No, Wyndham Clark didn’t commit any wrongdoing at Arnold Palmer Invitational

On Friday morning, sirens from police echoed on social media across Bay Hill as Wyndham Clark played the third par-4 hall.

Golf fans blamed Clark for being saved from the ball embedded in the fairway, labeling him a “con man” among other diamond ribs. Others felt he should have received a two-stroke penalty View replay. However, the video shows his balls are back to their original pitch marks and therefore denies any doubts about whether he should be relieved.

PGA Tour officials agreed A statement was released soon After Clark is saved from the third fairway.

“After reviewing a three-hole shot link video of Wyndham Clark's tee shot in the second round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, the PGA Tour Rules Committee determined that the ball has returned to its own pitch mark where Clark is acquired as a free relief.”

But let's say Clark's ball is resting on a pitch mark that wasn't him. This may have been a real possibility given how soft the fairway became at Bay Hill on Friday.

Still, you'll need to put yourself in Clark's shoes from the teebox and fairway. How did he know that his ball had landed on someone else's pitch mark besides himself? It's not like Clark is watching the PGA Tour live broadcast while he's playing. His ball had a pile of mud and was clearly embedded, so he did what other players did.

“I didn't know there was obviously confusion when I was playing,” Clark said afterwards.

“When we hit it, I was asking to stop it. We've never seen it bounce back. Then we got up there and it's lying. My ball was covered in mud. So we were relieved and didn't think about it, and yeah.”

Clark started the second round on Friday on a five-under-par leaderboard and opened on the first hole with a birdie. When this incident happened, he was standing at 6 under for the championship, finishing with that number at the end of the day. He made three more birdies, all of which came to the back nine, but the double bogey on the 15th hole was sour to his day. He pushed away the tee shot and led the 2023 US Open champion to reload from the tee and pencil with six of his scorecards.

“The hole is very strong,” Clark said.

“I was mad at the tee shot.”

He holed 21 footers for his double bogey, which led to a fist pump.

“I don't know if the fist pumped a double bogey,” Clark added.

“Every shot is important. I don't clench my fist that much, but for me it was like a Let's Go inside, giving me the momentum of the last three holes.”

He bouncing off with a benign par 5 16th place, but failed to move up and down for par on the difficult par 3 17th. After closing on the famous 18th with par, Clark's score totaled 1 under 71.

Jack Mirco is a golf staff writer who plays SB Nation. Follow him with x @jack_milko.