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Wyndham Clark has come a long way since last summer (James Gilbert/PGA Tour via Getty Images)
In the aftermath of his victory on Sunday at the BMW Championship, Wyndham Clark was awarded an honorary membership at Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis, a fitting gesture and an ironic one when you consider just how far he has come in the last 15 months.
It wasn’t that long ago that Clark was still answering questions about his behavior last year at Oakmont Country Club, where he trashed a locker at the famed course following his missed cut at the 2025 U.S. Open, drawing a public rebuke from the membership that saw him banned from the premises and requiring restitution and a series of apologies that lasted into this year.
Now look at him.
Clark still might not be the most popular guy around, but he’s proving to be an excellent player who stood up to Rory McIlroy — again — on a day when he didn’t have his best stuff at Bellerive.
Also in today’s DD …
Who’s in, who’s out at the Tour Championship?
This week in golf: Toasting Jamieson, Yamashita and … La Sasso!
Scheffler saddled with hand, foot and mouth disease at BMW
Shaun Norris pays a harsh price for reflexive rules infraction
Preston Stout’s upcoming senior year gets even more … stout
The two-time U.S. Open champion who won that title for a second time earlier this year at Shinnecock Hills squandered a five-shot advantage to McIlroy in the first 10 holes, failing to make a birdie until the 16th hole. That gave him an advantage that McIlroy could never close and led to his sixth PGA Tour victory and third this year.
“I guess I’m making a habit of having a lead and then choking it away with after seven, eight holes,” said Clark, 32, after birdieing the final three holes for an even-par 70 and a three-shot victory over Patrick Cantlay, who qualified for the Tour Championship with his high finish. McIlroy, who was tied with three holes to go, finished four back in third.
“I guess I always try to build off of experiences. I had that lead at the U.S. Open, and quickly it was tied or I was only one up. I found myself in a similar position. You rely on previous tournaments that that’s happened. My first win at Quail Hollow that kind of happened. I had a two-shot lead and then quickly was tied with Xander (Schauffele).
“I just remember those moments going, ‘Hey, if I just stay in there, I’m going to start hitting the shots, start making the putts.’ And I think that’s where I matured mentally and in my game, that I didn’t let it get away from me. I wasn’t great, and the momentum was all on Rory’s side, but I knew that I just needed one little spark to get it on my side.”
Click here for complete BMW Championship scoreboard
Although it wasn’t nearly as bad as it was at Shinnecock — where Clark had a six-shot final-round advantage, held off Sam Burns and Scottie Scheffler and dealt with a boorish crowd that openly rooted against him — he again had to face the prospect of playing alongside the more popular McIlroy.
McIlroy’s birdie at the par-3 11th tied things and he had excellent chances at the 14th and 15th holes to take the outright lead. Suddenly, he couldn’t get a putt to drop.
“I gave myself plenty of chances,” said McIlroy, who finished second to Clark at the 2023 U.S. Open played at Los Angeles Country Club. “I just couldn’t get a putt to drop there those final few holes. I always felt like I needed to just get my nose ahead to really try to put the pressure on Wyndham, and I couldn’t. We were tied there for a few holes, and then when he made that putt on 16 for 2 and I couldn’t answer, that was obviously a huge moment in the round and in the tournament.
“But overall encouraged with how I played this week compared to what it was last week, and certainly something to build ongoing into East Lake.”
A week ago, McIlroy was seemingly lost, lamenting how much work his swing needed after finishing 66th in a field of 69 players at the FedEx St. Jude Championship. That was just his seventh event since his Masters victory, and his results for much of the summer have been spotty. His third-place finish is his best since winning his second green jacket.
Clark struggled for most of last year and into this season before getting hot in May. After missing the cut at the PGA Championship, he won the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, finished third at the Memorial, tied for 11th at the Canadian Open and then won his second U.S. Open.
He followed that with a tie for fifth at the Travelers and a tie for 13th at the Scottish Open before missing the cut at the Open Championship and again at the Rocket Classic. But he got back on track last week in Memphis, where he tied for fifth.
Now he’s won for a third time and put him squarely in the PGA Tour player-of-the-year conversation. Winning three times, including a major and a FedEx Cup playoff event, is part of a strong résumé.
“Obviously Scottie’s the best player in the world right now,” Clark said. “I don’t really know. Honestly, I didn’t even think about it coming off such a terrible year. Didn’t even think about player of the year. I was more just wanting to get back into contention, wanting to make it to East Lake. And then I win, and win a major and then it’s like, okay, now I want to make the Presidents Cup team.
“So, I mean, honestly, this has all come pretty quick. So hopefully that maybe is in the cards, but if not I’m just really pleased with how the year’s gone.”
As for that honorary membership? “I told the president of the club I’ll be your best member,” Clark said.
Gary Woodland will be back at Tour Championship after seven-year absence (David Paul Morris/ANGC)
Who’s in and out at East Lake?
The BMW Championship saw three players play their way into the Tour Championship by earning enough points to move inside the top 30 in the season-long points race.
On the flip side, that means three players got bumped out.
Gary Woodland, who won earlier this year at the Texas Children’s Houston Open, will be returning to the Tour Championship for the first time since 2019 after tying for fourth and moving from 31st in the standings to 18th. An emotional Woodland, who had brain surgery in 2023, said: “I played beautifully today. So I’m glad this week’s over with, but I’m proud of where I’m going next week.”
Patrick Cantlay, who began the week 43rd in points, made the biggest rally, finishing second alone after a final-round 68 to jump 24 spots and into 19th place.
Scotland’s Robert MacIntrye, who withdrew from the FedEx St. Jude after an opening-round 82, bounced back nicely to tie for seventh and moved up 11 spots from 36th to 25th.
They will join the rest of the top 30 at East Lake in Atlanta, where the 72-hole event will determine the FedEx Cup champion and Tour Championship winner. The $40 million official purse will see $10 million go to the winner.
The three players who got bumped out were Kurt Kitayama (28th to 31st), Bud Cauley (29th to 34th) and Rickie Fowler (30th to 33rd).
Falling outside of the top 30 is particularly tough on someone such as Fowler, who could have assured himself a spot in the 2027 Masters by being in the top 30. Fowler has missed Augusta in five of the last six years. He can gain entry by being among the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking at the end of the year — which means he will likely need to play some fall events. He is currently No. 44.
Conversely, Woodland, who entered the week 47th in the OWGR, has effectively assured himself a spot in all of the majors next year.
This week in golf …
BMW Championship: Despite frittering away a five-shot lead in the first 10 holes to set up a head-to-head stretch duel with Rory McIlroy, Wyndham Clark finally made birdies at 16, 17 and 18 to survive at Bellerive and win by three shots over Patrick Cantlay. Clark’s birdie flourish to shoot even 70 avoided making him the first BMW winner to shoot over-par in the final round. McIlroy missed repeated chances to take the lead before making a mess of the par-5 17th hole to end the drama and finished third four back after walking to the 16th tee tied with Clark for the lead.
Nexo Championship: Scotland’s Scott Jamieson collected his second DP World Tour victory 14 years after his first with a two-shot win over England’s Matthew Jordan at Trump International north of Aberdeen. “Fourteen years, that’s wild,” said an emotional Jamieson. “It’s just so tough, so hard to win.” The victory secures the 42-year-old’s card for two more years. “That grind’s worse more than trying to win. Trying to win’s enjoyable. But obviously the position I was in this year, you know, I was starting to get to the business end of the season and didn’t have a lot of points up. So yeah, to win and get a couple of years of free go is nice.”
LIV Golf Indianapolis: Michael La Sasso, 22, hit his 50-yard wedge shot stone dead for a finishing birdie to climb from the relegation zone to his first professional victory at the Club at Chatham Hills. He withstood a furious charge from Jon Rahm, who shot a 7-under 63 — the low round of the day — but bogeyed his last hole to finish runner-up for the fourth time this season. Rahm’s Legion XIII team capped the abbreviated season by claiming the makeshift team title by six shots over the Phil Mickelson-free HyFlyers club that had languished all season in ninth place in the 13-team standings.
CPKC Women’s Open: Japan’s Miyu Yamashita shot an opening 62 and coasted largely unchallenged the rest of the weekend in a wire-to-wire nine-shot victory in Edmonton, Alberta. Last year’s AIG Women’s Open winner now has four LPGA victories with her second of the summer. The 25-year-old also has 13 wins on the LPGA Japan Tour.
AdventHealth Championship: A birdie-birdie-birdie finish by Japan’s Yuti Sigiura was just enough to overtake the clubhouse score posted by Austin Hitt’s storming 12-under 60 finish at Blue Hills GC in Kansas City, Mo., to win the Korn Ferry Tour event. Both players moved to just outside the top-20 bubble in the chase for a PGA Tour card.
Rogers Charity Classic: New Zealand’s Steven Alker birdied the first playoff hole while Korea’s Y.E. Yang made bogey in Calgary, Alberta, to claim his 12th career PGA Tour Champions victory.
U.S. Senior Women’s Open: Sweden’s Maria McBride hangs on to win at Barton Hills in Ann Arbor, Mich., to finish 6-under par and beat legends Annika Sørenstam by two shots and Karrie Webb by five. McBride’s 6-under 66 on Saturday provided the cushion she needed to avoid losing the 54-hole lead for the second straight year.
Illness hampers Scheffler’s BMW defense
Scottie Scheffler got off to a rough start during the first round of the BMW Championship — he was 4-over par early in his round — and it turns out he was diagnosed with hand, foot & mouth disease. The contagious infection had him feeling lousy on Monday, the day after his eight-shot victory at the FedEx St. Jude Championship, and contributed to a lackluster week in his title defense at the BMW Championship.
“So you get blisters on your hands and in your throat and on your feet,” said Scheffler, who finished with a 68 Sunday to tie for 12th. “So to start the week it was pretty painful to grip the club. If I was smarter maybe I would have pulled out, but I was playing so good I felt like if I could knock it out quickly and just get through the first couple rounds I would still have a chance.
“But I think that’s part of my stubbornness, probably. That’s probably a strength of mine and a weakness at times. Like, I’ve never been one to ever pull out of a tournament, especially in the middle of it. That’s really frustrating for me. So I definitely didn’t want to do that going into this week, even though it was suggested. But I’m proud of how I fought. Feel like I’m starting to heal up. My throat is still bugging me pretty good. But my hands feel normal today.
“I actually almost caught myself shaking hands with Cam (Young) on 18. I would have felt really bad. I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, I almost forgot.’ So that’s good news, starting to feel better. Hopefully the throat will clear up the next couple days.”
Scheffler concluded the BMW as the leader in FedEx Cup points — which he had already secured a week ago. But none of that matters now, as the top 30 will head to Atlanta for the Tour Championship with a clean slate. The winner of the tournament at East Lake wins the FedEx Cup title.
Golf’s rule book remains unrelenting
South Africa’s Shaun Norris suffered a tough but proper rules violation on Sunday during the final round of the Nexo Championship in Scotland. The third-round leader by two strokes, Norris, 44, was playing a pitch shot on the fifth hole when he felt something under his foot and kicked it away.
There was no intention to break rules, for sure. In fact, the move seemed rather reflexive: he was standing on something that could be moved and so he moved it.
The problem is what he kicked away was a replaced divot. It wasn’t a loose divot — which would make a difference.
The DP World Tour cited Rule 8.1 which describes the idea of “play the course as you find it” and gives examples of what a player cannot do. One of them lays out a two-shot penalty for “removing or pressing down divots that have already been replaced or other cut turf that is already in place.”
Instead of a par, Norris recorded a double-bogey 6 on the hole and never recovered. He ended up shooting a final-round 76 and dropped back to a tie for seventh, six shots behind winner Scott Jamieson.
Pretty stout year ahead for Stout
Preston Stout’s senior year at Oklahoma State just keeps getting busier and more enviable.
The 22-year-old Texan won the Mark H. McCormack Medal as the leading male in the 2026 World Amateur Golf Ranking. That distinction earns Stout exemptions into next year’s U.S. Open and Open Championship, provided he remains an amateur. Stout already earned an invitation to the 2027 Masters as the winner of the 2026 MCAA individual championship,
That’s a lot of incentive for Stout to hold off turning professional through next summer considering that slate of majors he’s qualified for are being played at Augusta National, Pebble Beach and St. Andrews.
“Being named the McCormack Medal winner is a tremendous honor, and one I’ll never take for granted,” said Stout. “This recognition reflects not just my own work, but the support of everyone who has pushed me to get better along the way. It motivates me to keep raising my own bar and chasing what’s next. I’m grateful to be included among the players who have earned this honor.”
Stout inherited the top spot in the men’s WAGR from Jackson Koivun, climbing there thanks to a junior season at Oklahoma State in which he amassed five individual victories including the NCAA Division I Individual crown and the first-ever three-peat winner of the Big 12 championship.
Stout will kick of his final season at OSU by playing a second time for the U.S. team in next month’s Walker Cup at Lahinch in Ireland.
“Preston has shown that he’s a rising star in this game, and we’re delighted to see him receive this honor and all that comes with it,” said John Bodenhamer, USGA Chief Championships Officer. “Performing at such a high level so consistently speaks to the hard work and dedication Preston has brought to his craft as an elite amateur golfer. We’re excited to watch his career continue to flourish in the years to come.”