In the rain-soaked and windblown aftermath of Wyndham Clark’s victory in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am – his third title in the past nine months, including a U.S. Open – it didn’t take long for the question to come about how close Clark came to leaving the PGA Tour earlier this year.
Clark had seriously considered a jump to LIV Golf but decided against it. Tyrrell Hatton may have been the beneficiary, at least theoretically taking the spot that had been dangled in front of Clark.
It’s part of the game’s landscape at the moment. When Xander Schauffele and Viktor Hovland withdrew from the WM Phoenix Open this week, speculation erupted about their immediate futures. Both, it appears, remain committed to the PGA Tour and just chose a week off.
Until an agreement is reached between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, the questions and uncertainty will continue.
When Clark was asked about it after his Pebble Beach victory, he didn’t dodge the question.
“I definitely met with LIV and went through those discussions,” Clark said. “I wanted to see what they could bring to the table. I ultimately declined going to LIV because I felt like I still have a lot of things left in the tank on the PGA Tour, and I wanted to chase records; I wanted to chase world ranking. My dream is to try to be one of the top players in the world, if not the top player.
“I just grew up always imagining winning PGA Tour events. So ultimately, I chose my legacy over LIV, and that’s really what it came down to.”
“I don’t know what the future holds with my career and what the PGA Tour and LIV is going to do, but at least for this season I am 100 percent set on the PGA Tour and I want to try to get to as high in the world as I possibly can.” – Wyndham Clark
Clark did not, however, close the door on a future move.
“I don’t know what the future holds with my career and what the PGA Tour and LIV is going to do, but at least for this season I am 100 percent set on the PGA Tour and I want to try to get to as high in the world as I possibly can,” he said.
In other words, never say never.
It’s possible that it came down to a number – one Clark wanted and one LIV declined to match – and it’s also an illustration of the continuing challenge the upstart league faces. With no world-ranking points available and virtually no gravitas attached to LIV events, the third-year Saudi-funded tour seems almost entirely about the money.
It’s also about the money on the PGA Tour, but winning the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, which was shortened to 54 holes as storms battered the West Coast, comes with a history. It will be the same way at the Genesis Invitational at Riviera next week and at tour stops big and small throughout the year.
Clark reached out to multiple players as he weighed his decision. A year ago, he was ranked outside the top 100 in the world, but then he won the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow in May and captured the U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club in June. His career path changed dramatically, and so did his options.
Seeking input, Clark said he talked with PGA Tour Policy Board members Patrick Cantlay, Jordan Spieth, Adam Scott and Tiger Woods.
“I did my due diligence,” Clark said. “I felt like if I was going to make a life-changing decision, I wanted to make sure I did all the right things and call the right people, get the right information, understand what both tours are doing, what I should do, et cetera. I didn’t want them to sway me in a certain way, but I definitely wanted their counsel, and I just wanted to honor them and the amount of time and work and effort they have put into this agreement now with [Strategic Sports Group] and where the tour is going.”
Whether the private-equity agreement announced by the tour last week leads to a future agreement with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and, consequently, a unification of sorts within the pro game remains to be seen.
Clark, meanwhile, has climbed to sixth in the world and has a stated goal of being No. 1, even if only for a day.
Joaquín Niemann’s individual win in the first LIV event of 2024 didn’t earn him any world-ranking points, and he almost instantly lamented his absence from the major championships this year. Niemann actually is qualified for the Open Championship by virtue of his 2023 Australian Open victory.
That’s some of the collateral damage from the split in the professional game.
Clark, meanwhile, has climbed to sixth in the world and has a stated goal of being No. 1, even if only for a day.
With the question of where he will be playing answered, at least for this year, and having found a putter that worked like Merlin’s wand during his course-record 12-under-par 60 at Pebble Beach on Saturday, Clark seems to have found a comfortable place to land.
Top: You’ve got to hand it Clark; he’s ahead of the game over the past nine months. Photo: Tracy Wilcox, Getty Images
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