PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – Beset with putting woes since June, Wyndham Clark flew in early on Sunday and laid out nine different putters on the practice green at Pebble Beach Golf Links in hopes of finding some magic. Did he ever.
No player has ever had a better round of golf at Pebble Beach than Clark. The reigning U.S. Open champion made nearly everything he looked at and shot a course-record 12-under 60 at Pebble Beach Golf Links on Saturday to take the lead after the third round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
“I think in the past I would have kind of coasted in and shot a nice 8, 9 under,” he said. “To keep the pedal down and to stay aggressive mentally was the most impressive thing to myself. And then obviously making all those putts was, you know, out of the ordinary, it was pretty awesome.”
Preferred lies were in effect, but nevertheless, on some of the bumpiest poa annua greens the PGA Tour plays all year, he made 189 feet, 9 inches of putts, the most made by a competitor in a round at Pebble since they started tracking the stat in 2003, and three strokes better than the next-best round by Jason Day. When John Ellis, Clark’s caddie was asked if that’s the best he’s seen his boss putt, he answered, “I’ve never seen a human putt better let alone my own guy.”
Clark, who had shot 67 at Pebble a day earlier, his previous round on the famed links on the Monterey Peninsula, canned a 40-foot eagle putt at the par-5 second hole to get the party started. He made his first of nine birdies on the day at the fourth hole and when he rolled in a 42-foot eagle at the par-5 sixth, he joked to Ellis, “just give me eagle putts, I’ll make them.”
He wedged inside three feet at the famous par-3 seventh, which played just 99 yards downhill in the third round. He tacked on birdies on Nos. eight and nine to tour the front in 8-under 28, one of just four players ever to sign for that total. He had already made 150 feet, 10 inches in putts, nearly 25 feet better than the next best putting performance on the front nine dating to 2003 (Charley Hoffman, 126 feet, 3 inches, in the second round in 2021), and only 6 feet less than his 18-hole personal best of 156 feet, 6 inches in the third round of the 2020 Shriners Children’s Open.
The nerves kicked in at 10 as did the #59Watch, but he kept making birdies at Nos. 10 and 11.
“It was legit,” said Matt Kuchar, who played in Clark’s threesome. “When he birdied 10, it was like, wow, this is for real and then he dribbled it in at 11 and it was like, Wow.”
“The hole looked huge,” Clark said.
It’s hard to believe but Clark has struggled with his putting since winning the U.S. Open in June. He had asked putting guru Phil Kenyon for help, but his lesson book already is filled with the likes of Max Homa, Scottie Scheffler and Matt Fitzpatrick. He recommended his colleague Mike Kanski, who flew in to meet with Clark for the first time on Sunday. The big change? He removed the alignment aid, shortened the putter a bit and switched from a conventional grip to putting cross-handed.
“A lot of big changes, but when you’re in a spot where I was mentally in putting you kind of needed a change, just something totally different so you couldn’t complain or have those same feels that I had in previous tournaments,” Clark explained.
Clark began working with mental coach Julie Elion last year and her advice this week was to eliminate any goals associated with putting.
“We’re putting too much emphasis on the putting. We were trying to have the best attitude we could possibly have, especially coming into greens like this where they are really bumpy, so slopey and it makes it really hard to make putts,” he said.
Clark’s round of 60 included one bogey, at the par-3 12th, where his tee shot caught the bunker fronting the green and he had a fried egg lie. He hacked it out but ended up with a precarious lie and if he stood in the greenside bunker to play his third shot right-handed, the ball would’ve been so far above his feet that he worried he would hit the hosel. So, he elected to play it left-handed, advancing the ball to the fringe 26 feet from the hole and then made the most unlikely of bogeys – “a round saver,” he said — as he poured in yet another putt.
“Of any of the putts today that I was not really trying to make was that one,” he added. “I really was just focused on my speed and just trying to get it down there, two-putt, get the double, go to the next hole and move on. For that to go in, it was like all right, man, I’m hot.”
Hot enough to make birdies at Nos. 13 and 14 to improve to 11-under for the day and two shots clear of the field. He caught a good break when he tugged his tee shot into the left rough at 16. He was granted a free drop from a burrowing animal hole. But left his 10-foot birdie putt short. He had another good look from 14 feet at No. 17 and was short again. Standing on the 18th tee, he said he thought to himself, “My gosh, it would have been really nice to have one of those last two because then I only have to birdie 18.”
Could he make a third eagle of the day at the par-5 18th?
“Once I hit the fairway on 18 I knew I was going to have a chance to hopefully try to shoot that special number,” he said of a 59.
A putt for 59 …
@Wyndham_Clark has 26 feet for history @ATTProAm. pic.twitter.com/nYgEXGfQny— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) February 3, 2024
From 230 yards, Clark drilled his second shot to 26 feet. He backed off the putt and went through his routine a second time.
“I thought I had maybe like a little sand on it,” he explained. “I was like, all right, I’m gonna make sure if I’m hitting this putt I’m completely committed.”
It was all for naught. He missed short on the right, tapping in for one final birdie to shatter the tournament record by two and the old men’s record of 61 held by Texas Tech golfer Hurly Long in the 2017 Carmel Cup, a men’s collegiate event. (Rose Zhang set the women’s course record in 2022 at the same tournament, shooting 63.) He had started the round six back and leapfrogged one stroke ahead of Ludvig Aberg (67). With high winds and rain in the forecast, there’s a chance that Clark will be declared the winner and the signature event shortened to 54 holes. Clark said he factored that into his approach on Moving Day.
“You’ve got to have that mentality that today’s the last day so try to go for broke,” he said.
With a sheepish grin, he waved to the spectators and gave a thumbs up as he walked off the green, knowing how close he was from joining an exclusive group to break the sub-60 club in Tour history. But Clark still was proud of his slice of Pebble Beach history, which was also the 54th 60 in PGA Tour history.
“I haven’t shot 59, but I would say even if I had shot 59 somewhere, I don’t think it would compare to shooting a score like this at one of the most historic golf courses in the world,” Clark said.
The words inscribed on his caddie’s cap read “Have A Day,” and that Clark most definitely did.
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 tag=451204418]