Suffice it to say that Boulder Country Club has treated Wyndham Clark pretty darn well over the years.
Considering the Highlands Ranch resident has played the BCC course a grand total of maybe a dozen times, how’s this for a resume at the club?
— He won the 2010 CGA Amateur there as a 16-year-old, becoming the youngest champion in the event since 1971.
— Then on Sunday, the now 23-year-old doubled up at BCC as he won the individual title in arguably the toughest conference in the nation (the Pac-12), and his University of Oregon squad claimed the league’s team championship.
At the Men’s Pac-12 meet, a crowd of a few hundred — many of whom were enthusiastically supporting Clark — surrounded the final green as the fifth-year senior clinched the victory. Afterward, he exchanged hugs (pictured) with more than a dozen family members and friends en route to the scoring area. Ironically, that included 2013 CGA Amateur champion John Ahern, who once outdueled Clark for a state high school title.
Sunday marked “probably the best win of my career and it couldn’t have been in a better spot, playing at home in front of friends and family, which to me was the coolest part, and also winning a team championship. It’s pretty awesome,” said Clark, the top-ranked men’s college player in the country.
“I’ve done a lot of preparation to get to this moment. I’ve thought about it, dreamed about it. Sometimes it’s a little surreal when it happens. It’s pretty awesome.”
In notching his third individual win of the college season — and his 10th top-10 in 11 tournaments — Clark shot three straight sub-par rounds at Boulder Country Club (69-68-69) for a 4-under-par 206 total. Only two other players finished under par for a tournament which featured snow and extreme cold on Friday — and no golf at all on a snowy Saturday. Rico Hoey of Southern California and Franklin Huang of Stanford shared second place at 209. Maverick McNealy of Stanford, the No. 1-ranked amateur in the world, tied for fourth at 213 with Carl Yuan of Washington.
Basically, Clark beat an extremely formidable field in winning on Sunday.
“Wyndham has just been a monster all year,” said Oregon coach Casey Martin, a former college teammate of Tiger Woods. “He’s only had a couple of over-par rounds all year. He came home (to Colorado) with all the pressure here and played beautifully. He’s a grinder and I love him. I’m so grateful he’s finishing his career at Oregon” after transferring from Oklahoma State, where he was a former Big 12 Player of the Year.
Oregon, the defending national champion, ended the win streak of three-time defending Pac-12 champ Stanford, but it went right down to the wire. With three of the top 10 teams in the country competing at Boulder CC, the Ducks checked in at 1,065 for three rounds, just three shots better than Stanford. No. 1-ranked USC tied for third place with Washington at 1,082. For Oregon, the victory marked the school’s first combined-division conference championship in men’s golf.
The host University of Colorado ended up seventh in the 12-team field at 1,095. The Buffs competed without Jeremy Paul, the program’s career leader in scoring average, as the senior turned pro a couple of weeks ago so he could play in a Web.com Tour event.
“It was overall a little disappointing,” said CU coach Roy Edwards. “We were really close to actually finishing pretty well. It’s going to look a little worse on the results page than it really probably was. But anytime you’re at home we would have definitely expected a little better result.”
Senior Ethan Freeman (left), like Clark a two-time state high school champion, and junior Spencer Painton (another state prep champ) shared 20th place at 8-over-par 218 to lead CU individually.
“I’m pretty disappointed (with the day),” said Freeman, who shared sixth place individually entering Sunday. “I was in the individual race and the team was right there to have a good finish. But I finished my second round bogey-bogey and I just played bad the third round (74). I’m pretty upset, but it is what it is. We’ve got (NCAA) Regionals coming up, so we’ll try to bounce back for that.
“(The Pac-12 finish) is not what we were looking for; it’s our home course. But I still have full confidence in my team that we can make it to the national championship (tournament).”
Painton, in his first season as a Buff after transferring from Kansas, didn’t always play his best golf at Boulder CC, but relished the opportunity to compete in such a prestigious event in his home state.
“It was a total blast,” he said. “It was really nice to hit a shot and have a bunch of people around you supporting you. You don’t get that very often in tournaments. To have the support we had out here from the members and the staff here at Boulder Country Club was really, really special — something we’ll never forget.”
As for Clark (left), even though he was tied for the lead and had only two holes left in round 2 when play resumed late Sunday morning, he finished that round with a three-stroke advantage. He birdied the 17th hole — his first of the day — from 30 feet, then parred 18 before teeing off for his final round.
As it turned out, Clark would never relinquish his individual lead. However, his advantage did dwindle to one when he bogeyed the 10th hole with a three-putt after being just 50 yards from the green after his drive on the par-4.
But Clark bounced back in fine fashion, making a 12-foot birdie on No. 11, then adding another birdie on the par-5 12th. At the 12th, his tee shot came a little closer than he would have liked to the left out of bounds. Then his second shot got a favorable bounce off a tree short left of the green. And he took advantage of his good fortune to hit a stellar flop shot over a gaping bunker to six inches from the cup.
“I probably hit one of the best shots of my life on that flop shot,” he said. “Making that up and down for birdie was probably the tournament right there. I was in a bad spot, almost out of bounds (after his drive), so to walk away with a birdie was huge. It was a crazy hole, but it worked out. Then I was solid and didn’t make mistakes coming in.”
Coming up the final hole, Clark had the luxury to think back to the 2010 CGA Amateur, where he sank a 30-foot birdie putt to win a playoff over Jim Knous.
It’s funny,” Clark said. “I remember making that putt on 18 seven years ago. Finishing today, just walking up there, I reminisced on that and thought it was pretty neat. It was just cool being in a similar spot seven years later for something just a little bit bigger.”
Sunday’s win leaves Clark in a very strong position for the Haskins Award — given to the top college player in the nation — though ballots don’t go out until after NCAA Regionals.
Shoveling Out: Two or three inches of snow remained on much of the Boulder Country Club course when the sun rose on Sunday morning, but thanks to Boulder Country Club and CU staff, as well as volunteers, play resumed at 11:30 a.m. They expedited the snow melting process by running the sprinkler system at selected spots and doing quite a bit of shoveling to get the fairways clear. Some patches of snow remained in the rough, so there were a fair number of casual-water relief situations for players in the remainder of round 2 and early in round 3. But with temperatures eventually reaching the 50s, all in all it was a pleasant day for golf.
“The effort put forth by Boulder Country Club and our athletic department people was off the charts in getting the golf course ready today,” Edwards said. “It was just an incredible effort. I couldn’t be more proud of those two groups.”
Asked who helped with shoveling off the snow on the course on Sunday morning, Edwards said the group included CU athletic department staff, volunteers, Boulder Country Club members, CU golf players and coaches. “Anybody who was breathing that had a shovel,” Edwards said with a chuckle.
With Saturday’s play being snowed out, this year marked the first time since 1989 that the Men’s Pac-12 Championships was limited to 54 holes instead of the scheduled 72.
Men’s Pac-12 Championship
April 28-30, 2017 (final) at Par-70 Boulder CC
Team Scores
1. Oregon ……………………………….. 354-361-350—1065 (+15)
2. Stanford ……………………………… 363-363-342—1068 (+18)
T3. Washington …………………………. 355-369-358—1082 (+32)
T3. Southern California………………… 366 365-351—1082 (+32)
5. UCLA…………………………………… 363-372-353—1088 (+38)
6. Arizona State ……………………….. 362-374-356—1092 (+42)
7. Colorado ………………………….. 368-367-360—1095 (+45)
8. California …………………………….. 367-364-365—1096 (+46)
9. Arizona ……………………………….. 368-373-366—1107 (+57)
10. Washington State ………………….. 373-374-366—1113 (+63)
11. Oregon State………………………… 376-376-367—1119 (+69)
12. Utah …………………………………… 379-377-366—1122 (+72)
CU Individuals
20. Ethan Freeman 72-72-74–218
20. Spencer Painton 73-72-73–218
31. Yannik Paul 71-76-73–220
31. John Souza 75-75-70–220
40. Victor Bjorlow 77-76-70–223
52. Wilson Belk 79-72-74–225
Also
1. Coloradan Wyndham Clark, Oregon 69-68-69–206
71. Coloradan Kyler Dunkle, Utah 74-81-78–233
For complete scoring from the Pac-12 meet, CLICK HERE.
UNC, Welch Runners-Up in Big Sky: While Wyndham Clark, a graduate of Valor Christian High School, won the Pac-12 tournament, another former Valor golfer came close on Sunday. Coby Welch, a freshman for the University of Northern Colorado, tied for second at the Big Sky Conference Championship in Boulder City, Nev.
Welch shot a 2-under-par 70 on Sunday — despite a double bogey — to post an even-par 216 total, leaving him a shot behind champion Aaron Beverly of Sacramento State. Also placing in the top 10 for UNC was Joshua Matz, who finished sixth at 219.
In its season finale, UNC recorded a stellar final-round total of 8-under-par 280 as a team to rally for a second-place finish in the eight-school field.
With a three-day total of 874, UNC ended up 15 strokes behind winner Sacramento State.
The showing was one of the best ever for UNC at a conference championship. In 2014, the Bears claimed both the team and individual (Ben Krueger) titles in the America Sky tournament.
Men’s Big Sky Championship
April 28-30, 2017 (final) in Boulder City, Nev.
2. (out of 8 teams) Northern Colorado 306-303-280–889
2. Coby Welch 74-72-70–216
6. Joshua Matz 72-79-68–219
15. Andrew Romano 79-74-75–228
19. Li Chen 83-78-70–231
27. Sam Marley 81-82-72–235
New TPC Colorado G.M. Collins, a Former Pac-8 South Champion, on Hand: Among the spectators Friday at Boulder Country Club was Coloradan Larry Collins, the Pac-8 South co-champion in 1977 as a University of Southern California golfer. Collins, a former director of golf at Boulder Country Club and for the last 18 years the director of golf at the 27-hole Omni Interlocken Golf Club in Broomfield, on Friday was named the general manager at the under-construction TPC Colorado course in Berthoud. The semi-private TPC Colorado is expected to open in the spring of next year and is said to be in the running to host a Web.com Tour event in the future.
