If players are predominantly judged by their performances in the major championships, it is fair to say that Wyndham Clark had a bit of a nightmare in 2024.
Wyndham Clark won his first major title at the 2023 US Open, holding off Rory McIlroy in Los Angeles. It was only the second win of the 30-year-old’s professional career, so many may have expected Clark to really kick on and contend with the best in the months since.
However, the majors proved to be miserable for Clark in 2024. He missed the cut at The Masters, the PGA Championship and The Open Championship. His US Open title defence ended with Clark finishing in a tie for 56th at Pinehurst.
Clark came in for criticism when he made the US Olympic team off the back of his underwhelming year in the game’s four biggest events. But it seems that he would argue that he has got nowhere near enough credit for what has gone right in his year.
Wyndham Clark assesses his 2024 season
A third career win came at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, while he finished second at Bay Hill and at The Players Championship. And speaking on The Loop, Clark insisted that he believes that his year has been much more of a success than many realise.
“I think when you win one, everyone thinks that you need to play good in all of them. And yeah, my performance in the majors was pretty lacklustre, it was awful to be honest,” he said.
“But outside of that, I almost, if you consider The Players as the fifth major, I almost won that. I had multiple top five finishes, top 10 finishes. I do think people just overlook things. Obviously Scottie and Xander had unbelievable years, the best years we’ve seen since Tiger Woods, and outside of that I felt like I had one of the better years.
“Collin had an amazing year but didn’t win, some other guys like Sahith had great years, obviously finished third at the FedEx but he didn’t win in the regular season. So I feel like it was a great year; played on the Olympics team, played on the Presidents Cup team, I did everything that, at the beginning of the year, you write down that you’d want to do, and I felt like I checked a lot of those boxes. So yeah, I felt like it was a very underrated season and I think people just have such high expectations for anyone who wins a major.”
Why the 30-year-old is not yet in the same league as Scottie Scheffler or Xander Schauffele yet
Eight top 10 finishes is impressive in this era where the likes of Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele do not seem to put a single foot wrong. However, his last top five finish came at the RBC Heritage back in April.
He ended up missing six cuts in total, including the three in the major championships. So it is clear that he has some work to do before he closes the gap to Scheffler and Schauffele.
Their consistency is what makes both men so successful. Schauffele has eight top fives in the majors during his career, while Scheffler won eight times worldwide in 2024.
Clark, on the other hand, has made the cut in less than half of the major championships he has so far played during his career.
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