Meet Wyndham Clark, the golfer who clinched his first main title beating out PGA Tour execs Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler, and Rickie Fowler

• Wyndham Clark received the 2023 US Open on Sunday evening, capturing his first main title.
• The US Open is considered one of 4 main championships in golf, and the 123rd version was in Los Angeles.
• The 29-year-old American edged out four-time main champion Rory McIlroy by a single stroke.

That is shaping as much as be a giant yr for Wyndham Clark. The up-and-coming American golfer clinched his first main title on Sunday evening.

The 29-year-old from Denver, Colorado, received the 2023 US Open, which is considered one of 4 main championships in golf. The match happened at The Los Angeles Nation Membership from June 15 to 18.

Clark’s finest end, till Sunday, had been a tie for seventy fifth in a serious championship. However within the US Open he performed amongst, and beat out, a stacked roster of acquainted PGA Tour names, together with Rory McIlroy, the world’s top-ranked participant; Scottie Scheffler; and Rickie Fowler.

Solely a yr in the past, Clark ranked 293rd within the Official World Golf Rating.

“I really feel like I belong on this stage, and even two, three years in the past when individuals did not know who I used to be, I felt like I may nonetheless play and compete in opposition to the most effective gamers on the earth,” Clark mentioned throughout a press convention after the main. “I felt like I’ve proven that this yr.”

The golfer appears to be hitting his stride. He had one prior win on the PGA Tour — the Wells Fargo Championship in Might 2023.

On Sunday, Clark edged McIlroy, a four-time main champion from Northern Eire, by a single shot with a 10-under whole of 270. McIlroy, a 34-year-old professional who’s a former world No. 1, continues his practically nine-year main championship drought.

For his win, Clark was awarded $3.6 million of the US Open’s document $20 million prize purse this yr. It was the primary yr he made the reduce for the US Open.

Clark’s dad is a former skilled tennis participant. And although Clark’s win fell on Father’s Day, he devoted Sunday’s victory to his mom, Lise, who lived in Los Angeles earlier than shifting to Colorado. She died of breast most cancers in 2013.

Clark, teary-eyed in his winner’s interview, mentioned it was a very particular week as individuals approached him to share images of his mother in her 20s and early 30s once they knew her in Los Angeles. Earlier within the tour, Clark spoke in regards to the inspiration his mother gave him and the way she advised him to “play huge,” and “play for one thing larger than your self,” when she was sick whereas he was in faculty at Oklahoma State College.

“It was form of a particular vibe all week,” Clark mentioned in the course of the press convention.