CROMWELL, Conn. — Earlier than Thursday’s first spherical on the Vacationers Championship, Wyndham Clark had not recorded a spherical within the 60s for the reason that RBC Heritage concluded two months in the past.
He has had a troublesome stretch, lacking the reduce on the PGA Championship and the Memorial. Then, ultimately week’s U.S. Open, Clark posted a ultimate spherical 77, which plummeted him down the leaderboard and right into a tie for 56th.
But Clark has been laboring in current months, hoping to recreate the magic he had earlier within the yr at Pebble Seashore, when he set a brand new course report and gained the second Signature Occasion of the season.
“To be sincere, it’s among the hardest I’ve labored in a very long time,” Clark mentioned.
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“First, we’re actually attempting to work on the quick sport and really feel like we’ve gotten that to the place it’s in an amazing spot—similar factor with the placing. Then, sadly, you try this, and you then lose your swing. So then I used to be engaged on my swing, and the final two weeks have been a whole lot of grinding on the swing. I really feel like we made some good headway, and I hit it fairly effectively right now.”
Clark posted a strong spherical on Thursday. He posted a 4-under 66 to place himself in competition after day one. The 2023 U.S. Open champion now sits 4 strokes behind Tom Kim, who shot a fabulous 8-under 62 to set the tempo.
“I performed nice. I simply didn’t make the putts on the again 9,” Clark added.
“So I felt prefer it was an entire spherical, and one blemish on this golf course is fairly good.”
His one mistake got here on the par-4 seventeenth, which has water all up the appropriate aspect and in entrance of the inexperienced. It’s a difficult gap, and discovering the golf green is crucial. However Clark pulled his tee shot left and needed to accept a bogey-five.
Regardless of that, Clark received off to a roaring begin, making three birdies over his first 5 holes. He even made a par-breaker on the difficult par-3 fifth, the place Clark produced his greatest shot of the day.
“Simply because I’ve been working so laborious on my swing and hitting cuts, the iron shot I hit on gap 5, I hit a reduce 5-iron in there to about 12 toes,” Clark mentioned.
“That was in all probability the perfect shot for me.”
However he hit loads of terrific photographs all day, though the putter deserted him considerably on the again 9. But, he would a lot fairly miss birdie putts than par tries, which has lately been the case. Absolutely, Clark wouldn’t commerce his place on the leaderboard Thursday for what he needed to endure since mid-April.
Jack Milko is a golf workers author for SB Nation’s Taking part in By way of. Be sure you take a look at @_PlayingThrough for extra golf protection. You possibly can observe him on Twitter @jack_milko as effectively.
