CASTLE ROCK, Colorado: Wyndham Clark is feeling more pressure than usual at the BMW Championship.
Hometown events are not all that unusual on the PGA Tour — Max Homa and Collin Morikawa in Los Angeles, Xander Schauffele in San Diego — but they are rare in Clark’s hometown of Denver.
“I grew up coming to this place and always dreamt of playing this tournament,” Clark said at Castle Pines. “When they stopped playing here, it was kind of a stab to the heart for me because it was so fun coming out and watching it. To be back here playing in front of my home crowd is pretty special.”
Clark had an unusual start in the game at a place called Mountain View Range, which since has been replaced by office buildings. He was 3 years old and full of energy. His father was out of town, and his mother was busy with Clark’s sister and newborn brother.
“She was like, ‘I’ve just got to get Wyndham out of the house.’ So she started driving thinking she was going to go to some fun play area and then saw the golf course that was pretty close to our house.”
She pulled in, thinking it would be a distraction.
“I ended up hitting two buckets of balls for like two, three hours and just loved it,” Clark said. “I just was fascinated with hitting the golf ball.”
Clark, the US Open champion last year, had been in a summer lull until he rallied at the Olympics — partly motivated by chatter than Bryson DeChambeau should have been there instead — for a 65-65 weekend.
He shot 64 on Sunday at the TPC Southwind to tie for seventh in the PGA Tour postseason opener. And now he finally gets a crack at Castle Pines, which last hosted the best players at The International in 2006.
“It’s amazing to see where I started at a local muni and then go into the college ranks and being here, it’s pretty awesome,” he said. “It’s always fun coming home because I can see where my roots were and keep me grounded.”
Matters of money
Xander Schauffele is curious why athletes in other sports are celebrated for the contracts they receive, and golf gets negative publicity when it comes to players’ earnings. Money in golf has been a big topic since the arrival of Saudi-funded LIV Golf and the PGA Tour’s response by raising purses to include 11 tournaments that pay $20 million or more.
Scottie Scheffler leads the money list at just over $29 million. Schauffele, a double major winner this year whose consistently high finishes rival Scheffler, is at $17.6 million.
“If you look at how much the 10th-best player in the world has made, it’s not going to sniff how much Scottie has made. That just shows you how well Scottie has played in these big tournaments,” he said.
Shane Lowry is at No. 10 with $5.7 million.
“You look at the No. 1 quarterback, he’s getting $60 million and then the No. 10 quarterback is getting 52 (million),” he said. “Obviously, there’s way more money in football with TV and everything that’s surrounding it. It’s hard to compare the one versus one because Scottie has just been that much more elite. And I think he deserves everything that he’s getting.”
The vote
A popular question this time of the year is who should get player of the year. It’s hard to beat the season Scheffler has had — a major, Players Championship, four signature events and an Olympic golf medal — but Schauffele counters with two majors.
Since the PGA Tour player of the year award began in 1990, the only double major champion not to win the award was Nick Faldo in 1990 because he wasn’t a PGA Tour member.
Players have expressed different opinions on whose year they would rather have. How they vote won’t be determined until sometime in September. Of course, that assumes they vote.
One player who won’t be voting? Scheffler. He doesn’t keep track of how often he has voted, but said, “I don’t think I’ve voted for myself.”
“Maybe I haven’t voted in the past couple years when I felt like I had a chance to win,” he said. “I think maybe I didn’t vote then because I don’t think I’d vote for myself. But just thinking of what I would do this year, I think since I’m in the running I probably would just refrain from voting. I think it would be a bit weird to vote for myself.”
Welcome back to Castle Pines
Only two players from the 50-man field have played at Castle Pines. Just don’t get the idea Adam Scott or Jason Day has any advantage.
Scott played in 2000, just two weeks after he turned 20. He was making his debut at a regular PGA Tour event. Having just turned pro, he had played four times on the European Tour and in the British Open. He received a sponsor exemption.
Day was 18.
“I do remember the elevation change after 1,” Day said. “I do remember 6 — a little bit of 6. I know they changed that. I do remember 7. I know they lengthened that, as well. But some of the other holes are all fuzzy. Eighteen years is a long time.”
His other memory was out of left field.
“I do remember walking up these steps thinking David Toms has an amazing haircut,” Day said. “He had a visor on one time and there was not one bit of hair out of place. I was walking right behind him.”
