{"id":54008,"date":"2026-08-21T19:31:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T19:31:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/54008\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T19:31:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T19:31:19","slug":"wyndham-clark-on-fans-his-caddie-and-fedexcup-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/54008\/","title":{"rendered":"Wyndham Clark on Fans, His Caddie, and FedExCup 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Estimated4 min read<\/p>\n

Wyndham Clark had something of a rough 2025. After missing the cut at the U.S. Open at Oakmont, he damaged a locker in the clubhouse in frustration, resulting in an indefinite ban from the club. The incident\u2014though he apologized<\/a> and took accountability\u2014damaged his relationship with fans, resulting in them rooting against him at subsequent tournaments.<\/p>\n

A year later, though, he triumphed at the 2026 U.S. Open at Shinnecock. His second U.S. Open win felt like validation, he said. Winning the major in 2023 was \u201camazing,\u201d he says, before adding, \u201cbut you still think, \u2018Man, I haven\u2019t played good in the other majors. Was that luck? Was it just kind of my week and maybe it won\u2019t happen again?\u2019 So [to] win twice, it really shows: The first one was real, and the second one just shows that I can win major championships.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"2026Andrew Redington\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Clark celebrates with the U.S. Open Championship Trophy after winning at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in June.<\/p>\n

Also key to his victory, Clark says, was \u201covercoming\u201d what happened at the U.S. Open last year. \u201cTo come back and win and show the fans that that wasn\u2019t the Wyndham Clark that I want them to know\u2014or see what happened at Oakmont [as] how they view me.\u201d He continues, \u201cAs I played and won in Shinnecock, I feel like I\u2019ve kind of switched the narrative a little bit with the fans and people are starting to really root for me again, which is obviously really nice as a player and a person just to be like, \u2018okay, people like me, they\u2019re not trying to bring me down.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s tough to play when the crowd is against you, Clark says. \u201cPeople love chirping at athletes and you give them anything, you give them an inch, they go a mile,\u201d he says. \u201cIt is a little difficult. I mean, there\u2019s just not as much momentum. But someone told me, they\u2019re like, \u2018Hey, Darth Vader had more fun.\u2019 I\u2019m not Darth Vader, but they\u2019re like, \u2018Sometimes that\u2019s fun.\u2019 But now people are rooting for me, and that just makes you feel good and helps you build momentum.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"GenesisSean M. Haffey\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Clark and his caddie David Pelekoudas, known as \u201cBig Wave Dave.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clark has also made changes behind the scenes this season, including hiring a new caddie. One of his best friends, John Ellis, had been carrying his bag since 2017. They mutually parted ways<\/a> earlier this year. \u201cWe had tons of success,\u201d says Clark, \u201cbut I think caddie-player relationship is like a marriage, and we spent so much time together. We chose our relationship over the job.\u201d (Ellis and Clark met when he was an undergraduate at the University of Oregon, and Ellis was an assistant coach on the men\u2019s golf team.) With his new caddie, David Pelekoudas, known as \u201cBig Wave Dave\u201d on tour, we are \u201cable to separate business and friendship a little bit better.\u201d Clark says the arrangement works \u201cbetter than I could have imagined\u2014and quicker.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite no longer working with his collegiate coach, Clark views his time as an undergraduate as formative. \u201cI look back and realize how much fun being on a team was,\u201d he says. \u201cYou had to go to class for a few hours each day and then we\u2019re playing golf. You\u2019re hanging out with friends, going to sporting events, and really didn\u2019t have too many worries. I would go back in an instant to go play college golf again.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sport has changed a lot since he was in college, he says, namely: golf is now \u201ccool.\u201d \u201cWhen I was in high school, I played a bunch of other sports and my buddies that played basketball, football always used to make fun of me and be like, \u2018Oh man, you play golf, that\u2019s lame.\u2019 Now they\u2019re all asking, \u2018What club should I get?\u2019 And they\u2019re now obsessed with golf. And you see rappers and musicians and other athletes like LeBron James are into golf,\u201d Clark says. (His dream celebrity foursome: Kevin Hart, Steph Curry<\/a>, and Katt Williams.)<\/p>\n

He adds, \u201cIt\u2019s just been really great for golf\u2014and obviously great for us at the highest part of the game to have more fans, new fans. It\u2019s been a fun ride the last two, three years after COVID where golf is really on the rise.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"2026Tracy Wilcox\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Clark and his girlfriend Emily Tanner.<\/p>\n

Once the season winds down, though, Clark is looking forward to stepping away from the game for a bit. He has trips planned later this year to Cabo and South Africa, and says that when he travels, he usually leaves golf behind. \u201cI just want to immerse myself in the culture, see all the sites you want to see, eat all the great food,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen I\u2019m away from golf, I try to really stay away from golf.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, though, his focus is squarely on what\u2019s in front of him. After a season in which the narrative around him often threatened to overshadow his play, Clark is back to chasing the thing he enjoys most: Being in the mix. \u201cI just love being in contention and competing,\u201d he says. \u201cHopefully come the back nine on Sunday, I have a chance to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Emily Burack (she\/her) is the Deputy Digital Editor for Town & Country, where she covers entertainment, celebrities, the royals, and a wide range of other topics. Before joining T&C, she was the deputy managing editor at Hey Alma, a Jewish culture site. Follow her @emburack on Instagram, Twitter, and other social media platforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"4 min read Wyndham Clark had something of a rough 2025. After missing the cut at the U.S.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54009,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[1861,3332,20437,1856,3174,1863,1855,20438,20436,17222,1860,1295],"class_list":["post-54008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-open-championship","tag-collection-golf-news","tag-content-type-feature","tag-contentid-72cf637b-259a-4560-97a7-c0cda1cc82bb","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-hasproduct-true","tag-issyndicated-false","tag-locale-us","tag-read_time-4","tag-shorttitle-wyndham-clark-is-winning-back-golf-fans","tag-sponsored-false","tag-subsection-sporting","tag-the-open-championship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}