Wyndham Clark’s potential playoff-forcing putt saw about as much of the hole as it could without dropping.
Even after signing his scorecard and settling for a three-way tie for second, Clark stood in the flash area and maintained this: “I hit it perfect. It rolled end over end and had the speed to go in.”
Except it didn’t.
Clark, who led by four shots after 36 holes of this 50th Players Championship, lost his lead to Xander Schauffele on Saturday, and then on Sunday, both Clark and Schauffele watched Scottie Scheffler post 20 under. Clark reached 19 under with a gutsy birdie on No. 17 and then left himself 17 feet for birdie on the par-4 finishing hole at TPC Sawgrass for a chance to force extra holes.
Clark’s putt zeroed in on the hole before catching the lip hard and horseshoeing out.
“I don’t know how that putt doesn’t go in,” Clark said. “It was kind of right center with like a foot to go, and I knew it was going to keep breaking, but it had speed and I thought it was going to good inside left, and even when it kind of lipped, I thought it would lip in. I’m pretty gutted it didn’t go in.”