jack Mirko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through.Be sure to check it out @_PlayingThrough Cover more golf. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko In the same way.
