This was a tournament Clark seized, not one Kim surrendered.
Golf has a way of humbling those it once lifted highest, and Wyndham Clark knows that arc intimately. On Sunday at TPC Craig Ranch, the 32-year-old reclaimed something he had been quietly losing — not just a tournament, but a sense of himself as a player who belongs among the game's best. His 11-under 60 in the final round of the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, one stroke shy of entering the rarest company in PGA Tour history, was a reminder that dormant talent is not the same as vanished talent.
- A putt that lipped out on the 72nd hole denied Clark a place in history, yet his 60 still dismantled a field that included the world's top players.
- The win ends a drought stretching back to February 2024 — eighteen months during which a locker was destroyed, Ryder Cup spots were lost, and cuts were missed at five of his last ten majors.
- Si Woo Kim entered the final round with a two-shot lead and answered with a brilliant 65, yet Clark's round was so commanding it rendered that effort irrelevant.
- Clark's 30-under total for the week was not a close call — it was a statement, a performance that forced the conversation about his relevance back open.
- The U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills on June 18 now looms as the true referendum on whether Sunday was a turning point or a single flare of brilliance in a difficult chapter.
Wyndham Clark needed one more putt on the final hole at TPC Craig Ranch to become only the 16th player in PGA Tour history to break 60. The ball settled near the cup instead of in it. He finished with an 11-under 60 anyway — and won the CJ Cup Byron Nelson by three shots over Si Woo Kim.
The victory was Clark's first since February 2024, but its meaning ran deeper than the scorecard. In 2023 and early 2024, he had been extraordinary — winning the Wells Fargo Championship, the U.S. Open, and the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in less than a calendar year, nearly claiming the Players Championship, and earning a Ryder Cup spot. He was 29 years old and the trajectory seemed set.
Then it wasn't. By 2025, Clark had managed just two top-10 finishes across 24 tournaments, missed cuts at five of his last ten majors, and was left off the Ryder Cup team. A moment of frustration at Oakmont — a destroyed locker — became a symbol of a player struggling under the weight of expectations he had built for himself.
Sunday's final round was a reclamation. Kim, who had entered the day with a two-shot lead, shot a six-under 65 — a score that would win most tournaments. Clark's 60 made it insufficient. This was a tournament seized, not surrendered.
In his post-round remarks, Clark acknowledged the difficulty of the past eighteen months. But the harder test comes June 18 at Shinnecock Hills, where the U.S. Open will ask whether this was a return or merely a reprieve.
Wyndham Clark stood over his ball on the 72nd hole at TPC Craig Ranch on Sunday afternoon, needing just one more shot to complete a round that would have made him only the 16th player in PGA Tour history to break 60. He didn't make it. The ball settled near the cup instead of in it, and Clark finished with an 11-under 60—still one of the most dominant final rounds in recent memory, still enough to win the CJ Cup Byron Nelson by three shots over Si Woo Kim.
It was Clark's first PGA Tour victory since February 2024, when he won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in a rain-shortened event. More than that, it was a moment of redemption for a player whose career had stalled in ways that seemed almost impossible just two years earlier. In 2023 and early 2024, Clark had been on an extraordinary run. He won the Wells Fargo Championship in May 2023, then captured the U.S. Open that same summer—a major championship that suggested his name would be part of golf conversations for years to come. By February 2024, he had added the Pebble Beach title. He nearly won the Players Championship that March. In less than a calendar year, a 29-year-old who had never won on the PGA Tour had collected three victories, including a major, and come agonizingly close to a fourth. He made the 2023 U.S. Ryder Cup team. The trajectory seemed set.
But success at that level brings expectations—from fans, from sponsors, from the player himself. And for Clark, those expectations proved heavier than the momentum that had carried him. The run of 2023 and early 2024 simply did not continue. In 2025, now 32 years old, Clark posted just two top-10 finishes across 24 tournaments. He missed the cut at the U.S. Open. He missed the cut at five of his last ten major championships. He made headlines for the wrong reasons when he destroyed a locker in frustration at Oakmont Country Club. He was left off the 2025 U.S. Ryder Cup team. The only bright spot in the majors came at the Open Championship, where he finished tied for fourth—his only top-10 in a major since that U.S. Open victory in 2023.
Sunday's victory, then, was not just about winning a tournament. It was about breaking a drought that had lasted more than a year and a half, about proving that the player who had seemed destined for sustained excellence had not disappeared entirely. Clark's 30-under total for the week was dominant. Si Woo Kim, who entered the final round with a two-shot lead over both Clark and Scottie Scheffler, shot an impressive six-under 65 in the final round—a score that would win most tournaments. It was not enough. This was a tournament Clark seized, not one Kim surrendered.
Clark addressed his struggles in his post-round interview, acknowledging the weight of the past year and a half. But acknowledgment is one thing; sustained performance is another. His next test comes at the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, which begins on June 18. That is where the real measure of his comeback will be taken—not in a regular tour event, but in a major championship, where his record in recent years has been unforgiving. One brilliant final round, even one that nearly made history, is a start. Whether it signals a return to the player who won majors and Ryder Cup spots, or merely a single bright moment in an otherwise difficult stretch, remains to be seen.
Citações Notáveis
Clark addressed his past struggles in his post-round interview, acknowledging the weight of the past year and a half— Wyndham Clark, in interview with CBS golf reporter Amanda Balionis
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
What made Sunday different for Clark? He'd been struggling for so long.
He shot 60. That's the simple answer. But the deeper thing is that he finally played without the weight of expectation crushing him. Sometimes you have to blow it all up and rebuild.
The near-59 on the final hole—does that haunt him, or does it feel like a sign?
It's both. He came so close to something historic. But he won anyway. That matters more than the number on the scorecard.
He's been left off Ryder Cup teams, missed cuts at majors. How does a player recover from that kind of fall?
One tournament at a time. But the majors are where it counts for him now. Shinnecock Hills in three weeks will tell us whether this is a real turnaround or just one good week.
Do you think he's the same player who won the U.S. Open in 2023?
I don't know. That player had something he's lost—maybe confidence, maybe hunger. Sunday suggests he might be finding it again. But finding it and holding it are different things.