Wyndham Clark wept after the last putt fell Sunday, in the embrace of his caddie. But these were not mere tears. Shoulders and chest were heaving — the sound of sobbing lost in the din of a cheering crowd. After, he buried his face in his white Titleist cap as the release of emotions went on.
There was more at play here than a man winning a tournament, even one as big as the U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club.
This is the man, and the story, that saved golf, saved it from itself.
This was a Sunday drama slowly unfolding, and by the time Clark had beaten all the odds and looked briefly up toward the sky to see his mother, viewers across America who’d never heard of Wyndham Clark until this tournament now cried with joy along with him.
The power of sports to lift us up never ceases to amaze. That power is more than escapism. It can be medicinal in its strength.
This time it let us forget for a moment that golf has been in a civil war for more than a year, the PGA Tour vs. Saudi-backed LIV Golf. The recent merger of sorts was met with only hostility from PGA Tour loyalists who felt betrayed. The mess has stained the most gentlemanly, decorum-first of all sports as a faction of top players chased guaranteed money to become greed-first-complicit in Saudi Arabia’s sportswashing.
Golf ached for a feelgood story.
Despite itself, it got one.
In the end it came down to Clark, the-no-name, vs. Rory McIlroy, the immensely popular superstar and the face of PGA Tour loyalists who stood strong against LIV Golf’s incursion.
Surely most of America rooted for McIlroy, right? The likable Irishman looked like golf’s Next Big Thing, once. He won four majors between 2011-14. Surely he would chase Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods for the most ever. But he hasn’t won a major since, not in nine years, despite 19 top-10 finishes.
McIlroy’s long-awaited majors breakthrough Sunday would have been a sweet story, historically a bigger one.
Somehow, golf lucked into a better one.
Wyndham Clark is 29. A year ago he was No. 293 in the Official World Golf Ranking. Had never won a PGA Tour event of any kind. Never finished better than a tie for 75th in a major tournament. Unless you knew him personally, there was no reason you’d have heard of him. He was among the faceless army of lower-tier pros who tough out a living at golf but never get the headlines or the big cardboard check on the 18th green.
Then last month he won the Wells Fargo Championship, a small tournament but a big breakthrough.
Then came his weekend in L.A., the latest example of how sports constantly refreshes itself with an endless ability to amaze and delight with its nourishing unpredictability.
Clark should have wilted at the end with McIlroy on his heel. He did not. He won by one stroke at 10-under. On the final home, with a playoff looming, he calmly gave himself a one-foot tap-in putt to win.
In sports, a No. 8 seed can reach the NBA Finals and Stanley Cup Final. An overlooked ballclub predicted for fourth in the NL East can be 10 games over .500. And Wyndham Clark can win the U.S. Open.
Clark, born in Denver, had just seen the NBA Nuggets win their first championship after 56 years. Because ... sports.
Now Clark had become just the fourth man in the past 100 years to win the U.S. Open the first time he ever made the cut in the event.
He glanced up at the sky in a nod to his mother, Lise, who had died 10 years ago of breast cancer at age 55 after a long battle. Wyndham was in college then at Oklahoma State. The loss derailed him. He wanted to quit golf. His mother was his champion. She had the power to keep him going.
His life-affirming triumph came on Father’s Day but the victory was for his mother.
His perseverance was because of her.
She used to tell him, “I love you, winner.”
When Rickie Fowler, who finished fifth, congratulated Clark he whispered, “Your mom was with you. She’d be very proud.”
Clark on Sunday recalled his mom’s deathbed message.
Hey, play big. Play for something bigger than yourself. You have a platform to either witness or help or be a role model for so many people.
“I am who I am today because of her,” Clark said. “She was kind of my rock and my always-there supporter. So when things were tough or when things were going great, she was always there to keep me grounded and either bring me up or keep the high going.”
I’m not sure golf deserves the story Wyndham Clark just gave it.
But we do.
This is why we love sports and cannot help ourselves that we always will. Because can’t be sure what or when, but we know that sometime soon, something amazing is about to happen.
