NORTON< Mass – Wyndham Clark embraces the rowdiness of the crowds at the Presidents Cup and the Ryder Cup and he wouldn’t mind if that fan reaction carried over to the PGA Tour, but not every week.
“I love when there’s a lot of fans and I love when there’s a lot of energy at a golf course,” he said during the Travelers Championship fall media day at TPC Boston on Tuesday. “I just think it brings you alive, and making putts and hearing roars is so much fun, but I think there’s a time and place for it. I just don’t think if you had it every week, you’d have that atmosphere.”
Clark posted a 1-2-1 record for the U.S. Presidents Cup team last weekend in its 18.5-11.5 victory over the International team at Royal Montreal Golf Club in Canada.
The U.S. posted the most lopsided victory over the International team since the Presidents Cup began in 1994 and won the event for the 10th consecutive time. The U.S. leads, 13-1-1, in the competition.
In the Ryder Cup outside Rome last year, Clark went 1-1-1 as the U.S. lost to Europe, 16.5-11.5.
Clark, 30, of Scottsdale, Arizona, compared being a member of a Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup team to playing for a college team in that the players travel and practice together and root for one another against the opponent.
“But as far as the magnitude and how big it is, it’s a lot bigger than college golf,” he said, “but I think for golf it’s so unique because it’s like the combination of a major and an NBA basketball game or an NFL game. You’re playing golf and you get inside the ropes and it feels like golf, but then the fans react like it’s a different sport and you can act like it’s a different sport. I think all the etiquette in golf that I love, a little bit of it goes outside the window and it becomes a battle inside the ropes, which is really fun.”
The Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Conn., has been the only PGA Tour event in New England since TPC Boston hosted the last of its 17 PGA Tour events in 2020. So for the second consecutive year, the Travelers held a fall media day at TPC Boston to drum up interest.
Nathan Grube, Travelers tournament director since 2005, said the tournament has seen an uptick in fans from Massachusetts and he appreciated the support of Mass Golf in promoting the event.
Last June, Scottie Scheffler won the Travelers by defeating Tom Kim on the first hole of a playoff. Kim had drained a clutch putt on the final hole of regulation to force the playoff. Scheffler and Kim are good friends and they enjoyed celebrating at each other’s expense after both sank long putts during their four-ball match at the Presidents Cup.
“It’s fun to watch the drama unfold,” Grube said, “especially when you know these guys personally. That was fun to see. I know Tom probably would have wished for a different result, but it was fun to see them go at it again.”
Clark made his PGA Tour debut in the 2017 Travelers after he received a sponsor exemption. He’s gone on to win three PGA Tour events, including the 2023 U.S. Open.
“We’ve had a relationship with him over the years,” Grube said. “So to see the success that he’s had and how he’s done it, how he’s been very open with his game and his personal life. He’s one of those players you get behind because he’s been so open about his story and who he is and what he’s about. It’s fun to be part of his story.”
Clark has been open about his struggles after his mother, Lise, died of breast cancer in 2013, the summer before his sophomore year at Oklahoma State. He ended up transferring to Oregon and he uses her memory as motivation and inspiration on the golf course.
Clark tied for ninth at the Travelers in June, but he did win the Umbrella at 15 1/2 Challenge, a closest-to-the-pin competition and the Travelers awarded $10,000 to the charity of Clark’s choice. Clark chose the Play Big Foundation, which he started after the death of mother.
“It means a lot,” he said. “It’s going to a good cause. Those are really important things. Obviously, winning tournaments is great, but your legacy and the lasting things that you do in this world matter more and I think that money going to the foundation is going to do more good than me winning golf tournaments.”
Grub jokingly claimed winning the closest to the pin contest meant more to Clark than winning the 2023 U.S. Open. While Clark wouldn’t go quite that far, he did say that if he had won a medal at the Olympics in Paris this summer, that would have ranked as his greatest athletic accomplishment. That’s how much he enjoyed being an Olympian.
The Travelers raised a tournament-record $3.2 million this year for 206 charities, including some in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Since Travelers became the title sponsor in 2007, the tournament has raised more than $31 million for charity.
In 2024, Clark earned his third PGA Tour victory at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in February and he pocketed $10.9 million for the season.
Clark enjoys playing at TPC River Highlands.
“I think it’s probably the most underrated golf course we play on tour,” he said.
In 2020, Clark played TPC Boston for the only time. With no fans in attendance due to the pandemic, he tied for 29th in the Northern Trust in the first round of the FedEx Cup Playoffs. Dustin Johnson shot 30-under to beat runner-up Harris English by 11 shots.
“It was an interesting time,” he said. “No one was here. That time during Covid, golf was really flat for me. There was no excitement with no fans. It’s amazing what fans do and bring to a golf tournament. But I do remember really liking this golf course. There are a lot of challenging shots and I think it’s one of the best TPCs that the PGA Tour has.”
Clark said he wished there were more PGA Tour events in New England and New York.
“I just think this area has some of the best golf and the fans are amazing sports fans,” he said. “I think it would be great for golf if we played more than just the Travelers in the northeast.”
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