National Sports

Clark delivers at end to get in PGA No. 1 player talk

ST. LOUIS -- Wyndham Clark had Scottie Scheffler with him in the final group at the U.S. Open and Rory McIlroy at his side at the BMW Championship. Both times he started with big leads and watched them vanish. And both times, there was no mistaking who the gallery wanted to win.

Only when it was over Sunday at Bellerive, silver trophies of the BMW Championship and the Western Golf Association at his side, did Clark repeat what one of his friends told him.

“Darth Vader had more fun,” Clark said with a big smile.

Clark embraced the pressure of a tense back nine at Bellerive and accepted what his place in the game -- “I’ve kind of been the underdog in all of my wins,” he said -- by delivering a 5-iron that set up the go-ahead birdie and two more birdies that salvaged an even-par 70 and a three-shot victory, his third of the year.

“I know everyone maybe gives me a hard time and roots for other people,” he said. “But I feel like I’ve kind of come into my own. Three wins in one season is my best year yet -- coming off my worst year ever. I’m just really pleased where I’m at right now.”

This puts him squarely in the conversation for PGA Tour player of the year considering one was a major and the other was a FedEx Cup playoff event.

But just like at Shinnecock Hills, it wasn’t easy.

He lost his five-shot lead to McIlroy in 11 holes and it was tense the last hour until Clark -- without a birdie all day -- followed McIlroy’s great tee shot on the par-3 16th with a 5-iron just as good. Clark made his from just outside 15 feet. McIlroy’s putt from 15 feet to stay tied missed.

“I always felt like I needed to just get my nose ahead to really try to put the pressure on Wyndham, and I couldn’t,” McIlroy said after a 69 to finish third.

Moving back in

Clark wasn’t the only one with cause to celebrate.

Patrick Cantlay, who came in at No. 43 in the FedEx Cup, showed plenty of moxie. Four times he bounced back from a bogey with a birdie, closing with three birdies in a row for a 68 to finish runner-up and be among the top 30 in the FedEx Cup who advance to the Tour Championship.

The winner next week at East Lake captures the FedEx Cup.

Also moving into the top 30 was Gary Woodland, who pulled within one shot of the lead until topping his tee shot into a creek on the ninth hole on his way to a double bogey. He closed with nine straight pars and fought back tears as he returns to the Tour Championship for the first time since 2019 while recovering from brain surgery three years ago.

He said Saturday, when he was in the final group, took a lot out of him with the noise, the energy and the drones that triggered the kind of brain activity he tries to calm. On Sunday, he tried to embrace it and pulled through with a 69 to tie for fourth.

“I tried to enjoy it,” he said. “Outside of topping a ball -- I haven’t done that for a long time -- I’m just really proud.”