Wyndham Clark poses for photos after winning the CJ Cup Byron Nelson golf tournament in McKinney, Texas, Sunday, May 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
Tony Gutierrez/AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez
MCKINNEY — Many among the throng of fans Sunday at TPC Craig Ranch were pulling for one or both of the final-pairing Dallasites, especially the reigning tournament champion and World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler.
In that regard Wyndham Clark was the hometown-story spoiler, but by no means was he a CJ Cup Byron Nelson mood-killer. Script changer? Scene-stealer? Yes.
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A tournament could do much worse than having as its champion the guy who won the 2023 U.S. Open. The guy who romped to this three-shot victory by shooting 30 under, including 11-under 60 on Sunday, punctuated by a jaw-dropping 28 on the back nine.
A more than worthy champion with a more than compelling story, even if it isn’t the hometown variety.
“I’ve always believed I had it in me,” Clark, 32, said. “And it’s amazing to actually perform and do it in this setting.
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“It’s quite fun to be here. I played with Scottie on Saturday and even though they were rooting for the hometown kid, I still felt a lot of love.”
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He entered Sunday tied with Scheffler for second at 19 under, two shots behind Si Woo Kim.
How great was Clark? Kim and Scheffler shot 6-under 65s and still lost, respectively by three and five strokes. Kim poured in 33 birdies. Scheffler made a tournament-low one bogey all week and didn’t record his first and only 5 until Sunday’s 12th hole.
“Sometimes you’ve just got to tip your cap and say ‘Good playing,’ ” Scheffler said. “And 60 was going to be pretty tough to beat today.
“Overall, I’m proud of this week for myself, but I wish I could have gotten a few more shots out of it. Overall, Wyndham played great golf.”
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Last May, Scheffler led this tournament wire-to-wire and won by eight shots en route to a PGA Tour record-tying 31-under 253-stroke total. That win was Scheffler’s first of the season and helped catapult him to five more victories, including the PGA Championship and British Open.
Scheffler’s lone win so far this year came in his season-opening American Express Championship in La Quinta, Calif., where on Sunday he outdueled Kim and Clark.
Scheffler’s solo third place finish on Sunday was his sixth top three of the season. In his four events entering this week, he had three solo seconds and a T14 in the PGA Championship.
“I’m sure if you looked statistically I’m probably not much different than I have been the past couple years,” Scheffler said. “Just a few shots here and there; a couple things go my way in some tournaments.
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“This season looks a bit differently, but like you said, I’ve been playing some solid golf. Just keep putting myself in position, and things will turn my way.”
It was on the short par-4 sixth hole Sunday that Scheffler experienced his “this probably isn’t my day” moment.
His approach from 105 yards hit the flagstick and took a hard backward bounce, winding up 55 feet from the pin.
Kim, at the time leading Scheffler by two strokes and Clark by one, stuck his approach to 4 feet and made the putt. Scheffler parred to fall three behind.
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“All you could see from my angle is the ball coming down the hill,” Scheffler said. “I couldn’t tell you what it did. It looked like it landed right in front of the cup.
“When you’re winning tournaments, those are the ones that sometimes go in. When you’re not winning tournaments, those are the ones that hit the pin and kind of go 50, 60 feet away.”
Clark and Stephan Jaeger were playing in the group in front of Scheffler-Kim. On the par-5 ninth, Clark sustained a mud ball in the fairway, but unlike the first three days, preferred lies were not in effect. Clark hit a nice recovery shot, but reacted in disbelief when he missed a 10-foot birdie putt.
“The nice thing is I had a pretty decent walk to 10,” he said. “And then I got to the tee, Stephan went first, which was nice. I said, ‘All right, reset. We’re in a great spot. Just shot 4-under, we can do the same thing on the back.’ ”
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Instead, he made five birdies, an eagle and no bogeys on the back.
It was quite a statement week for a player who rose as high as No. 3 in the world after his 2023 U.S. Open win at Los Angeles Country Club and 2024 AT&T Pebble Beach victory — the latter in which he shot a final-round 60.
As recently as last year Denver native and University of Oregon product Clark was No. 7 in the world, but entering this week he was 75th. Sunday’s win is projected to catapult him to No. 34.
“It’s been a pretty heavy fall,” he said. “Yeah, it’s frustrating, but that’s golf. I went through kind of a tough spurt, not swinging it good, not feeling comfortable with a lot of things, and I did a lot of work this off-season working on my golf swing.
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“Then I started hitting it better but wasn’t making the putts. Then finally landed on a great putter, and then everything’s been kind of coming together.
“Needless to say, it feels amazing to be back in the winner’s circle. I feel like my game’s trending in a great direction to continue to have success through the rest of the year.
This was the sixth Nelson played here. The winning scores have been 21 under, 26 under, 23 under, 23 under, 31 under and 30 under.
The $25 million, Lanny Wadkins-led renovation was supposed to add teeth to TPC Craig, but four days of negligible wind and soft conditions turned the Nelson into target practice yet again.
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“I initially thought when we were playing the practice round it was going to make the course tougher,” Clark said. “Clearly it hasn’t. In defense of the new design, it’s been really wet and no wind.
“Regardless of what you do, we’re so good now, we’re going to make a lot of birdies.”
Said the man who on Sunday alone made nine birdies and an eagle. And stole the show.