It seems fair to say that Wyndham Clark has had an up and down year, with the 30-year-old winning the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and helping USA clinch the Presidents Cup.
On the other hand, Wyndham Clark missed the cut at three of the four majors, with his best result proving to be a tied 56th finish at the US Open – a title he was defending. Of course, the man to win that event was Bryson DeChambeau after one of the most incredible days of major championship golf.
Despite those disappointing displays on the big stages, Clark still did enough to book his place to the Olympic Games as part of Team USA. He joined Scottie Scheffler, Collin Morikawa and Xander Schauffele at Le Golf National.
While the quartet were all major champions, many golf fans wanted to see DeChambeau replace Clark at the Olympics. DeChambeau had finished inside the top 10 at both The Masters and the PGA Championship before his win at Pinehurst.
Wyndham Clark shares what he found ‘weird’ about playing at the Olympic Games
And those fans may have felt vindicated after the first day, with Clark shooting a four over par round to take himself out of medal contention with three rounds to go. He did do well to fight back and ultimately finish tied for 14th, but the challenge ahead of him was just too great.
And speaking on The Loop, Clark has now shared how he felt about the criticism which came his way before and during the tournament.
“It was funny because I don’t know where some of that hate came from. First of, I finished third on the list, so if there was anyone that you would talk about, it would usually be the guy that was fourth. It didn’t make any sense to me, and on top of it, that year I won,” he said.
“So I didn’t quite understand all of that hate, but it definitely affected me the first day when I started so poorly and afterwards feeling like, ‘oh my gosh, I cannot believe it, was just so excited to be here, felt like my game was there and just had an awful day’. With that said, and all the hate and the backlash, I felt like I really dug deep and was proud of myself and had a really good three rounds, and ultimately had a pretty solid week.
“If you take away that first day, we might be onto the podium with one of the medals, so all in all it was a great experience. It was definitely weird having all that backlash when I felt like it wasn’t quite justified.”
2023 US Open champion needs to work harder than most to avoid criticism
In fairness to Clark, he actually shot the same score as Scheffler across the final three rounds. But clearly, it was a very different task for the world number one who was never out of the medal mix. Clark could afford to be aggressive with no cutline and no prizes for finishing down the field.
Clark himself, conceded that he starts events too slowly. He did go on a good run after the Olympics, but then missed the cut at the Procore Championship after the FedEx Cup play-offs had concluded.
Unfortunately, the major winner is not someone who has managed to become a fan favourite. Clark was also criticised for some of his conduct at the Presidents Cup last month. So he probably has to work a lot harder to avoid criticism.
Certainly, the start he got off to in Paris did him few favours.
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