Wyndham Clark arrives on the Olympic Males’s Golf Competitors as considerably of an outlier on Crew USA.
No one has performed higher golf this 12 months than Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele, who’ve mixed to win three of the 4 majors. Then there’s Collin Morikawa, who tied for third at Augusta Nationwide, tied for fourth at Valhalla, after which posted a pair of top-20 finishes on the U.S. Open and The Open. Morikawa has had a stable main championship marketing campaign, a lot in contrast to Clark.
Clark, in the meantime, has missed the minimize in three majors and tied for 56th at Pinehurst No. 2 in his U.S. Open title protection. He doesn’t boast the resume that his fellow People have, which explains why many imagine that Bryson DeChambeau ought to have changed Clark on Crew USA as a substitute.
But, Clark does have 5 top-10 finishes relationship again to mid-March, together with a pair of runner-up finishes at The Gamers and the Arnold Palmer Invitational. He additionally posted back-to-back top-10s on the Vacationers Championship and Genesis Scottish Open. Royal Troon then despatched Clark spiraling, as solely six gamers completed worse than he did by way of 36 holes.
However forward of the Texas Youngsters’s Open in Houston, Clark threw out his again whereas figuring out, an harm that has continued all through the season and has led to some frustrations.
“I’ve some accidents I’ve been coping with, occurred proper earlier than Houston main into the Masters, and I haven’t been the identical,” Clark defined Wednesday.
“I really feel like I’m lastly attending to the place I can swing on the stage that I do know I can swing, and in order that’s type of been an ongoing problem, and it’s been irritating for me.”
Clark even admitted that he has misplaced distance as a result of his illnesses have prevented him from swinging at full velocity.
“I’ve bought to be trustworthy, I’ve been very annoyed with how I performed on the majors,” Clark added.
“I imagine I wasn’t exhibiting how good of a participant I do know I might be, particularly at highest stage within the majors. However I’ve additionally bought to have a look at how far I’ve are available two years. I’m fifth on the FedEx in back-to-back years, and I’ve received a number of instances. I’ve loads of prime finishes, and I’m right here on the Olympics. So I’ve bought to verify I don’t let the skin individuals put an excessive amount of strain on myself as a result of I’ve grown a lot in these two years. , it’s not the place I need to be sooner or later, however years like this, I’ve realized loads and I’m hoping I take all of the issues I realized and play higher within the majors subsequent 12 months.”
Clark, whose solely top-10 end in a significant got here final 12 months on the Los Angeles Nation Membership, should wait 9 months till Augusta earlier than getting one other crack. Regardless of his agitation, he stays optimistic going into the Olympics, and if he can deliver dwelling a Gold Medal, most of these frustrations will wash away.
Jack Milko is a golf employees author for SB Nation’s Taking part in By way of. Remember to try @_PlayingThrough for extra golf protection. You’ll be able to observe him on Twitter @jack_milko as nicely.
