Denver native Wyndham Clark caps stellar season by placing third in his first Tour Championship and earning a whopping $5 million
By Gary Baines – 8/27/2023
CBS golf anchor Jim Nantz wasn’t kidding on Sunday when he called it a “life-changing season” for Wyndham Clark.
That 2022-23 campaign officially concluded on Sunday with the Denver native finishing third out of 30 players in his first Tour Championship on the world’s top golf circuit.
The performance in Atlanta was worth a jaw-dropping FedExCup bonus of $5 million for Clark. That’s right — the Valor Christian grad earned $1.4 million more for placing third in the Tour Championship than he did for winning either the U.S. Open or the Wells Fargo Championship ($3.6 million each).
Whatever the case, the season was certainly one to remember for the 29-year-old Clark, who came into it winless in major tour golf. Now, he owns two PGA Tour victories, including one major, and will represent the U.S. in the Ryder Cup this fall in Rome. And the Tour Championship marked his eighth top-10 of the season. Not counting Sunday, Clark made $10,757,490 in the 2022-23 campaign.
“His whole game is impressive,” Nantz said of Clark.
Clark didn’t come close to winning the Tour Championship — and the $18 million that came with that victory. Sunday turned out to be a two-man (or one-man) battle, with Viktor Hovland finishing five ahead of Xander Schauffele.
Despite an impressive season-closing round of 5-under-par 65 at East Lake, Clark ended up 11 behind Hovland. Four straight rounds in the rounds in the 60s — 68-67-68-65 — left Clark at 16 under par for the week. In the final 36 holes, he made just two birdies.
Clark won the battle for third place, finishing ahead of such luminaries as Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler and Jon Rahm, with whom the former Coloradan was paired on Sunday. SCORES
Other top-10 finishes by golfers with strong Colorado ties this week on major tours:
— Former Air Force Academy golfer Tom Whitney continued to solidify his position as a likely PGA Tour player in 2024 as he tied for eighth place on Sunday at the Korn Ferry Tour’s Albertsons Boise Open Finals event. Whitney went 68-64-64-68 for a 19-under-par total, which left him eight strokes behind winner Chan Kim. It was Whitney’s sixth top-10 showing of 2024 on the KFT. The top 30 on the 2023 points list after the Korn Ferry Tour Championship in early October will land PGA Tour cards for next season, and Whitney stands 16th with three tournaments remaining. SCORES
— Former University of Colorado golfer Yannik Paul placed 10th in the D+D Real Czech Masters on Sunday, giving him six top-10s on the DP World Tour this year. Paul recorded scores of 66-70-69-67 for a 16-under-par total, which put him six back of champion Todd Clements. Paul earned a little over 37,000 euros. SCORES
— Robyn Choi, who played her college golf at CU, tied for fifth place on Sunday at the Epson Tour’s Circling Raven Championship in Worley, Idaho. It marked Choi’s fifth top-10 showing on the Epson Tour since the beginning of June. Choi ended up at 10 under par — 72-66-68 — which left her three strokes out of a playoff. SCORES
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. He was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 2022. He owns and operates ColoradoGolfJournal.com