{"id":329741,"date":"2025-12-07T06:03:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T06:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/329741\/"},"modified":"2025-12-07T06:03:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T06:03:09","slug":"major-champion-wyndham-clark-endures-wrath-of-golf-fans-after-criticising-course-conditions-at-tiger-woods-pga-tour-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/329741\/","title":{"rendered":"Major champion Wyndham Clark endures wrath of golf fans after criticising course conditions at Tiger Woods&#8217; PGA Tour event"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Wyndham Clark drew criticism from golf fans after the American complained about the course conditions during the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.golfmagic.com\/tour\/pga-tour\/hero-world-challenge-prize-money-2025\" data-entity-type=\"node\" data-entity-uuid=\"e806432a-f0e9-45e7-8aa4-879d1ffef21c\" data-entity-substitution=\"canonical\" title=\"Hero World Challenge prize money 2025: How much they are playing for\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Hero World Challenge<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The annual PGA Tour event in Albany, Bahamas, is contested by 20 players and hosted by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.golfmagic.com\/players\/tiger-woods\" data-entity-type=\"taxonomy_term\" data-entity-uuid=\"deb1f1ec-eef3-40a6-b478-21b336be3276\" data-entity-substitution=\"canonical\" title=\"Tiger Woods\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tiger Woods<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Clark, the 2023 U.S. Open champion, is currently in a great position to claim his first win since last year&#8217;s AT&amp;T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>After 36 holes, he is in a five-way tie for the lead with Cameron Young, J.J. Spaun, Akshay Bhatia and former Masters winner Hideki Matsuyama. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But he is not happy with his short game and has so far found chipping around the greens particularly difficult. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Do you want the politically correct answer?&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.golfmagic.com\/players\/wyndham-clark\" data-entity-type=\"taxonomy_term\" data-entity-uuid=\"9bafdb97-cda9-4a7b-8cc3-7ba8fb3e820d\" data-entity-substitution=\"canonical\" title=\"Wyndham Clark\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Clark<\/a> said to a reporter when asked why the short game is proving troublesome for him this week. &#8220;It&#8217;s [the course] not in good shape.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re always chipping into the grain and there&#8217;s a lot of chips that are up and over so have to chip up, and you&#8217;re coming from really bad lies in Bermuda and you have to hit it up and there&#8217;s just very little margin for error.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Clark, who also graded his season an F, endured plenty of blowback after his comments were shared on X.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This guy&#8217;s middle name is Whine,&#8221; @braxtonproper wrote. &#8220;Cry baby,&#8221; another added.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This guy needs his PR firm to tranquilize him when he is in front of a microphone,&#8221; one said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>@golf_hack wrote: &#8220;Such an ungrateful person. Ranking is sinking, gets a free lifeline into the hit and giggle to rescue his ranking and he&#8217;s bitching? Such a chump.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/2024-03-09t233510z_353536563_mt1usatoday22736213_rtrmadp_3_pga-arnold-palmer-invitational-presented-.jpeg\"   type=\"image\/jpeg\" alt=\"Wyndham Clark\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.5\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Wyndham Clark<\/p>\n<p>In fairness to Clark, he wasn&#8217;t the only player in the field to touch upon the subject.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Reigning world number one <a href=\"https:\/\/www.golfmagic.com\/players\/scottie-scheffler\" data-entity-type=\"taxonomy_term\" data-entity-uuid=\"d4998e34-4890-4951-97eb-6523a5a74aa2\" data-entity-substitution=\"canonical\" title=\"Scottie Scheffler\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Scottie Scheffler<\/a> also said the conditions were &#8220;pretty challenging&#8221;.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The ball has a tendency to sit down in the turf,&#8221; Scheffler &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.golfmagic.com\/tour\/pga-tour\/scottie-scheffler-makes-huge-equipment-switch-he-seeks-history-tiger-woods-tournament\" data-entity-type=\"node\" data-entity-uuid=\"b8c1bc9f-6503-4522-ac56-1279c58a5db5\" data-entity-substitution=\"canonical\" title=\"Scottie Scheffler puts new TaylorMade Qi4D Driver in play at Tiger Woods&#039; Hero World Challenge\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">who also is trying a new driver this week<\/a> &#8211; told reporters after his first round.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;And a lot of it&#8217;s rough here, so you&#8217;re below the green, ball&#8217;s sitting down. It can be pretty challenging.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Corey Conners also echoed the thoughts of Clark and Scheffler.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Yeah, it&#8217;s really grainy, the ball just kind of sits down a little bit,&#8221; the Canadian said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The ground&#8217;s not very forgiving and you\u2019ve got to get some height on the shots.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The greens are all raised up a little bit, so kind of hitting from low areas, softer, tighter, really grainy lie.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s pretty important to make sure you have good contact.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Clark hires new swing coach<\/p>\n<p>It has been a forgettable season for Clark.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It wasn&#8217;t too long ago that he always appeared to be in the thick of it with the aforementioned Scheffler, going toe-to-toe down the stretch on any given Sunday on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.golfmagic.com\/tours\/pga-tour\" data-entity-type=\"taxonomy_term\" data-entity-uuid=\"2a113a33-7dfe-494e-bc65-4465fd7ab6fb\" data-entity-substitution=\"canonical\" title=\"PGA Tour\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">PGA Tour<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But his form has dipped and he has fallen from career-high third in the world rankings to 38th.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He has also been in the headlines for the wrong reasons.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>An outburst of anger in the locker room after a missed cut at the U.S. Open saw him banned from Oakmont.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Clark, who has apologised profusely for damaging the century-old locker, also drew plenty of criticism once again after he angrily hurled his driver during the final round of the PGA Championship.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/gtg3lykxaaaoy8c-1.jpg\"   type=\"image\/jpeg\" alt=\"The locker Clark damaged\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio:0.84\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>The locker Clark damaged<\/p>\n<p>He apologised again for his &#8220;inappropriate behaviour&#8221; and asked for forgiveness.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The only high point of his year came at the final men&#8217;s major where he posted a top-five finish at The Open at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.golfmagic.com\/courses\/uk-and-ireland\/royal-portrush-golf-club-course-review\" data-entity-type=\"node\" data-entity-uuid=\"80ca2e0a-2e63-43b6-8ac4-2b28d709c4a7\" data-entity-substitution=\"canonical\" title=\"Why Royal Portrush could very well be the greatest Open Championship venue of all time\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Royal Portrush<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;An F that became an F-plus,&#8221; Clark said at the Hero World Challenge. &#8220;It just was a bad year.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A lot of crap happened and then I kind of salvaged it at the end.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But the good thing is we&#8217;ve got next year and we&#8217;re almost done. So yeah, I&#8217;m looking forward to next year.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Clark has also hired a new swing coach after several years of mostly going solo.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Pat Coyner will now be working with Clark.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I wouldn&#8217;t change anything [about my swing],&#8221; Clark said. &#8220;It&#8217;s just now I have someone to check in on me.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to our Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wyndham Clark drew criticism from golf fans after the American complained about the course conditions during the Hero&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329742,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,145159,3747,82,6982,33240],"class_list":{"0":"post-329741","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-hero-world-challenge","12":"tag-pga-tour","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-tiger-woods","15":"tag-wyndham-clark"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329741\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}