NAPA, Calif. — Wyndham Clark said he loves the wine and all the delicious food that this region of Northern California is known for. He also enjoys the North Course at Silverado Resort, which is hosting this week’s tournament. Procore Championship. But in his pre-tournament press conference ahead of this week’s tournament, Clark made it clear that he was playing in the first FedEx Cup Fall event for a specific reason.
“I think last time I made a mistake,” he said of his international team competition debut last fall in Rome. “I took too much rest and wasn’t really prepared for the Ryder Cup, and this year I wanted to make sure I didn’t do that. There’s no better preparation than playing against the best players. I think that’s the best preparation you can have.”
Clark explained the mistake he and several of his teammates made. Last year, without the Olympics on the schedule, the Tour Championship ended Aug. 27, more than a month before the Ryder Cup began Sept. 29. Clark opted out of the Napa stop last year.
“Last year I actually had four weeks off,” Clark said. “And then by the time I decided to play, it was week five, so that’s five weeks. I would never prepare for a big event where I had five weeks off between tournaments.”
Clark said he showed up rusty against Marco Simone and didn’t feel up to par when he played his first match Friday afternoon, a four-ball match with partner Max Homa against Team Europe’s Robert MacIntyre and Justin Rose.
“After four holes, I said (to Homa), ‘Man, I’m sorry,’” Clark said, “because I didn’t play the first four holes well. I said, ‘I’m sorry, I’m not ready for the tournament right now, I’m going to get going.’ Then eventually I started to feel more comfortable.”
The Europeans managed to pull themselves together and win the final two holes to tie the match. Clark said he wasn’t the only one struggling with his game.
“I felt like a lot of us weren’t prepared,” he said. “If it’s something that I do myself or I hope Team USA forces everyone to do, I think we should all play first. I know we have a very busy schedule and we all just played the Tour Championship, but if we can just do it — it’s just another week of playing and staying in shape so we can win — I think it’s worth it.”
Clark, the winner of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in February and the world’s No. 6, has also learned another lesson. Last year, he changed his set of clubs, which he had never used in competition before.
“It was really stupid of me,” he said. “I used the same irons and everything, but I adjusted some lie angles and lofts, and I won’t do that again this year.”
Clark also told a humorous story about how a fan managed to piss him off during his first Ryder Cup match.
“I was reading a putt and this guy said to me, ‘Wyndham, you haven’t made a putt since the U.S. Open.’ I hadn’t played good golf at the time, and then I played good at the Tour Championship. I was kind of upset,” Clark recalled. “And then I made this putt and I looked at the crowd or something. And Max was like, ‘What are you doing?’ I said, ‘Well, this guy said I haven’t made a putt since the U.S. Open.’ He said, ‘Well, you just made one.’”
“Then I made one on the next hole, turned around and kissed the guy’s putter and Max started laughing. We laughed about it for two holes. The great thing is we were in such a good mood that we kept making birdies and keeping our momentum going. It was very funny. There were other words said, I can’t repeat what was said, but it was just a very funny moment, so it’s something we’ll both remember forever.”
This article was originally published on Golfweek: ‘I made a mistake’: Wyndham Clark admits he was rusty at Ryder Cup. That’s why he’s playing Procore Championship
