2024 The American Express: Top 10 power rankings in Palm Springs
AmericanExpress/PowerRanking/9. 9. OWGR: 10th. FedEx Cup: T-44th. Wyndham Clark
Wyndham Clark has had a solid history at The American Express.
He’s made four of five cuts in Palm Springs with two top-20s. That includes a couple years ago where he finished solo 13th. That year, Clark posted 7-under 65 at La Quinta, 3-under 69 at Nicklaus, and went 69-70 to post 5-under on the weekend at Stadium.
He also debuted with a T-18th and took T-50th last year.
Clark comes to Palm Springs with a week of rest following T-29th in the season opener at The Sentry. He had a pretty pedestrian start to the tournament, but it looked like he found something in the final round with a 10-under 63.
It will be interesting to see how Clark does in 2024. He was a great amateur player in the 2010s and looked like he was destined to become a top pro.
It took a few years to figure things out. While oozing with talent, he was nothing more than a slightly above-average player until he caught fire last spring.
Clark not only won his first PGA Tour event, he did it at what is now known in the PGA Tour nomenclature as a Signature Event at the Wells Fargo Championship. Not only that, but he dominated that event by posting one of the best Strokes Gained weeks of any tournament winner in 2023.
That was no flash in the pan as Clark backed it up by winning the U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club. He stared down the likes of Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler to claim one of golf’s biggest prizes.
Those two trophies were integral in Clark making the American Ryder Cup team.
A lot hit him quickly. As a result, his momentum fizzled out a bit in the back half of the year.
The new PGA Tour schedule now has more of a legitimate offseason. I think that will be huge for a guy like Clark, who had to be running on fumes after a while.
He shook off the rust at Kapalua and found a groove late in the tournament. Now he’s arriving to a set of courses at The American Express where he’s more familiar.
I think this is a good spot for Clark to reassert himself.
Last season, the former Oklahoma State Cowboy and Oregon Duck ranked 13th on the PGA Tour in SG: Total (1.201). He gained strokes in every category, including Off-the-Tee, where he was 28th (.831).
Clark was 27th in birdie average (4.11) and eighth in par-5 scoring (4.51).