Wyndham Clark is trusting the process, and his game could be peaking at the perfect time in Colorado return

CASTLE ROCK — Given the way he’s played recently, the hometown crowd could be in for something special if Wyndham Clark is anywhere near the top of the leaderboard here Sunday morning.

Clark, who grew up playing on Front Range courses, is back to play a PGA Tour event in his home state for the first time. He enters the weekend as the No. 6-ranked player on the tour, fresh off an appearance at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.

His year started great, had some wobbles in the middle and could be turning around at the right time in the second of three FedEx Cup playoff events — the BMW Championship at Castle Pines Golf Club this Thursday through Sunday.

“I’ve gone back to a little bit more of a process. I think I was getting a little too outcome-focused,” Clark said this week. “As I had some early success in the year and was playing amazing golf, I think I just got — just falling short of Scottie (Sheffler) a couple of times and then you’re thinking, okay — I just got too much into winning and trying to break through and win in some of those big events.

“Then I got away from everything that made me successful, and I feel like recently kind of in the last probably four weeks I’ve gotten back to the process of focusing on the things that got me here, playing good golf, and I’ve started to play good golf.”

Clark won for the third time on the PGA Tour at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in February. That tournament only had three rounds, but his charge to the finish line with a 60 to finish at 17-under-par was a harbinger of things to come.

He has not won since Pebble Beach, but Clark has made Sunday surges up the leaderboard a staple of his recent play. There was a 63 on Sunday at The Travelers Championship in June to finish tied for ninth. Then a 62 at the Scottish Open in July for another backdoor top-10.

Clark missed the cut at The British Open, but his last two events — the Olympics in France and the FedEx St. Jude Championship — have followed a similar script. It’s been a slow start, but a scorching-hot finish.

“I really feel like when I’m playing my best, it’s very process (oriented),” Clark said. “All I care about is my routine, doing the best I can before I get into the ball mentally, post-shot mentally, post-round, before round. That’s all I cared about, and that’s all I judge myself on.

“I think I just crept in a little bit too much of looking at the scoreboard and trying to force things to happen rather than just let them happen.”

Clark said he tries to avoid what is written and said about him in the media, but something about how he played when he scuffled through a 75 in the opening round at the Olympics found its way into his orbit.

That may have provided a little extra motivation. Either way, he went 68-65-65 over the final three rounds and the momentum he felt he was creating was fully restored.

“Even that back nine on that first day, I just hit it in the water and missed a couple of short putts, otherwise it probably would have been an even par or a 1-under round,” Clark said. “We might be talking about a bronze medal if that back nine was a little bit different.

“That definitely was a huge confidence boost for me because I know there was a lot of media talk about me being there and how bad I played and whatnot, and I wanted to prove to myself and my country that I’m a top American player.”

Now he arrives home in Colorado, with a chance to put an exclamation point on what has been a second straight successful season after four years of grinding as a pro. Clark has seven top-10 finishes this year in 18 events, including three of the past five.

When he’s on, Clark is right there with the best in the world — a fact he proved in May 2023 when he won the U.S. Open at the Los Angeles Country Club. If he can avoid a slow start at Castle Pines, he might get the chance to lean on a hometown crowd ready to cheer him to victory.

“Obviously what Scottie and Xander (Schaufele) are doing, I think everyone is holding all of us to a really high standard compared to them,” Clark said, referencing the top two players in the FedExCup Playoffs standings. “But it was an amazing year. Last year I was roughly in the same spot coming into this event; I was in fifth. Last year was an amazing year, too.

“It’s been an amazing run of two years, and I’m really pleased, and I’m hoping this is just an upward trend.”

Want more sports news? Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver’s teams.