{"id":54625,"date":"2026-08-23T04:47:27","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T04:47:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/54625\/"},"modified":"2026-08-23T04:47:27","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T04:47:27","slug":"wyndham-clark-slips-up-at-start-but-keeps-foot-on-pedal-to-carry-54-hole-lead-at-bellerive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/54625\/","title":{"rendered":"Wyndham Clark slips up at start but keeps foot on pedal to carry 54-hole lead at Bellerive"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. LOUIS \u2014 It wasn\u2019t an ideal start to his third round but Wyndham Clark responded from a double bogey on the first hole<\/a> at Bellerive Country Club with an impressive front nine that included two birdies and an eagle at the par-5 8th.<\/p>\n

He then opened his back with four birdies out of his first five holes to extend his lead at the BMW Championship to five shots entering Sunday\u2019s final round. <\/p>\n

Gary Woodland, the \u201cKansas boy\u201d who has been loving playing in front of the Missouri crowds <\/a>this week, couldn\u2019t keep up with his playing partner Clark and sits six shots off the lead. Rory McIlroy and Patrick Cantlay are five back, sitting T-2 at 12 under. <\/p>\n

Clark, who was as imposing on the back nine as he\u2019s been all week at the BMW Championship, had been bogey-free through his first two rounds.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t even know how I doubled No. 1, I didn\u2019t even hit that bad of a tee ball \u2014 I got kind of screwed where the ball ended up,\u201d the two-time U.S. Open champ said after the round. \u201cI tried a little bit of a hero shot and then made a couple of mistakes and then said to myself, \u2018Well, that kind of sucked.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Clark had a par putt on the second hole, along with birdie putts at No. 4 and No. 7<\/a> helped him regain his confidence.<\/p>\n

And then came the eagle.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s when I really got into a groove,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In a tournament that lacked separation for two days, Clark was the Moving Day winner even if he didn\u2019t move at all on the leaderboard.<\/p>\n

His attempt for a third consecutive 6-under 64 was denied by another bogey at the par-4 18th but by that time he had already surged out to the biggest lead the tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunate how I finished but I just have to go out and play my game [tomorrow],\u201d Clark said.<\/p>\n

The performance comes at a perfect time for Clark, with Presidents Cup qualifying at stake<\/a> and the Player of the Year debate <\/a>now seemingly revived after Scottie Scheffler\u2019s win in Memphis a week ago. <\/p>\n

Could Clark win the player\u2019s vote with a win in St. Louis and another at the Tour Championship next week in Atlanta? Anything seems possible now.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s trending in a better direction than any part of the year,\u201d said Clark when asked how he felt about his game this last late in the season.<\/p>\n

McIlroy, who pared every hole on his back nine Friday<\/a>, birdied three, Nos. 15 through 17, on Moving Day to help post a 5-under 65.<\/p>\n

It was an effort good enough to get him into the final pairing with Clark.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good to be in the final group, but when you start six, seven back, that\u2019s a lot make up,\u201d McIlroy told reporters. \u201cIf I focus on myself, go out there, try to shoot a good score \u2014 I shot a 64 and a 65 this week \u2014 shoot something similar tomorrow, you never know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because of Bellerive\u2019s size, McIlroy believes he has the ability to chase on Sunday. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think you can be aggressive here,\u201d he said. \u201cI think it\u2019s a better place to chase than say Southwind last week<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three in, three out<\/p>\n

Woodland is fighting to make it to East Lake. He entered the week No. 31 in FedExCup points<\/a> but now projects to be inside the top 20. He heads into the final round T-4 with Chris Gotterup, who bogeyed the par-5 17th on Saturday after playing the first 16 holes without a mistake.<\/p>\n

A considerable way outside of the bubble entering the week at No. 43, Cantlay, also appears primed to play the role of party crasher. <\/p>\n

Outside of the top five on the leaderboard is Colin Morikawa, who sits in solo sixth at 10 under after putting together a bogey-free back nine at Bellerive. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe all want to be there, and this year the format is anyone can win,\u201d said Morikawa of guys trying to play themselves into the Tour Championship field. \u201cYou got to believe that you can do it in four days. No matter how much grinding you got to do, you\u2019re going to put it all in to see if you can pull it off.<\/p>\n

Sungjae Im, who like Woodland and Cantlay, is fighting to extend his season one more week, had a chance to be T-6 with Morikawa but bogeyed his final hole and is at 9 under after 54 holes.<\/p>\n

Im was No. 40 entering the week and projects to be the final man in the field at East Lake<\/a>, ahead of Kurt Kitayama, Bud Cauley and Rickie Fowler. <\/p>\n

Those three players are currently set to be bounced from the Tour Championship field for Woodland, Cantlay and Im. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a long year \u2014 it\u2019s a marathon, not a sprint,\u201d said Cantlay. \u201cI feel like I\u2019ve done a good job pacing myself this year and pacing myself this last month or so, which has been a busy month.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"BMW<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The top 30 players will qualify for the PGA Tour\u2019s playoff finale. Here\u2019s how those around the cut line are faring at Bellerive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. LOUIS \u2014 It wasn\u2019t an ideal start to his third round but Wyndham Clark responded from a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54626,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1288],"class_list":["post-54625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-u-s-open-championship","tag-u-s-open-championship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54625","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=54625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}