Writing from Town and Country, Missouri
Sunday, August 23, 2026
If someone can be in a rut and 14-under-par at the same time, Wyndham Clark was that person at Bellerive Country Club on Sunday.
The leader by five strokes entering the final round of the BMW Championship, he squandered those strokes over the first 10 holes, and was tied first with Patrick Cantlay and then, for five long holes, with Rory McIlroy, his fellow competitor in the final twosome.
“I just really didn't have my stuff mentally,” Clark said after a trio of birdies on the final three holes to finish at 17-under-par 263 hold off Cantlay by three strokes, McIlroy by four to take the title and the $3.6 million that goes with it. “Not that my game was off, I just kind of wasn't focused and just was making some dumb mistakes. Didn't make any putts.
“It's hard to keep your focus for four straight days,” Clark continued. “I think sometimes when you have a 5-shot lead the mindset going in (is) you fast forward, you just want to be on the last few holes, right? So the hardest thing is to stay in the present. I just kind of was quick mentally. Not that I was necessarily moving quick, I just was kind of making decisions quick, didn't have my targets as locked in as maybe I wanted. Then putting, over the ball I was kind of unsure on some reads. So I just, yeah, I just wasn't focused kind of the first, I would say really the first eight holes.”
Such introspection came in depth and without angst because Clark snapped out of it with vigor on the green of the par-3 16th hole, sinking a 16 foot 8 inch putt for his first birdie of the day after telling McIlroy, who wasn’t sure who was away, that he would go first.
“I thought putting that shot roughly the same distance as him was a big deal,” Clark said of his high-cut 5-iron from 232 yards. “I wouldn't call it poor gamesmanship, but when it gets close to who is who, sometimes there's strategy in who goes first. Earlier in the day Rory was going first and made putts on me, and then I missed.
“So then when we got up to 16 we kind of didn't know who it was and I said, It's me. So I went, made the putt. Whether that did anything or not, sometimes putting the pressure on the guy can be difficult. So I thought that was a big thing for the momentum for me to make that putt and kind of put the pressure on him to make his.”
He was pleased to hear was indeed more distant from the cup – by 11 inches. “OK, good! No arm, no foul,” he said to the news.
“I dropped that putt on 16 and it propelled me to the last two birdies,” Clark said.
Yep, three birds in succession, and with a pro-McIlroy gallery that totaled 40,000 finally giving him his due, to capture the championship everyone in the morning thought was a lock for Clark. Then golf happened.
A two-shot swing on the first hole, cutting Clark’s lead over McIlroy from five to three. A failed up-and-down on the devilish par-3 sixth. A lipped-out birdie try at the ninth. Then a bogey on No. 10, and the lead was gone.
“But I kept telling myself, hey, if you told me before the week with 10 holes to go I would have a one- or two-shot lead, I would take it,” Clark said. “If I was tied with six holes to go, I would take it, regardless of what happened coming into the day. I think that helped keep me in the moment. Rather than being bummed, kind of look at it as an opportunity.”
It took until the 16th fo him to take advantage. He next ran down a 13-foot birdie putt on the 607-yard 17th after driving into the left fairway bunker, moving three ahead when McIlroy bogeyed. A 17-footer at the last after a 299-yard drive guaranteed a visit with the J.K. Wadley Trophy.
He also received a verbal bouquet from McIlroy.
“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,” McIlroy said. “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.”
And, perhaps, in the player of the year race. Clark now has three wins this season (the U.S. Open and the Byron Nelson before Sunday) and is third in the standings. If he wins the Tour Championship, maybe some players vote for him instead of favorite Scottie Scheffler.
“Wyndham doing what he did today, yeah, next week will make things interesting,” McIlroy said.
Cantlay, in jumping to the Tour Championship field with his finish, made it as interesting as he could, sinking a 4-foot birdie putt on the 10th to tie Clark, then rallying after a couple of bogeys to match Clark with three birdies at the end to grab solo second.
“I feel like I did a lot of really good things this week,” Cantlay said. “I hit the ball really well. I hit a lot of quality shots, a lot of quality wedges. Especially the way I finished to birdie those last three holes, it's really nice momentum going into next week.”
That being East Lake in Atlanta and the Tour Championship, where there will be much to be decided.
Scheffler’s travails
In retrospect, Scottie Scheffler’s 12th place finish was amazing. Previously admitting to only being under the weather, he explained Sunday he had hand, foot and mouth disease, probably caught from one of his two youngsters, and was advised not to play.
The defending champion, Scheffler opened with a 2-over 72 and came back with three under-par rounds to finish at 7-under 273.
“I’m proud of how I’ve felt,” Scheffler said. “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 on 18, I would have felt really bad. So that's good news, starting to feel better. Hopefully the throat will clear up the next couple days.”
Fever, mouth sores and blisters on feet and hands are the symptoms. For Scheffler, the hand blisters were the worst.
“To start the week it was pretty painful to grip the club,” Scheffler said. “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. I think that's part of my stubbornness, probably. That's probably a strength of mine and a weakness at times.
“I've never been one to ever pull out of a tournament, especially in the middle of it. That's really frustrating for me. I definitely didn't want to do that going into this week, even though it was suggested.”
He expects to feel better with a couple days of rest and play in the Tour Championship.
The East Lake Derby
Gary Woodland’s tie for fourth place helped him advance to the Tour Championship. He climbed from 31st to 18th in the standings. Cantlay moved from 43rd to 19th to get in and Robert MacIntyre (tie for seventh) went from 36th to 25th to get safely in the top 30. Out and sitting at home are Kurt Kitayama (T26, 28th to 31th), Rickie Fowler (T37, 30th to 33rd) and Bud Cauley (T44, 29th to 34th).
Around Bellerive
Clark is the first player since Dustin Johnson in 2016 to win both the U.S. Open and Western Open / BMW in the same year. Johnson was the first to do so since Jack Nicklaus in 1967. … Scheffler led the half-dozen Americans locked into the Presidents Cup at the close of play. Cameron Young, Clark, Sam Burns, Russell Henley and Collin Morikawa round out the first six. There will be six more captain’s picks after the Tour Championship. … The par-70 course played to 69.5 strokes on Sunday, highest average of the week (68.885 across four rounds). … Next year's championship, the 124th in a run that began in 1899, will be at Liberty National Golf Club in Jersey City, New Jersey, across from Manhattan and in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty.
– Tim Cronin