Wyndham Clark was on fire, but he was also staring a double (or worse) right in the face.
To set the scene, Clark blitz the front nine at Pebble Beach during the third round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. The 2023 U.S. Open winner made 150 feet of putts and two eagles on his way to an outward 28.
The beginning of the back nine was more of the same as he birdied both 10 and 11 to open a two-shot lead after starting the day six back.
But Clark finally ran afoul on Pebble’s tricky par-3 12th. Trying to work against his natural shot-shape and hit a draw into the left hole location, Clark hit it “fat” and left it well short and right of the hole in a bunker.
His ball plugged in the sand, leaving him a very awkward shot, some 40 yards over the front left bunker to get to the pin. The best he could manage was to get his ball onto the bank of the other bunker.
Now Clark, laying three, was faced with an even more difficult shot because he would either need to stand in the sand and grip up to the steel of the shaft or flip his club upside down and hit it left-handed.
“I don’t love this option,” said Jim Nantz on the CBS broadcast as Clark began trying to take a stance lefty.
Behind 150 feet of putts made over 9 holes, major winner makes Pebble history
“Me either,” replied analyst Trevor Immelman. “Especially out of the longer rough. It might be possible if it had a cleaner lie.”
Clark and caddie John Ellis went back and forth on the options, switching clubs, before finally deciding to attempt it left.
“Oh my goodness, he’s going to go with the left-handed option,” Nantz said in horror. “If this goes in, I think everyone can just go home. We’ve seen it all.”
It didn’t. The ball shot out to the right and skidded across the green, just settling in the first cut, 26 feet from the hole.
But, Clark was having an otherworldly day with his putter. The two-time PGA Tour winner, who hadn’t missed a putt since the 5th hole, drilled the putt, his fist rising in celebration before the ball even fell.
“It’s incredible!” Nantz said. “Gets out of here with a bogey.”
As Natnz pointed out, the stats won’t see Clark’s fourth shot as a putt, but it just added to the historic day he was having on one of the Tour’s most historic courses.
He then proceeded to drill a 13-footer on 13 to get the dropped shot back immediately. He birdied 14 too to get to 11 under as he chased Pebble Beach’s tournament course record of 10-under 62 and overall record of 61.