Wyndham Clark’s sophisticated reputation comes from the US Open

SOUTHAMPTON, NY — You’re tempted to say, “Enough of that sad episode from last year, Wyndham Clark and the Bashed Oakmont Locker.” Hear it loud and clear. Let me say my piece and leave.

Clark, who won the 2023 US Open, is doing well after missing last year’s US Open. His week is over. If he had been hit by the locker while still in the lineup, could you get a one-shot or even a two-shot penalty for violating the rules of the game’s Code of Conduct, for something outside of the game? It will be up to the rules and competitions committee for each tournament. There is no set standard. (I would say yes.)

At the Masters in April, it’s a different situation. Sergio Garcia hit his driver clean off the second tee in the fourth round. The club official gave him a warning and spoke to him. If the club had given him one penalty, I would have been fine with that. He brings the whole industry into disrepute. He showed a lack of discipline. He has done a disservice to the club where, as a former Masters winner, he is an honorary member. Grow up brother. He is 46 years old.

Part of the scale, when considering a player’s behavior, is how the behavior affects others. Joaquin Niemann received a two-time Code of Conduct penalty for throwing in the second round of the US Open here. It is equal. Not only is it unsightly, a club being thrown can also be dangerous; it’s not like you can really control where they go. In my experience, they go more left than you might think. Mine is sitting on a rough patch. A touring pro’s toss may make the viewer a bit faster.

How about this one? A player taunts a volunteer marshal when the marshal cannot find the player’s ball. Give the player a shot, and talk: Show class, dude.

That’s really what it comes down to. Show up and come to class. Last year at Oakmont, a top USGA official, after hearing how Clark hit the defenseless and ancient Oakmont locker, said, “I’m going to ban him from next year’s Open.” I get it. You play at one of the most amazing golf clubs in the world as a guestand that’s your parting act? This officer was so angry, and he was not alone. It seems like it took a long time for Clark to get his public apology and private restitution, but he did. So, really, let’s get through it. None of us want to be forever remembered for our worst day at the office, or at home for that matter.

I find this, this law enforcement incident involving Clark, more troubling than whipping a locker. I know I’m beating a dead horse here. I just found it hard to let this one go, it was (in my eyes) so big.

Bay Hill, March 2024, third round, 18th hole, cameras on him. Clark is on the third-to-last team, playing with Scottie Scheffler. He hits his shot into the rough right, yards from the pond. His ball settled deep into it. You have, and this is the name of art, nothing. One game: get it out.

But Clark went in there with a heavy flange of a wedge, and shoved it behind the ball four or so times. (The rule book says you can touch that grass “slightly” — the rules want to make sure you don’t advance your lie.) When you do, the ball — to Brandel Chamblee, to me, probably to others — seems to be moving. Your ball cannot move when you talk to it. If it does, it’s a shot and the ball goes back to where it was. That’s why Jack Nicklaus swings – pitching doesn’t talk. The tour rules officials gave and decided not to give Clark a fine. I’m not the only person who was overwhelmed by that.

“The ball obviously moved,” Chamblee said on the Golf Channel that day. “Obviously he didn’t let his club sleep. You start to wonder: What does a Tour player have to do to get a penalty?”

Amen, Brandel.

A few weeks later, at the Masters, I asked Clark about what happened at Bay Hill. This is what he said:

“When we finished that round, we didn’t know why the officials went in there. And obviously, if you watch the tape, it probably doesn’t look good. I mean, one thing in my defense is that I put the club down, I feel like I have the right and the freedom to be able to put the club down where I want. I wasn’t trying to improve my lie in any way.

“But something I talked to my friend about, and he’s like, ‘Hey, the cameras are on us.’ It’s not that I was doing anything wrong before when the cameras weren’t on us, but every little thing we do is magnified when the cameras are on you.

“So maybe now I have to be a little more careful not to put the club down too much. You have to really watch what you’re doing. You’re under a microscope. And it’s unfortunate that the camera looks poor. But I was lying down, no matter what, and I was still sitting. So I didn’t think I’d raised the lie in any way.

“I think that was a one-off, isolated incident. But I would certainly, in my mind, say, ‘Okay, I don’t want to have any question that I’m trying to do anything like cheating, or anything illegal.’ So I will know more about it.

“But I’ve been doing this for years and no one has ever called me out on it. So I don’t know if I’m really going to change it. I might be careful and make sure the optics don’t look like I’m doing anything wrong.”

Many words.

When Tiger Woods hit a tee shot and dropped a f-bomb, it didn’t bother me in part because it didn’t affect the play of the other players. Of course, it showed that his wound was strong. I don’t recommend it. I just don’t think it’s that bad. If you hit the tee mark or the teeing area, that’s another thing. If you’re pushing the rule book in your favor and at the expense of the entire field, that’s another thing. Then break everything that represents the game. You put your needs above the rights of others. Golf is not a place to hold back, hold back, be inconsiderate. Golf preaches mindfulness.

I know I’ve quoted this a hundred times, but these are some of the best golf sentences ever written and it’s too bad they’re no longer in the rulebook as they were, until 2018:

“Golf is played, for the most part, without the supervision of an umpire or umpire. The game depends on the integrity of each individual to show consideration for others and obey the rules of the game. All players must conduct themselves in a courteous, respectful and sportsmanlike manner at all times, no matter how competitive they may be.” This is a game of golf.

There’s no reason to let Oakmont’s Wyndham Clark event from 12 months ago affect your rooting interest this weekend for the 126th US Open, here at Shinnecock Hills. The story of Bay Hill? You have your opinion and I have mine.

I think that if Clark had really grasped the beauty of this preamble to the old USGA rulebook, he would have walked in that Saturday afternoon at Bay Hill, watched the tape and said, Man, that looks bad, pushing, moving, everything. Is it one shot or two?

Two.

OK then.

Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@Golf.com