Wyndham Clark won the BMW Championship last week and a good chunk of golf's fans didn't like it. He gets to East Lake on Thursday as the No. 3 seed in the FedEx Cup playoffs, carrying a second U.S. Open trophy he picked up in June and two wins in a summer most players would trade for. He also gets there as the man the galleries love to root against.
Every Batman needs a Joker.
Scottie Scheffler is the No. 1 seed for the fifth year running and the best player in the world and a favorite of the golf world. Heck in June, at the U.S. Open, golf fans at Shinnecock Hills sang him "Happy Birthday," while they heckled and booed Clark. It got so bad that when Clark's approach shot trickled off the 12th green, the crowd cheered.
The two of them go off eight
minutes apart Thursday afternoon in Atlanta. There is $10 million sitting at the end of the week.
Why golf fans dislike Wyndham Clark
Clark knows very well why fans have turned on him. In fact, he addressed it after his win at Shinnecock Hills.
At the 2025 U.S. Open at Oakmont he missed the cut by a shot and took it out on the locker room. The club banned him. Getting back in required paying for what he broke, writing a check to charity and finishing anger management counseling.
A month before that, at the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow, he threw his driver after a bad tee shot on the 16th. The club hit a sponsor sign and knocked it over a few feet from the man holding the flag.
He apologized. He has kept apologizing ever since.
Fans were not impressed. They didn't see him having a bad day, they saw a man with a temper.
GolfDigest wrote in June that no player on tour in good standing collects as much ill will. Clark does not appear to lose sleep over it. At the Canadian Open in Toronto he played a round in a Team USA hockey sweater, months after the Americans beat the Canadians in the Olympics at their own game. The hecklers shouted "Canada hates you," as he played.
What happened at Shinnecock?
He heard it for four days in June and he still won anyway.
Fans cheered his misses. Security had to walk several of them out. On the fourth hole on Sunday, a kid yelled at him not to choke and got escorted off the course.
The crowd wanted Scheffler, who was chasing a career Grand Slam on his 30th birthday. Clark shot one of the best rounds of his life while people around him tried to jinx him in favor of Scheffler.
Then he stood with his trophy, a smile and the microphone.
"New York didn't really like me," Clark said. "I love you guys. But I get it. Some of it's deserved. I did some unfortunate things last year that I really regret, and I've said so multiple times, and I'm still sorry."
He knew why everyone was rooting for Scheffler.
Wyndham Clark won again at the BMW Championship
Last Sunday at Bellerive Country Club outside of St. Louis, Clark shot 17-under and won the BMW Championship by three.
He was not sharp and he said so.
"I wasn't really nervous. I was kind of like ... out of it. I was making dumb bogeys. I didn't make anything on the greens," Clark said.
He blew a five-shot lead on Sunday and came back to win it.
It wasn't without controversy as there were accusations from fans that he improved his shot in the rough by repeatedly putting a club down behind his ball as he sorted through options. It was noted on the broadcast but no penalty was assessed.
He won anyway.
That's three wins this year for a player coming off the worst season of his career and he's very aware.
"Everyone gives me a hard time and roots for other people," he said Sunday. "Three wins in one season is my best year yet, coming off my worst."
How the Tour Championship works now
All 30 players start at even par. No head start for the top seed, no staggered strokes, simply the best 72-hole score wins. Just like golf worked for about 400 years before the FedEx Cup was dreamed up.
This is the second year under that setup. The winner gets $10 million out of a $40 million purse, an official PGA Tour victory and a five-year exemption.
Behind Scheffler and Matt Fitzpatrick at No. 2 and Clark at No. 3 sit Cameron Young and Si Woo Kim. Rory McIlroy is 11th and going for a fourth FedEx Cup. Tommy Fleetwood is defending. Scheffler has won this thing once, in 2024.
When Wyndham Clark and Scottie Scheffler tee off
Round one pairings put Scheffler with Fitzpatrick in the final group at 2 p.m. ET on Thursday. Clark and Young are right in front of them teeing off at 1:48 p.m.
How to watch the Tour Championship
Coverage runs on ESPN 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET Thursday and Friday, then Golf Channel takes over until 6 p.m. Saturday moves to CBS from 3 to 7 p.m. after the Golf Channel starts things at 1 p.m. Sunday is Golf Channel at noon and CBS from 1:30 to 6 p.m. ET.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Why do golf fans hate Wyndham Clark? What led to hard feelings as Tour Championship begins
