After 2 majors he’d rather forget — for reasons of his own making — Denver native Wyndham Clark rides stellar final 3 days to 4th-place finish at British Open; afterward, he apologizes again for Oakmont and vows temper-related incidents are ‘not going to happen again’
By Gary Baines – 7/20/2025
Wyndham Clark has faced plenty of adversity in recent months — almost all of it self-inflicted due to flares of anger. At the British Open earlier this week, there was some adversity of a different variety. This type, he managed much more successfully.
The Denver native shot a 5-over-par 76 in Thursday’s round 1 at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland and stood in 128th place, very much in danger of missing the cut in the final men’s major championship of the year. But a funny thing happened on the way to what could have been a trunk-slamming Friday. Clark started playing the kind of golf that won him three PGA Tour events, including the 2023 U.S. Open.
In fact, the 2024 Colorado Golf Hall of Fame inductee not only made the cut but he soared up the scoreboard like a rocket ship, with his meteoric rise leading to a fourth-place finish, his second-best showing in a major.
After bogeying the opening hole of round 2, Clark played his final 53 holes in 17 under par. After scores of 76-66-66-65, he finished at 11 under par, six strokes behind ever-so-dominant Scottie Scheffler, and earned $730,667.
Clark made eight birdies on Sunday and 20 over the final three days after being skunked in that department on day 1. A big factor was his putting as he drained four birdie putts of at least 13 feet, 10 inches on Sunday, including a 43-footer on No. 8. Clark is using a different putter — a L.A.B. Golf DF3 — than he did during his run to titles, and ended up sixth in the strokes gained-putting statistic on the final day and ninth for the week.
Overall, it was Clark’s best showing in a PGA Tour event in 2025 — and just his second top-10 of the season. But he had a strong performance last week at the Scottish Open, tying for 11th.
Beyond being a very strong showing in a major and helping turn around a tough year, Sunday’s performance may help extend his season. He came into the week in 78th in the season-long FedExCup standings, but vaulted up to 51st after the British. The top 70 players in the standings at the end of the regular season (Aug. 3) earn spots in the first event of the FedExCup playoffs. Clark came into British Open week No. 28 in the World Golf Rankings after once reaching as high as No. 3.
The showing was welcome good news for Clark, who has been the subject of much attention for the wrong reasons in recent months for what he’s done at the previous two majors. In May at the PGA Championship, he threw a club after a tee shot during the final round, damaging a sign as well as the club in question. He apologized on social media after that incident, but a month later he damaged lockers at Oakmont Country Club shortly after bogeying his final hole to miss the cut by one at the U.S. Open, where a photo of the locker-room damage went viral.
This past week, Golf Digest obtained a copy of a letter Oakmont CC club president John Lynch sent to club members regarding the Clark incident:
“Several of you have inquired about the situation involving Wyndham Clark and the steps being taken in response to his recent behavior,” the letter read, according to Golf Digest. “Following multiple discussions with the USGA and the OCC Board, a decision has been made that Mr. Clark will no longer be permitted on OCC property.
“This decision will remain in effect unless formally reconsidered and approved by the Board.
“Reinstatement would be contingent upon Mr. Clark fulfilling a number of specific conditions, including full repayment for damages, a meaningful contribution to a charity of the Board’s choosing, and the successful completion of counseling and/or anger management sessions.”
As Clark putted on the final hole Sunday, NBC noted the situation regarding him and Oakmont.
Clark went 17 under par for his final 53 holes of the British Open.
After apologizing for his actions at Oakmont during the Travelers Championship the following week, Clark addressed the issue again at last week’s Scottish Open, then on Sunday at the British Open.
“Obviously I feel terrible with what happened,” the 31-year-old Valor Christian graduate said. “I’m doing anything I can to try to remedy the situation. We’re trying to keep it private between Oakmont, myself and the USGA. I’m just happy we have a pathway moving forward, and I’m hoping we can get past this and move on and hope there’s no ill-will towards me and Oakmont.
“I want the best for Oakmont, the USGA and myself. Like I said, I’m very sorry for what I did and feel terrible, and hopefully in a few months we’re past this, and it’s something of the past.”
Clark further commented about the two temper-related incidents at the PGA Championship and the U.S. Open.
“I’ve been pretty open about my mental shift and change to get better — and I did that in ’23 and ’24 — and then having a tough year (in 2025) and all the expectations and just frustration all coming together, and I did two stupid things,” he said. “But one thing that it did do is wake me up and get me back into the person I know I am and the person I want to be.
“I hope those things don’t reflect because I don’t think they reflect on who I am, and going forward that stuff is not going to happen again.”
Regarding the Oakmont letter to members, Clark indicated he’s accepted the terms put forth.
“We reached out and we wanted to do that,” he said. “Obviously, it’s a no-brainer to pay for the damages. That was a given. Then obviously all the apologies, and I want to give back to the community because I hurt a great place in Pittsburgh, so I wanted to do anything I can to show them that what happened there was not a reflection of who I am and won’t happen again.
“But I want to show them who I really am with the apology and the things I’m going to do.”
Meanwhile, regarding another contestant with significant Colorado ties at the British Open … Former Aspen resident Justin Leonard, the 1997 British Open champion, made the cut in an open-age major for the first time since 2014 and matched his best finish in such an event since 2013. The 53-year-old placed 59th on Sunday, tying his showing from the 2014 U.S. Open.
For all the scores from the British Open, CLICK HERE.
— Elsewhere in PGA Tour golf, Denver-area resident and former Colorado State University golfer Martin Laird tied for 11th on Sunday in the Barracuda Championship in Truckee, Calif. That was the four-time PGA Tour winner’s best showing on that circuit since March 2024. Laird finished with 33 points in the modified Stableford system popularized by The International at Castle Points Golf Club. He ended up 14 points behind champion Ryan Gerard, who had Coloradan Steve “Pepsi” Hale caddying for him. SCORES
About the Writer: Gary Baines has covered golf in Colorado continuously since 1983. He was a sports writer at the Daily Camera newspaper in Boulder, then the sports editor there, and has written regularly for ColoradoGolf.org since 2009. The University of Colorado Evans Scholar alum was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 2022. He owns and operates ColoradoGolfJournal.com