{"id":535382,"date":"2026-03-20T20:19:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T20:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/535382\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T20:19:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T20:19:09","slug":"wyndham-clark-blasts-446-yard-drive-at-valspar-with-a-little-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/535382\/","title":{"rendered":"Wyndham Clark blasts 446-yard drive at Valspar \u2014 with a little help"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wyndham Clark had an up-and-down opening round at the Valspar Championship<\/a>, best encapsulated in a two-hole stretch where he made bogey after setting the record for longest drive this season, and then promptly followed with an eagle on the par-5 11th. <\/p>\n

It all amounted to a 1-under 70 for Clark who sits tied with a dozen other players at 37th through 18 holes.<\/p>\n

The tee shot on No. 10 was the biggest highlight of all despite the net loss of a stroke. Clark drove the ball 446 yards off the tee \u2014 35 yards longer than the previous long for 2026. Though, there was an assist.<\/p>\n

The shot hit the asphalt on the nearby cart path multiple times before rolling past the flag at the 437-yard, par-4 hole. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m up at the green, the ball is past pin high,\u201d Smylie Kaufman said on the Golf Channel\u2019s live broadcast. \u201cI\u2019ve never seen a ball go that far.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kaufman was following Clark\u2019s group that included Jordan Spieth and Jacob Bridgeman.<\/p>\n

Clark is coming into the tournament after ending his partnership with longtime caddie John Ellis<\/a>. He now has Dave Pelekoudas on the bag at the Copperhead Course.<\/p>\n

Spieth had his own roller-coaster afternoon, falling out of the top 10 after one point being tied for third at 5 under through 15 holes. He sits a stroke above Clark on the leaderboard after shooting a 2-under 69. <\/p>\n

Bridgeman also is on the right side of the leaderboard \u2014 in fact, he\u2019s higher on it than his counterparts after a bogey-free 3-under 68. It\u2019s become expected for the reigning Genesis Invitational winner<\/a> who is looking for his eighth straight top 20 finish to start the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was in the last group on the last day and that was just kind of my first time seeing that and feeling that feeling. I think I expected to be a little bit more nervous than I was last year and I got up on the first tee and almost felt comfortable \u2014 it was odd,\u201d Bridgeman told reporters on Thursday. \u201cI\u2019m more used to it now. I\u2019m excited to kind of hopefully get back in the hunt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bridgeman, who finished third last year at the Valspar, is set to play in his first Masters. He currently sits atop the FedExCup standings as the Tour ends its Florida swing this weekend outside of Tampa Bay.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t really matter a whole lot at this point in the season, but it\u2019s kind of a nice little thing to chase after,\u201d Bridgeman said. \u201cI would like to stay up there see if I can keep pace.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s when the Bridgeman-Clark-Spieth group is going out on Friday and how to watch <\/a>them and the rest of the Valspar field.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wyndham Clark had an up-and-down opening round at the Valspar Championship, best encapsulated in a two-hole stretch where…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":535383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":["post-535382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=535382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/535383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=535382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=535382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=535382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}