Red-hot Clark takes big lead at Players Championship
Wyndham Clark – seen here with his US Open trophy, is one of the game’s hottest players right now
The Players Championship has reached the halfway stage and the current US Open Champion Wyndham Clark has established a substantial four-shot lead after consecutive rounds of 65 to leave him ahead of Xander Schauffele and Nick Taylor.
Clark, who has already won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and finished runner-up at last week’s Arnold Palmer Championship in season 2024, shared the lead after day one but it was not until his closing nine of 30 today that he established his significant margin to lead the PGA Tour’s flagship event into the weekend.
“I mean, that’s pretty cool,” said Clark. “I guess I’ve been breaking some records recently, which is pretty neat. More than anything I’m just super excited that I kind of had a ho-hum front nine and then turned and really just got into a nice zone and felt really good on the greens and shot an awesome number.”
When asked what has turned him from a good PGA Tour player into one of the more dominant players on the PGA Tour, Wyndham had this to say;
“There’s a few things. Obviously, as you guys know, I worked a lot on my mental game, but the one thing that had been missing – my mental game, was getting a lot better leading into Quail Hollow and I had a lot of good finishes.
“I made 19 cuts in a row and had a chance to win a few times, but I wasn’t putting good. When I switched to the putter I’ve been using, that Jailbird, I started really seeing a lot of putts go in, and then all the work that I did off the course in my mental game I started seeing it on the course because I started making putts. So that’s probably the biggest thing, combining the mental game with making putts and now I’ve been shooting some good scores.”
Jason Day appeared to be building on his opening round of 67 with an opening nine of 33 today and after series of pars he was maintaining his place inside the top five or so until finding the water at the dangerous 17th and taking a double bogey for a round of 71 and a 6 under par total.
Day is now eight shots from the lead although just four out of second place and in a share of 14th place.
Day leads the Australasians in the field, with both Adam Scott in 45th place at 2 under and Min Woo Lee producing a back nine of 3 to finish right on the cut mark.
Ryan Fox who produced a remarkable eagle, eagle, at the 16th and 17th during his opening round of 69 struggled to a round of 76 today and missed the cut by two shots.
Aaron Baddeley and Cam Davis were a long way further back and will not make the weekend.
