Wyndham Clark has yet to return home as a major champion.
Last month, the 29-year-old emerged victorious at Los Angeles Country Club’s U.S. Open for his maiden major title. But rather than going to his Scottsdale, Arizona, residence to soak in his life-changing win, he flew halfway across the world in just over a week.
“Right afterwards (the U.S. Open) I played the Travelers Championship (in Connecticut), and then I had a wedding in Italy,” Clark said Wednesday on the eve of The Open Championship. “So I went to Italy, and then I said, ‘Well, why not have — let’s just stay.’ We just won a major; let’s enjoy it.”
He then traveled from Italy to Scotland to play last week’s Genesis Scottish Open, where he finished T-25.
Clark hasn’t played much links golf, but his experience playing across the pond goes back roughly a decade. He teed it up in the 2013 Amateur Championship at Royal Portrush and played courses throughout Ireland the following week. Last year, he played in the Scottish Open and placed T-16 before finishing T-76 out of 83 players in The Open at St. Andrews.
Full-field tee times from the 151st Open Championship
“I love links golf,” he said. “I think it’s the purest test of golf. It’s more fun than I think any other golf that we have around the world just because every day is so different.”
His U.S. Open triumph, however, may send him across the Atlantic again later this year for the Ryder Cup at Marco Simone GC in Rome, Italy. With the top 6 players in the U.S. standings automatically qualifying for Team USA, Clark is currently second on the points list. But he knows there’s still more business to be taken care of.
“Obviously, I know where I stand in the rankings,” Clark said. “I don’t know how it would play out the rest of the year. I would like to think I’m on the team, but at the same time, I believe I’ve still got to go earn it. I’m going to continue to do the stuff that I do that makes me successful.”
At the start of the year, not many thought Clark would be on the U.S. squad. But by virtue of winning his first Tour title at Quail Hollow’s Wells Fargo Championship in May, plus the U.S. Open, he jumped from outside the top 250 to No. 10 in the world rankings within a year — and hopes his rise isn’t done.
“Sometimes it’s hard to reflect on everything, but I’ve had some time, and comments like this or people reminding me how high up in the world or low in the world I was as far as World Ranking kind of puts it in perspective of how much has changed in one year,” he said. “But yeah, it’s great being here as a major champion, a PGA Tour winner, and someone that people are now thinking can win multiple.”
Now, Clark hopes to finally return home with both the U.S. Open trophy and claret jug, which would make him the first player to win both championships in the same year since Tiger Woods in 2000.
However, whether he’s a one or two-time major winner after The Open, he’ll come back to the U.S. the same person he’s always been.
“I would hope not,” Clark said when asked if winning a major changes his view of life. “If it does, I hope someone punches me in the face and says, get back to who you were. I really hope nothing changes. I think it fuels my confidence and belief in myself.”
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