BMW CHAMPIONSHIP

August 24, 2024

Wyndham Clark

Castle Pines Golf Club

Quick Quotes

Q. On 17 when you hit your second shot on the green, it looked like kind of a relief moment. Tell me about that after you hit it on the green.

WYNDHAM CLARK: Well, I have not played that hole well. It's a pretty easy hole and everyone is torching the par-5s except for me. I finally hit the fairway and then we hit the green, so it was just more -- my caddie and I, it was our goal to just kind of put it in a spot where we could make birdie. Obviously eagle is a bonus.

Q. I walked with some of your friends and family today. What was it like having that crowd support out there?

WYNDHAM CLARK: It's been amazing every day, honestly. Even in the practice rounds, it's been so awesome. Then obviously having my immediate family and then close friends that don't usually get to come out and watch me play, it was really nice. Then just the hometown support has been amazing.

Q. Did you see the hats out there?

WYNDHAM CLARK: Yeah, it was really cool.

Q. How many do you think are out there for you, at least that you know, in terms of friends and family?

WYNDHAM CLARK: Like people I really know and are close, it's probably a couple hundred. I mean, there's so many kids from my high school, guys I went to college with, and obviously my cousins and then their kids, grandparents, all that stuff. There's a lot of people.

Then seeing faces that I haven't seen in a long time, I feel like if I went through everyone in the crowd, I feel like it would be about 1000 people, which is pretty cool.

Q. Are you making eye contact? Are you aware of it? How does that work?

WYNDHAM CLARK: Yeah, I'm trying to make eye contact as much as possible. Golf is so tough -- not that I'm at this level, but I feel a little bit like how Tiger is because he always had the most amazing fan support, and he would be walking through and everyone is pumping him up, and you get your levels raised up so much. So it's been really tough for me to just calm down before I hit my next shot.

But I feel like I've done a good job with it, and hopefully tomorrow I can keep my nerves down.

Q. How bad did you want that putt to go in on 18?

WYNDHAM CLARK: I wanted every putt to go in today pretty bad. That one would have been pretty neat, back-to-back bombs, especially with the stadium at the end. But really it was a tough two-putt, so I really wanted to two-putt. But it looked like it had a chance.

Q. What's the feeling going into tomorrow that there's a decent shot you could get this thing done?

WYNDHAM CLARK: My goal, my caddie and I, we just wanted to be in contention. Regardless of what happens tomorrow, at least I had the juices flowing this week and battled a lot of the adversity of handling hometown kid, the pressure. Then also I haven't been starting very well in tournaments, and I just feel like I've overcome a lot of good things. Regardless of what happens, at least I have good momentum going into next week.

Q. It's one thing if Derrick comes out for a day and says hi; he's walking the full 18 every day. What's that like?

WYNDHAM CLARK: Well, it's really funny. I saw him the first day and thought it was cool. Then I saw him the next day, then I saw him today walking all 18. I was like, man, you're really into golf. He's like, yeah, this is fun. It's pretty cool. It's great to see where Derrick has gone in his career.

It's honestly one of those pinch-yourself moments because we were third grade all the way to high school playing basketball against each other, and you would almost never think that he'd be at the highest level and I would be at the highest level at my sport, and two kids coming out of Colorado, it doesn't happen very often.

Q. Will you scoreboard watch tomorrow?

WYNDHAM CLARK: No, I usually don't.

Q. Did you wear Broncos colors today on purpose?

WYNDHAM CLARK: Yeah, yeah, I did.

Q. A year ago or year and a half, maybe you're not here. How important has your team been to get you to this point, to get you to where it feels like you're able to handle adversity, the anger, any of that?

WYNDHAM CLARK: Very important. It's funny, it's an individual sport, and when we are out there, you kind of only just see the player, but there's a ton that goes on behind the scenes that people don't know, and that's trainers, that's your family, that's also your mental coach, your caddie. If people have swing coaches, putting coaches, whatever it is. They've all helped me when things aren't going good to get me out of that, and then when things are going good, keep me in a great spot and then also to keep me grounded. So they've helped me a ton.

Q. When you were in here yesterday you stopped when somebody said you're in contention -- you said, I'm not. Now you're four back. Are you surprised how much ground you could make up pretty quickly?

WYNDHAM CLARK: Yeah, a little bit. I felt like I've played maybe some of the best golf out here, I just haven't scored it very well. Then obviously the first day, three water balls. I've said it in these interviews; things could have gone a little different in each of those rounds we'd be having different talks.

But it is really nice that guys came back a little bit. This golf course there's a lot of scoring holes and then there's a lot of holes you can make big numbers. If you can kind of avoid the disasters and then take advantage of those birdie holes, you can really get on a run and cover some ground.