Wyndham Clark arrives on the Olympic Males’s Golf Competitors as considerably of an outlier on Staff USA.
No person 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 may be 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 reduce 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 consider that Bryson DeChambeau ought to have changed Clark on Staff USA as an alternative.
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 means of 36 holes.
However forward of the Texas Kids’s Open in Houston, Clark threw out his again whereas figuring out, an damage 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 sort of been an ongoing subject, 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 received to be sincere, I’ve been very pissed off with how I performed on the majors,” Clark added.
“I consider I wasn’t displaying how good of a participant I do know I might be, particularly at highest stage within the majors. However I’ve additionally received 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 a variety of high finishes, and I’m right here on the Olympics. So I’ve received 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. You realize, it’s not the place I need to be sooner or later, however years like this, I’ve realized so much 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 serious 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 constructive 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 workers author for SB Nation’s Taking part in By means of. You’ll want to take a look at @_PlayingThrough for extra golf protection. You possibly can observe him on Twitter @jack_milko as properly.
