Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Wyndham Clark scores first PGA Tour win in more than 27 months as once-cold putting gets red hot in the Byron Nelson, where he closes with 60 — the same final-round score as when he won at Pebble Beach
By Gary Baines
When Wyndham Clark wins on the PGA Tour, the Denver native doesn’t just out-duel second-level tour players.
When he lifts the trophy, it seems to always be after finishing atop a leaderboard that features some of the game’s elite.
At the 2023 Wells Fargo Championship, Xander Schauffele finished second, and Tommy Fleetwood and Adam Scott fifth.
At the 2023 U.S. Open, Rory McIlroy was runner-up, Scottie Scheffler was third, Cam Smith fourth, and Fleetwood and Rickie Fowler fifth.
At the 2024 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Ludvig Aberg was second , and Scheffler and Justin Thomas sixth.
And on Sunday, when the Colorado Golf Hall of Famer claimed his fourth career PGA Tour title — and first in more than 27 months — it was no different as Scheffler placed third at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson in McKinney, Texas.
And like at Pebble Beach, where Clark set the course record with a 60 in what turned out to be the final round of the weather-shortened event, the Valor Christian grad was lights out with the putter. And that’s saying something considering he’s largely struggled with the flat stick previously in 2026. He came into the week ranked 132nd in strokes gained putting this year.
But this week at TPC Craig Ranch, no one putted better than Clark. On Sunday, he closed with an 11-under-par 60 and sank six putts of 12 feet or more, including a 45-foot big-breaking birdie on No. 15 that had to go over a large swale in the green.
He also made a 15-foot eagle on No. 12 en route to sinking 157, 10 inches feet of putts on Sunday. For the 72 holes, the total was more than 450 feet. It wasn’t quite as good as Clark was when he made more than 215 feet with his putter during his round of 60 at Pebble Beach — but it was quite a performance.
“Any time you win and any time you do it in the fashion I did is very special,” said the 2010 CGA Amateur champion, who celebrated Sunday’s victory with his brother, who drove over after being at a wedding in Austin, and Wyndham’s girlfriend, among others.
“I’ve been in the zone before. Like at Pebble, that was a crazy zone, simply because that golf course and the putts I was making was almost like out of this world just because those greens are so difficult.
“Here it just almost felt like I was playing at home, and every hole was a new hole. I didn’t worry that I just made six birdies or that I needed to make more. I just was like, ‘All right, I have this 20-footer.’ I see it left edge, and I’d hit it, and it would go in. It was a different zone than I’ve been in before, that’s for sure.”
Of the five PGA Tour events that have ever been won with a final round of 60 or lower, Clark is now on the list twice, with David Duval (59 at 1999 American Express), Stuart Appleby (59 at 2010 Greenbrier Classic) and Tommy Gainey (60 at 2012 RSM Classic) having each accomplished the feat once.
This time, it all added up to Clark’s first PGA Tour victory since early February 2024. Asked about his journey over the last few years — when he’s gone from being ranked third in the world to No. 75 coming into the week — Clark said, “It’s been a pretty heavy fall. It’s frustrating, but that’s golf. I went through kind of a tough spurt, not swinging it good, not feeling comfortable with a lot of things, and I did a lot of work this off-season working on my golf swing. Then I started hitting it better but wasn’t making the putts. Then I finally landed on a great putter, and then everything’s been kind of coming together.
“Needless to say, it feels amazing to be back in the winner’s circle. I feel like my game’s trending in a great direction to continue to have success through the rest of the year.”
Clark reacts to one of the many putts he sank on Sunday.
As he noted, helping turn the corner in his game has been a putter switch for Clark, who has been using a Ping Scottsdale Tec Ally Blue Onset since the Masters.
On Sunday, Clark broke open a duel with Si Woo Kim with a 7-under 28 on the back nine. In fact, he played his final eight holes in 7 under. The 28 tied the lowest nine holes shot on the PGA Tour this year.
“It’s really hard to do that on Sunday,” said Kim, who finished second, three behind Clark, after starting the final day with a two-stroke lead. “I know he’s a major champion and that he can do it. It was so impressive. Congrats to Wyndham. He played great.”
Added Scheffler. the world’s No. 1-ranked player, who ended up five back of Clark after starting the day tied with him: “Sometimes you’ve just got to tip your cap and say ‘Good playing.’ 60 was going to be pretty tough to beat today.”
Clark led the field in putting at the Byron Nelson.
For someone who struggled in various respects over the last year and a half, it was a big turn in the right direction for Clark. Not only was Sunday his first top-10 finish on the PGA Tour since the British Open last July, he had hurt his reputation with two temper-related incidents a year ago. He damaged lockers at historic Oakmont Country Club after he missed the cut in the 2025 U.S. Open. And a month earlier, he apologized for throwing a club — and damaging a sign — at the 2025 PGA Championship.
“I have to first thank a lot of people because what happened last year at Oakmont wasn’t the greatest thing, and my sponsors … all of them stayed with me, which means lots, so I’m very thankful for that,” Clark told CBS in his post-round interview on Sunday. “And, you know, the greatest thing about having a downfall like that is the comeback, and today feels really special after having a really tough year and grinding it out.”
After a nine-month stretch in 2023 and ’24 when Clark won three times, as noted he reached as high as being ranked No. 3 in the world. Then in 2025 and in the first few months of ’26, things took a marked turn. From September 2024 until this week, Clark had posted just two top-10s — until winning on Sunday.
Last fall, he worked on his swing with Pat Coyner, PGA director of instruction at Cherry Hills Country Club, where Clark grew up and was awarded an honorary membership last year.
But it was putting that put Clark over the top this week. On Sunday, for instance, the birdie/eagle/par putts he made included ones of 21 feet (No. 2), 16 feet (No. 6), 12 feet (No. 8), 15 feet (No. 12), 45 (No. 15) and 12 feet (No. 17). Then he closed things out with a 31-inch birdie on 18 that left him at a whopping 30 under par for the week. Clark picked up 12.6 strokes on the field with his putter this week.
Afterward, he was greeted behind the 18th green by numerous supporters, notably including John Ellis, the caddie with whom Clark worked for about eight years before the former U.S. Open champ made a change to Dave Pelekoudas in March.
There was some nice symmetry for Clark regarding Byron Nelson, the World Golf Hall of Famer. Not only did he win the tournament with Nelson’s name on it on Sunday, in 2012 he was a recipient of one of the Byron Nelson International Junior Golf Awards.
Sunday’s win came with a $1,854,000 check for Clark, who moved up to No. 34 in the season-long FedExCup points standings. He’s now exempt into the remain signature events in 2026.
For all the scores from the Nelson, CLICK HERE.
Elsewhere in high-level tour golf for players with strong Colorado connections:
— Former University of Denver standout Anna Zanusso placed tied for third on Saturday in the Lalla Meryem Cup in Morocco, giving her her best showing ever on the Ladies European Tour.
It was Zanusso’s second top-4 finish in May as he ended up fourth in a tournament in Mauritius on May 3.
Zanusso, an Italian, went 72-67-70 for a 10-under-par total, despite making double bogey on No. 16 on Sunday. She finished four strokes behind champion Anna Huang of Canada.
She earned 23,625 euros ($27,496) for the performance.
— Former University of Colorado golfer Justin Biwer finished ninth on Sunday in the KIA Open de Ecuador, marking the best showing of his rookie season on PGA Tour Americas.
Biwer shot a bogey-free 7-under-par 65 in the final round to check in at 16 under, five behind winner Joey Savoie. He eagled the par-5 17th hole to go along with five birdies on Sunday.
Biwer’s best finish in three previous starts on PGA Tour Americas was a 31st place.
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