Big rally nets Wyndham Clark 14th place in Olympic golf tourney; the Denver native matched the best total for the final 54 holes
By Gary Baines – 8/4/2024
If only the men’s Olympic golf tournament had been a 54-hole, Friday-through-Sunday affair, Wyndham Clark might have left the Games with a medal around his neck.
The Denver native was one of the top performers over the last three days at Le Golf National near Paris, but a nightmarish start on Thursday kept him from being in contention for gold, silver or bronze come Sunday.
After starting the competition bogey-double bogey-double and hitting three balls in the water en route to a 4-over-par 75 on Thursday, Clark found himself in 56th place out of 60 golfers following round 1.
But the 2023 U.S. Open champion roared back with scores of 68-65-65 the final three days to finish in 14th place in his Olympic debut.
“I played really good golf,” Clark said on Sunday. “I just started (poorly). The first nine holes were terrible and one bad 18th hole (in the second round) and things might be a little different.
“I played really good golf for 60 (some) holes. I just had nine bad holes.”
Over the last three days combined, Clark’s 15-under-par total was tied for the best in the field and was matched only by gold medalist — and fellow American — Scottie Scheffler (69-67-62) and by Victor Perez (67-68-63).
“I wanted to make sure that I showed up for my country,” Clark said regarding his comeback. “I didn’t want anyone to think that I was doing this as just an exhibition or just coming here to have fun. I was serious about it. I was very pissed after round 1 because I wanted to medal. So I’m really bummed about it.
“But at the same time, I said this is for something greater than myself. It’s for my country and it also builds a lot of momentum for the (FedExCup) Playoffs that we have coming up.”
All in all, the experience of competing in the Olympics is something Clark won’t soon forget.
“Getting announced every day on the first tee, outside of the Ryder Cup, that was probably the coolest first-tee experience I think in golf,” he said. “So that’s been really neat.”
As Clark noted, next up for him will be the FedExCup Playoffs, which start Aug. 15 at the FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis. The second playoff event will be the BMW Championship Aug. 22-25 at Castle Pines Golf Club north in Castle Rock — a course that Clark has played numerous times in recent years.
For all the scores from the men’s Olympic golf, CLICK HERE.
About the Writer: Gary Baines has covered golf in Colorado continuously since 1983. He was a sports writer at the Daily Camera newspaper in Boulder, then the sports editor there, and has written regularly for ColoradoGolf.org since 2009. The University of Colorado Evans Scholar alum was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 2022. He owns and operates ColoradoGolfJournal.com