Wyndham Clark makes nightmare start to 2024 Olympics golf campaign, continues on Major woes
Wyndham Clark has entered the 2024 Olympics seeking redemption after his recent struggles. However, his woes seem to continue, as he had a rocky start at Le Golf National.
Clark is competing in the Olympics for the first time in his career. Leading up to this week, he had missed three out of five Majors this season and tied for 56th at the U.S. Open, where he was the defending champion. Unfortunately, his performance on the first day at Le Golf National did not improve much.
Clark started the first round of the 2024 Olympics with a bogey and then double-bogeyed the second hole. On the par-5 third hole, he missed a 19-foot putt, resulting in his second bogey of the day. His only birdie so far came on the ninth hole.
At the time of writing this article, Wyndham Clark was eight strokes behind the leader, Hideki Matsuyama. The Japanese star had a red-hot start at the 2024 Olympics, firing six birdies, including four consecutive ones in the first 10 holes.
Matthias Schmid of Germany was one stroke behind after 13 holes, while Joaquin Niemann of Chile and Ryan Fox of New Zealand were two strokes back after 12 holes. Tom Kim was already four-under after shooting four birdies on the front nine.
"It's been a unique year" - Wyndham Clark reflects on his recent struggles
Earlier on Wednesday, July 31, Wyndham Clark acknowledged that it had been a tough season for him after starting with the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am win and back-to-back runner-up finishes at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Players Championship.
"It's been a unique year," he said, as per the Sports Illustrated. "I started out fantastic and in previous years on Tour. I typically have kind of played better at the end or the year."
He revealed that he was dealing with injuries before the Masters Tournament, and his performance has gone downhill since then.
"I feel like I'm finally getting to where I can swing at the level that I know I can swing, and so that's kind of been an ongoing issue and it's been frustrating for me," he added.
Since his runner-up finish at the TPC Sawgrass, the US Open 2022 champion has missed four cuts and has three top-10s. He will be hoping to finish the year on a high with a good run at the Olympics and the FedEx Cup.