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LOS ANGELES — Wyndham Clark began his Saturday in an unfamiliar place: In contention to win a major championship.
The 29-year-old native of Colorado and resident of Scottsdale, Ariz., entered the third round of the 123rd US Open at Los Angeles Country Club at 9-under, one shot behind 36-hole leader Rickie Fowler.
Entering this week, Clark had played in six major championships and had missed the cut in four of them, including the two US Opens for which he’d qualified, in 2021 and 2022.
In the two majors in which he made the cut, in he finished tied for 75th in the 2021 PGA Championship and tied for 76th in the 2022 British Open.
Clark is only five weeks removed from his first career PGA Tour victory, the Wells Fargo at Quail Hollow.
So he has been trending toward his first success in a major championship. In 21 tournaments this year, he has won once with six top-10 finishes.
As Clark has positioned himself for a Sunday run at the most important title of his career, he has been doing it not for himself, but for his late mother, Lise, who died in 2013 as a result of breast cancer.
Because she introduced him to golf and was his most ardent supporter, her death rocked him to the brink of quitting the game.
Without her, Clark suffered from bouts of depression and anger, which tempted him to walk away from the game.
Ten years later, though, Clark is stronger than ever — mentally and in his golf game. And he owes it all to his mother.
After shooting 67 in the second round on Friday, Clark referred to a moving moment he experienced in the middle of the opening round, in which he shot a 6-under 64
“I was walking down [a fairway] and I kind of was just smiling as I was playing well, and I go, ‘Man, I wish you could be here, mom, because it’s a dream come true to be doing this at the highest level in front of friends and family that are out here,’ ’’ Clark said. “Yeah, I wish she could be here. But I know she’s proud of me, and she’s made a huge impact on my life. I am who I am today because of her. She was kind of my rock and my always-there supporter.
“I’m getting a little choked up [talking about her]. She’s everything, and I miss her, and everything I do out here is a lot for her.’’
Lise Clark was sick when Clark was in college at Oklahoma State and her message to him, he said, was always: “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’ve taken that to heart,’’ Clark said of his mother’s words. “So, when I’m out there playing, I want to do that for her.
“I want to show everyone the person I am and how much joy I have out there playing and hope I can inspire people to want to be like me and be better than me.’’
Clark has had his challenging moments in which he has teetered on the edge of self-destruction.
He was, by his own admission, angry in college.
He transferred from Oklahoma State to Oregon. Even though he was the Pac-12 Player of the Year at Oregon in 2017, Clark still said he was “fragile.’’
That fragility and volatility didn’t change after he turned pro, as he struggled to make cuts and remained winless.
He developed a propensity as a player who could not close.
He failed to convert on the back nine at the 2019 Puerto Rico Open, was defeated in a playoff at the 2020 Butterfield Bermuda Championship and lost after being the 54-hole leader in April at the Zurich Classic.
That changed last month at the Wells Fargo, a win so significant for him he said “it felt like a major” and added that it made him “feel like I can compete with the best players in the world and I think of myself as one of them.”
A low point came in the middle of a round at the 2020 Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit.
After he made three bogeys in four holes, Clark decided he’d had it and walked off the course on the 13th hole.
It wasn’t his proudest moment, but it was part of his maturation process, which has brought him to this year, this week, and the chance of a lifetime sitting in front of him with 36 holes to play.
When he reflected back at the moment in Detroit when he quit, Clark said, “It was definitely the type of thing where the person and player I am today would have grinded it out and finished the round.”
He entered Saturday with a chance to finish out the next two rounds and change his life forever.
Imagine his mother’s pride from heaven seeing her son become a major champion.
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