PEBBLE BEACH, California — Wyndham Clark’s round of 60 has broken the long-standing course record at Pebble Beach. Clark was declared the winner of the Pebble golf Beach when the PGA Tour canceled the final round because of wicked weather conditions.
The 2023 US Open champion started the day well back, carding two eagles on the front nine to make the turn in just 28 strokes, eight under for the day and suddenly leading the tournament.
His run from the sixth hole to the fifteenth included an eagle and seven birdies, and he needed only 17 putts through his first 15 holes.
Clark’s final stroke was a two-putt birdie from 25 feet, giving him a course record 12-under 60 and a one-shot lead over Ludvig Aberg, who missed a long eagle putt on the par-5 18th hole.
“It’s maybe not the way you dream of winning,” Clark said according to AP.
Clark picked up his third win in the last nine months, all of them big with a $3.6 million payoff. He also won the Wells Fargo Championship and his first major at the US Open last year at Los Angeles Country Club.
He didn’t get to pose with the trophy on the 18th green. He didn’t feel cheated out of appreciation, either, not the way the gallery responded to his close call at 59.
“Everyone was celebrating and congratulating me,” Clark said. “It´s pretty surreal right now.”
He became the fifth player – all of them major champions – to win Pebble Beach over 54 holes since AT&T became title sponsor in 1986. The others were Dustin Johnson in 2009, Payne Stewart in 1999, Phil Mickelson in 1998 and Fuzzy Zoeller in 1986.
Stewart also birdied his final hole the year the final round was wiped out by rain and a storm system that stretched from the Monterey Peninsula to Japan.
Clark is the first 54-hole winner on the PGA Tour since Brian Stuard in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans in 2016.
Pebble Beach was not a felicitous meeting of land and sea. Instead, it was an angry one. Golf Channel posted images of wild-blown waves crashing off the rocks on the 18th, the ocean spray going over the bunker and onto the fairway.
Matthieu Pavon of France finished third with a birdie on the last hole. Pavon was coming off a victory at Torrey Pines and his finish at Pebble moves him to No. 1 in the FedEx Cup.
The season is five tournaments old, but it’s no less amazing. Pavon last year birdied his last four holes to get the last of 10 PGA Tour cards offered to European tour players.
Mark Hubbard and Thomas Detry tied for fourth and each earned 312.5 points toward the FedEx Cup, more than a runner-up finish is worth in a regular tournament.
Neither would have been eligible for Pebble Beach except the tour had to dip below 60th in last year’s FedEx Cup to fill the field to 80 players because there were 80 amateurs for the opening two rounds.
