Wyndham Clarks Wins, Rory McIlroy Slumps In Charlotte

What The Win Means For Wyndham Clark

Outside of the massive payday Clark receives ($3.6 Million) from the elevated $20 Million dollar purse, he also receives a two-year exemption on the PGA Tour. He is also now qualified for the remaining major tournaments (if he stays top 50) and the 2024 Masters. He will also receive exemptions into the remaining elevated events this season and next season. With the change in elevated events coming next year with potentially No Cut events, it will guarantee him not only FedEx Points for the year end totals but it keeps the money flowing in as well. He has never finished better than 75^th in any major so this should help his confidence heading into the 2024 PGA Championship at Oak Hill in two weeks.

Rory McIlroy Slumps

Rory continues his slump as he barely makes the cut this week and then ducks the media after his final round 72 on Sunday netting him a T50 finish. Since missing the cut at Sawgrass and Augusta, Rory has been very vocal about his current struggles and unhappiness with the current state of his game. That continued this week as he only broke 70 in the opening round. Golfers typically go through slumps in their careers, but rarely do we see one like this with Rory. Granted he has not won a major since the 2014 PGA Championship, so his major slump is in full effect, but something just seems off about his game. It appears to be mental and the weight of being the face of the PGA Tour is starting to wear on him with the entire LIV drama occurring with him. Next week’s PGA Championship will be huge for his confidence going into the remainder of the season.

Rory McIlroy’s last 3 stroke-play starts

Players — Missed Cut
Masters — Missed Cut
Wells Fargo — T50

— Dan Rapaport (@Daniel_Rapaport) May 7, 2023

Clarks Chances In Rochester

This week the PGA Tour heads to TPC Craig Park in McKinney, Texas for the AT&T Byron Nelson Classic. The field is not as strong as most, but it is one of the more popular tournaments for fans in the spring. It’s a great tune-up for the following weeks tournament, which happens to be the 105^th PGA Championship. This will be held at the famed East Course at Oak Hill CC in Pittsford, NY which is a suburb of Rochester, NY. While the pressure for McIlroy will be huge to end his major tournament drought, for Clark, it will be an opportunity to continue the upward trajectory of his career. He has never finished better than 75^th in any major. The key to winning any major is to always keep the ball in play, minimize your mistakes and be on point with your short game. If Clark can continue the all-around strong performance he gave in Charlotte, he should be a contender in Pittsford next weekend and post his best finish in a major.