THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

March 15, 2024

Wyndham Clark

TPC Sawgrass

Quick Quotes

Q. Another great day. 65, 65. Historic coming home. No one's ever shot low better than that number, 29. What's that mean to you?

WYNDHAM CLARK: I mean, that's pretty cool. I guess I've been breaking some records recently, which is pretty neat. More than anything I'm just super excited that kind of had a ho-hum front nine and then turned and really just got into a nice zone and felt really good on the greens and shot an awesome number.

Q. Record at Pebble Beach and now a record here at THE PLAYERS Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass. The putter got hot, started pouring them in from everywhere, especially on the back nine. You told me yesterday it was kind of about keeping the golf course in front of you, not trying to push it in areas off the tee where you're uncomfortable. The only time I saw it happen was 5 and you made a 22-footer to save par.

WYNDHAM CLARK: Yeah, honestly, off the tee with a little bit of help off the right I could cover everything so I thought that was the right play. Unfortunately just drew a really bad lie.

It's kind of a crap shoot depending if you get a good lie or bad lie, and I had a bad one. I thought that the rough would pull it left and it didn't pull it left, so it went to the right and had a really tough lie then and hit a poor chip. But making that putt was huge. That was kind of the probably the biggest putt of the day momentum wise, keeping that mo going, and then I went on to birdie two of the last four, which was huge.

Q. The phrase "Big Game Hunter," I saw it a few times on Twitter. We might use it in our headline. It seems like these big events you kind of you step up. Do you get a little buzz there? Is there a little Koepka in you, the way you kind of are playing?

WYNDHAM CLARK: No. I mean, I guess you guys could say what you want on that. I just really don't know what it is. I would like to play great every week. I really looked at how Scottie has been playing this year and last year and I use him as someone to try to keep up with, and he plays good every week. So my thing is just try to be consistent and with our schedule now too you kind of only play big events, so that's part of it as well.

Q. Do you recall how you felt after winning the U.S. Open for those several weeks and months? Was there any sense of being overwhelmed and trying to deal with the attention and what that all means and trying to live up to it and did you need to kind of regroup and sort of refocus to get back to the kind of golf that you played at that point?

WYNDHAM CLARK: Yeah, a little bit. Right after the U.S. Open I went to Travelers, and my game was there but my head was not. Just had a kind of a ho-hum finish. Then I had two weeks off where I didn't play golf.

Then went to the British, and my driver cracked, or Scottish and British. Really kind of wasn't playing that great, like you said.

After I played well at the TOUR Championship and finished third, that kind of got me back on track. Then when we went into the off-season and I worked on a lot of things.

Then we kind of hit the ground running at the beginning of the year, had some solid finishes. Then obviously win at Pebble. So, yeah, I think anytime you win a big event, it's really hard to keep your mind present and on the next thing because there is so much that goes on. You do have so much media obligations, and you really can't -- things don't slow down it seems like for at least a week or two after you win a big event.

Q. Any fear about not changing what worked? Sometimes guys feel like, okay, I got to even get better, and yet you won the U.S. Open. Do you kind of just think, hey, look, what I was doing was working.

WYNDHAM CLARK: Yeah, I didn't change hardly anything. Same clubs this year, same pretty much everything. I have the same putter I made a couple little tweaks in it, but, yeah, I think some guys maybe change too much and I've been a victim of that, where you have one bad week and instantly you think you got to change everything.

I've learned a lot in these five years that it's better to just kind of keep your clubs consistent, your practice consistent, everything consistent, and then you produce consistent golf.

Q. 12 and 18, you took iron where the other guys were taking driver or 3-wood. What is the decision-making process when you're maybe taking less club?

WYNDHAM CLARK: Talking on 18?

Q. Yeah.

WYNDHAM CLARK: You know, so yesterday I hit, yesterday it was kind of in and off the right and I roasted a 3-iron and only had an 8-iron in, so I thought that was the correct club.

Today it was off the left and down, and for me hitting a cut -- and I can draw my irons, but it would have been a tough shot to where I think if I blocked the 3-iron at all, I was bringing in the right trouble. So, sometimes you just have to punt.

I think sometimes you just play to your game, and I hit it where I had a full 7-iron in and just said, hey, this is not a birdie hole for me right now, and just we'll move on and try to eliminate any big numbers.

Q. What club was it that you took today?

WYNDHAM CLARK: I hit a 4-iron today, 3-iron yesterday.

Q. Is it hard to put into words what maybe unlocked for you when you got going last year leading into the U.S. Open?

WYNDHAM CLARK: There's a few things. Obviously, as you guys know, I worked a lot on my mental game, but the one thing that was missing -- my mental game was getting a lot better leading into Quail Hollow and I had a lot of good finishes. I made 19 cuts in a row and had a chance to win a few times, but I wasn't putting good.

When I switched to the putter I've been using, that Jailbird, I started really seeing a lot of putts go in, and then all the work that I did off the course in my mental game I started seeing it on the course because I started making putts. So that's probably the biggest thing is a combining the mental game with making putts and now I've been shooting some good scores.

Q. You referred to Scottie a minute ago, here in the early stages of having a chance to get on the kind of run that he's been on a little bit, right, winning some big tournaments and winning a lot. Is that something you look at as a path to keep this thing rolling?

WYNDHAM CLARK: I have so much respect for Scottie and his game and consistency and he really is kind of the meter right now of where you want to try to be. I think the best thing about Scottie is his consistency. That's something that last year -- I mean, I was very consistent in making cuts and kind of always being in the top 20 and then I won a few times, but Scottie's always in contention. He's pushed me to be better and it's fun to watch him and so I'm really trying to catch him. I really owe a lot to him to some of my good golf of late.

Q. What was the low point with the putting and where do you feel like you are now?

WYNDHAM CLARK: Low point? I mean, I would say low point actually was here last year. I played here and then went to Valspar, first round, and -- so it went Bay Hill, here, Valspar. I hit it fantastic for me. I was, I think, for most of the rounds I was kind of top 10 in ball striking at both tournaments last year, but my putting was terrible. I was putting negative.

The first day of Valspar, same thing. I was top 10 in ball striking and bottom half in putting. Switched to the Jailbird, finished top 5 there and then top 5 another event and then went on to win and have a great year. So I would say those are the spots.

Q. I thought were you going to say before Pebble.

WYNDHAM CLARK: Yeah, I mean, that's -- I wasn't at a terrible spot putting, it just wasn't what it was last year. So I was like, what's going on. So it wasn't necessarily a super low point. That's just -- I think in anyone's game, both ball striking and putting, you kind of get in those little lulls and you try to figure out why. I don't usually try to switch clubs or do anything, but I think that was the change I needed was just a little bit of getting rid of the line and going left hand low. But that wasn't the low point.

Q. Your trip to Augusta last week, that was the first time you had ever been?

WYNDHAM CLARK: Ever, yeah.

Q. Hadn't even visited as a fan or anything?

WYNDHAM CLARK: No. I have had two opportunities to go prior to that, and I kind of made a little pact with myself that I wouldn't go until I was eligible to play in the tournament. So it was a really cool trip because I went with my dad and brother, who they have never been and so we went and had an awesome kind of Clark boys trip and it was very memorable.

Q. All it's cracked up to be?

WYNDHAM CLARK: It was. It's something we'll remember for the rest of our lives.

Q. You spoke yesterday about how you're trying to focus on what you're feeling and maybe not what other people are doing. Just wondering, what have you been feeling the last two days?

WYNDHAM CLARK: You know, I've been pretty aware, to be honest. Like I've just been, when I've been out there I've been really focused at what I'm trying to do. So I haven't really been focused on anything else. I haven't been seeing any of the other noise, and I've just kind of been, all right, this is what we're doing.

I didn't have the greatest prep on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday. I was a little sore, had some things to do, had to move hotel rooms a couple times, so I just had a bunch of things going on. I thought I handled it really well, because I would come out here and I wasn't hitting the best shots but I knew my game was in a good spot, so I would say aware is where I've been at.

Q. Were you aware that Scottie Scheffler had an issue --

WYNDHAM CLARK: No, I had no idea. No idea.