From 173rd in Strokes Gained: Approach. To 29th.
From statistically struggling on shots hit toward the green. To becoming one of the PGA Tour’s best.
All in just one season for Wyndham Clark — 2021-22 to 2022-23.
There are questions here, of course. Has he figured something out? Seems like it. He also won a U.S. Open in that stretch.
Would he be willing to share, though?
Yessir. Have a look at the video below. It’s the latest episode of GOLF’s Warming up. We’ll wait.
Good stuff. Clark dished on all things swing. Including how best to hit a cut — which you can watch starting at about the 12-minute mark. There, Clark had a few thoughts, after host Dylan Dethier asked him whether he made any adjustments for the shot, or whether the cut was his natural shot shape.
Clark said he makes a few simple moves:
— On a standard shot, he said his ball is lined up neutral in his stance and that he’s aimed at the target. But on the cut, he aims left.
— The ball position goes up a “fraction” in his stance.
— “Then what I just try to feel,” he said on the video, “is that I just keep that face open to the path. And so as I’m set up here to hit another cut — so I feel like I’m left of the target and then I just try and hold the face just a little bit to hit a nice little cut like that.”
On the video, Clark then hit.
Said Dethier: “Sweet.”
Said Clark: “Yeah.”
Said Dethier: “Whew, right on it.”
Notably, Clark said his caddie, John Ellis, helps guide his range work, and he’d maybe ask for a draw now. Perhaps he’d require extra yards during a round.
The peculiar way that Wyndham Clark begins his range sessions
“So we’ll go through shots,” Clark said, “where he’s like, OK, today on — you know, it’s all assuming we hit the tee ball exactly where we want and we’re in the fairway, but he’s like, OK, we’re going to have, it’s back-left pin on, you know, whatever hole, and he goes, we’re going to have 148 and I’m hitting my pitching wedge 144 that week, so he goes, we need four to five extra yards. I’ll hit a tight draw to try to gain that extra yardage and so I’ll set up and kind of visualize the shot.”
On the video, Clark picked a target. He hit.
The ball drew.
Said Dethier: “Nice. Look at you, you got that draw left going into the wind even.”
Said Clark: “Yeah, I’m actually swinging better than I thought I would this morning.”