Wyndham Clark is two shots back of the lead heading into the third round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill. The Denver-born star is six under after 36 holes.
Clark is looking to continue his fine form at Bay Hill after finishing runner-up to Scottie Scheffler 12 months ago. Interestingly, at the 2024 Players Championship, Clark once again ended the week in second behind the world number one.
One of the late starters on Thursday, Clark made good use of the calmer afternoon conditions. The 31-year-old ended shot 67 to end the day five under.
Round two was more testing, however. Clark made three birdies before running into trouble on the 460-yard 15th.
What Wyndham Clark did on the 15th at Bay Hill
After hitting his first tee shot out of bounds, Clark found the fairway with his third shot before missing the green right with his approach (fourth shot).
The American then hit a somewhat underwhelming bunker shot before draining a 21-foot putt for double bogey.
Clark was visibly pleased after limiting the damage and fist-pumped as his putt fell. Speaking during his post-round press conference, the American admitted he’d never fist-pumped a six before.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever fist-pumped a double bogey,” Clark said. “I don’t know, that hole’s very tough. I was p***** off with the tee shot, and I knew it was important to keep the momentum.
“Any shot is important. I don’t fist pump that much, but to me, it just was more of like an internal thing, like ‘Let’s go’, and gave me kind of some momentum for the last three holes.”
Arnold Palmer Invitational: Wyndham Clark involved in controversial ruling
Clark’s round was also shrouded in controversy. Playing the third hole, the American’s tee shot, at first glance, appeared to settle in a pre-existing pitch mark.
However, Clark opted, in line with USGA legislation, to take relief under the assumption that his ball was nestling in its own pitch mark. Golf fans initially thought Clark’s ball had bounced.
After looking at the footage, it’s clear Clark’s ball made an indent and bounced out before spinning back into the newly made pitch mark. It was a fairly freak occurence.
Over 300 yards away and back on the tee box, Clark claimed he saw the ball plugged where it had landed. As much as golf fans are justifiably frustrated, it’s difficult to be too critical of the 2023 US Open champ, here.
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