PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — They say failure is life’s greatest teacher. That falling is the only way we learn how high we can climb.
Perhaps that’s true for some, depending on what arena of life they exist. But in professional golf, where failure is far more likely, success —the reaching of the mountaintop — can often be the key to unlocking everything.
For Wyndham Clark, his victory two years ago at the 2023 U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club showed him what he’s capable of — the place he can hold in elite men’s professional golf.
“I bet you most people would say they learn a lot after losing. I’ve lost a lot in my career,” Clark said Wednesday at TPC Sawgrass ahead of the 2025 Players Championship. “I feel like I’ve learned those lessons, and so it was really nice to learn how to win and have that feeling and to embrace that and what that can mean for my future and in future moments that I get in similar situations that I can rely on those moments, what I learned during LACC.”
While his U.S. Open victory serves as a guiding light, Clark arrived at TPC Sawgrass with last year’s Players Championship heartbreak still fresh in his mind. The wound of his tournament-tying birdie attempt lipping out on the 72nd hole serves as a vicious reminder of what could have been and what transpired since.
“The thing that gets me now is just — if I would have, let’s say, parred all the holes and you had that putt to force a playoff and I miss, you’re bummed,” Clark said on Wednesday. “But I think the fact that I birdied 16, birdied 17, and if I would have birdied 18, forced a playoff and somehow would have won in the playoff, my mind goes to that could have been one of the best finishes in Players history, and it would be shown on all different highlights for a long time. I look at little things like that, like man, that could have been a really cool moment for myself and my career.”
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Clark arrived at the PGA Tour’s flagship event last year with a win at the rain-shortened Pebble Beach Pro-Am under his belt. He was fresh off a second-place finish at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and was undoubtedly one of the best players in the world.
Then came the lip-out.
Clark then missed the cut at three of the four majors, with a T56 finish at the U.S. Open serving as the only time he saw the weekend at one of golf’s premier events — the ones that craft the narrative that the golf world remembers.
The lip-out, the type of Players highlight Clark didn’t want to be associated with, might not have been the catalyst for his slide. But his journey back to finding the Wyndham Clark who lifted the trophy at LACC might start at the place where the golf gods denied him.
“The lip-out obviously was tough, but that’s not really where I felt like I lost it,” Clark said. “But at that time, I felt like I was playing some of the best golf and definitely some of the most consistent golf on the PGA Tour. Then I kind of followed it up with good play at RBC, and then the year fell off a little bit.
“I’m hoping to try to get back into that quality golf. I felt like the consistency was so great and always just kind of knocking on the door.”
Like so much in golf, the search for consistent, quality play starts with a feeling. It’s not something tangible — not pured irons or blistered drives. It’s something only Clark can discern. The joy that arrives from being the version of yourself that you aspire to. From not sacrificing the gift.
“My biggest thing is kind of playing to my potential, and whether that changes each day and each tournament, but I get frustrated when I have lack of focus, or I get angry out there, or I’m giving away shots or not playing to my potential,” Clark said. “Those are things that frustrate me. When I am enjoying myself on the golf course, I feel like I’m maximizing those things. I’m having fun with my caddie. I’m really embracing the moment. Those are things I’m trying to get back to because I think I play my best golf when I’m in that state of mind.
“I’m hoping I’m there this week, and if not, I’m hoping I’m building towards getting there in the coming weeks.”
In a twist of fate that only sport, and golf, in particular, can deliver, Clark’s defining triumph fueled his rise and caused the ground to shift beneath his feet.
Wins and success breed expectations. Expectations, especially those unmet, can cause you to press and lead to joy slipping out of your fingers. That’s true of golf at any level. The endless quest to capture and bottle a feeling can drive anyone mad, especially the longer it eludes you.
“It has been frustrating,” Clark said. “It’s funny how you have success, and you win a major, you win some tournaments, and then everyone expects you to do that all the time. [Scottie Scheffler] is doing that all the time, and it’s very impressive, but no one else is really doing that.
“It’s kind of put some undue pressure on me specifically … It’s tough because sometimes your expectations get skewed either by the media or outside people. My thing is, I’m just trying to get back into playing good golf and enjoying it and not raising those expectations because they have been raised a little bit. I feel like it’s hurt me a little bit.”
Clark has made six starts this season. He has zero top-10 finishes and ranks 69th in total Strokes Gained among players with at least 10 Shotlink rounds, per DataGolf. He ranks 75th in SG: off the tee, 96th in approach, 30th in around the green and 74th in putting.
He entered last weekend at the Arnold Palmer Invitational two shots behind 36-hole leader Shane Lowry, but his chances quickly evaporated on the weekend thanks to a Saturday 76.
He arrives at TPC Sawgrass still looking for the golf and joy he was on the cusp of capturing last year on a course that has crowned and humiliated golf royalty.
That search could end this week. It could be a stepping stone to his desired destination. Or it could be another week in Wyndham Clark’s journey to find the feeling he has been missing ever since fate rejected his roll toward Players Championship history.
