His back still hurts.
But it could have hurt him even more, perhaps early in the second round. Windham Clark made a painful mistake on the par-3 11th hole Friday morning, his second hole of the day.
He almost went for a 7-foot par, but instead of making the save and coming away unscathed, he inexplicably three-putted. Clark had a disappointing finish with a double-bogey 5.
Still, as he had done so many times before, Clark bounced back with a vengeance. He birdied the next hole and settled into a round at the Texas Children’s Houston Open.
“[My back] Today was a little tough. I’m getting better every day,” Clark said after shooting a 2-under 68.
“I’m not at my best. I feel like I hit my lowest score in the second round, but overall I’m coming through and fighting from the back. It’s been solid so far.”
The day before, Clark collapsed on the back nine and made three bogeys in the final six holes to finish at even par and win the championship.
But no such collapse occurred on Friday, even though Clark finished with bogey on the par-3 ninth. Instead, he played a solid round of golf and stayed within striking distance even on a rough weather day.
“We’re seven shots behind. It’s going to be tough,” Clark added.
“The good thing is that if the wind gets stronger in the future, I’ll try to play a little bit better golf because I feel like I’m not playing my best golf. Well, I’m going to go hit 10 under on the weekend. Maybe, maybe there’s a chance.”
Clark had a number of surprising rounds in 2024. AT&T His Pebble Beach On his way to his Pro-Am victory, he set a new Pebble Beach scoring record. He then opened up The Players Championship with two 65-second times, but ended up just one lip short of Scotty Scheffler. He also shot a final round 63 at Sentry in early January.
But Clark accomplished it all with a healthy back.
He now has lingering pain that is clearly causing him discomfort. Still, the reigning U.S. Open champion will continue to move forward.
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“I’m going to limit the amount of balls I hit,” Clark said.
“I’m going to go get some work done, do something at the gym, cool my back, warm it up, whatever to at least prepare for tomorrow.”
Clark is seven strokes behind Tony Finau, who tied the course record with an 8-under 62 on Friday. Clark, who also played alongside Finau in the first two rounds, had a front-row seat to his performance.
“I thought he did that because he created everything,” Clark said of Finau.
“It was a joke today because I had to move his coin about four or five times. I hit a putt, I missed a putt, and then he made a putt, so I gave him the assist. That being said, he hit great and made a lot of putts, so it was fun to watch.”
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.
