Wyndham Clark Tuesday Press Conference 2024 BMW Championship

afternoon everyone we'll go and get things started we would like to welcome wendam Clark to the BMW Championship Windom welcome Colorado Native want to start with what's it's it's amazing I wish we played here every year to be honest um you know I this tournament hasn't been here in um 10 years and then at CLE Pines what is that almost 20 years I grew up comeing to this place and always dreamt of playing this tournaments when they stopped playing here it was uh kind of a you know stabbed to the heart for me cuz I it was so fun coming out and watching it so to be back here playing for my home crowd is is pretty special successful amateur career here in the state um Castle Pines used to have the international here did you used to come out at all as a fan and watch yeah uh my first tournament I ever attended um was this event I think I was seven or eight years old I remember being on the ninth green watching guys you know like David Deval and retif gusen and Ernie El's and David Toms come up the fairways and and just visualizing and imagining myself being here one day and and it's kind of crazy fast forward 20 some years and I'm here so um it's pretty amazing I'm I'm excited to be back perfect we're going to go and open up the media those who have a question go and raise your hand and we'll get a microphone over to you start off here in the front thank you hi wendam Vanessa Hughes Mile High Sports here in Colorado nice to see you um obviously this is a kind of a different kind of homecoming for you I know you come here a lot to work with Greg and you're in and out a lot for different reasons but uh this is really your first opportunity to play in a PGA or event in your home state uh I have a two-part question for you what are you most looking forward to this week and what does it mean to be playing in an event of this magnitude in your home state with lots of friends family and fans you're going to have it's going to be a big home course Advantage so to speak yeah um I the first part um you know I'm I'm really looking forward to honestly it kind of answers both the questions it's just being here playing in my home state I've never played a professional event in Colorado the last time I played a competitive you know event of some magnitude was the Pack 12 Championship um at Boulder Country Club and um you know that was 8 nine years ago so it's um it's amazing to be back here and I'm just excited to see friends and family that I don't get to see that often get to play in front of people that have watched me my whole life and it's kind of come full circle of you know teachers golf coaches trainers friends that have kind of been through this whole thing with me from a young age and now we're here uh playing at the the highest level a course that I've played quite a bit growing up so it's it's pretty neat we have back left Cameron morit here hey wam nice to be back um two questions what have you found lately you you've been kind of shown up on leaderboards lately and just was wondering what you'd found in your game and then secondly Xander and Scotty have both had kind of historic Seasons I was wondering which one if you could choose to have one of those two which one you would choose and why okay uh first part you know I've gotten back to a little bit more of my process I think I was getting a little too score uh outcome focused um you know as I had some early success in the year and was playing Amazing golf I think I just got uh you know just falling short of Scotty a couple times and then you're thinking okay I was just got too much into winning and and trying to break through and and win in some of those big events and then I got away from everything that made me successful and I feel like recently kind of in the last probably four weeks gotten back to the process of focusing on the things that got me here playing good golf and I've started to play good golf and you know i' I've had some poor rounds to start but I feel like I'm overcoming that and doing a lot better and so I think it's you know my game's trending in the right direction and then the the next question it's hard to answer I mean they both are so so good and um you know I enjoy playing with both of them and they're both good buddies it's hard to argue with how good Scotty's playing right now um and what he's done this year I know Xander's had an amazing year and most years that's the best year anyone's will ever have but you know Scotty's on a run that we haven't seen since tiger so I don't know if that answers your question but I would choose both of them if I could picking here with the left hi Wham chrism Denver Gazette um I was wondering uh what kind of expectations are you putting yourself on yourself this week and also uh how many ticket requests did you get um expectations um I'm trying to put zero um obviously I want to do great I want to perform in front my home crowd but at the same time you know there there is a lot of expectations put on me and a lot of pressure and um I'm trying to just enjoy it more than anything I we might not come back here for a long time so I really just want to soak it in and if I play great awesome if not I know I'm going to NE next week and um you know I'm really just trying to enjoy the moment and then as far as uh ticket requests a ton um I've kind of had to limit it to mainly really close friends and family otherwise we'd be giving out hundreds and hundreds of tickets so um but I hope all those people still come out because it's uh it's fun seeing friendly faces very first row Ben here on the left mighta how much of an advantage is your course history here and where will it show up the most I mean not a ton obviously I played more than anyone else um but I didn't grow up playing this course per se like every day um so yes I know some of the nuances maybe other people don't know and then maybe where it shows up you know altitude's tough to play it and I'm not here that much playing golf when I come back I'm either seeing um family friends I'm fishing or working with the trainers so when I'm back I don't golf that much um so I'm a little rusty on my my uh altitude game but you know the good thing is I am used to it and I I feel like I have some tricks up my sleeve when I get into certain situation so maybe it'll come with uh shot selection and and distance control moving over to the right we have Bob and then we'll move the microphone up to the front uh wendam how much um how much of a boost did your weekend rounds at the Olympics give you um you know you kind of shot yourself out of it the first day almost and it's a different obviously a different tournament um but you you brought it back nicely and I'm wondering you know if if that's sort of where you saw the turnaround that you were talking about um I felt like the turnaround started more at The Travelers Championship I kind of back door to top 10 there and then another back door top 10 at the Scottish unfortunately didn't play well at trun just didn't fit my eye and didn't play great there um and then I went into the Olympics and yeah I was really bummed with that first day um but I played amazing golf even that back nine on that first day I I just hit it in the water and missed a couple short putts otherwise it probably would have been an even par one under round and we might be talking about a bronze medal if if uh if that back nine was a little different and then obviously I played great those last three days um but that that definitely was a huge uh confidence boost for me because I know there was a lot of uh media talk about me being there and how bad I played and whatnot and um I wanted to prove to myself and my country that I'm a top American player and and I played awesome golf I I don't think anyone other than maybe Scotty played better golf than me those last three days I just shot myself out of the first round and then last week was um really solid golf for four four rounds and I feel like my game's trending in the right direction at the right time we have Doug then Adam do you um do you read much or listen to much stuff about you not not usually I only heard it at the Olympics cuz some people were talking about it and I over heard it but no I don't I wanted to ask you from well you can go to caloo if you want I was thinking Pebble but what kind of grade would you give yourself this year with two events to go um I mean a very a very good grade it's kind of been two seasons maybe even three I'd break it up the first half I felt like I was an A+ the second half um mentally is kind of where I grade myself I felt like I was a little bit in the B range and now I'm back in the a category I mean I had an amazing year I I had two or three Runner UPS I've won a tournament I've had multiple top 10s I'm fifth in the FedEx that's a pretty great year for most people um you know obviously what Scotty and xan are doing I think everyone's holding all of us to a really high standard compared to them but it was an amazing year I mean last year I finished I was roughly in the same spot coming into this event I was in fifth and last year was an amazing year too so it's been an amazing run of two two years and I'm really pleased and I'm hoping this is just an upward Trend and I shot 60 a pebble that's another highlight yes Adam go ahead when would you be a little more specific about what you got away from in your game I yeah I mean I really um I feel like when I'm playing my best it's um it's very processed it's I all I care about is my routine doing the best I can before I get into the ball mentally post shot mentally um post round before round like that's all I cared about and that's kind of all I judged myself on and I think I just crept in a little bit too much of looking at the scoreboard and and trying to force things to happen rather than just let them happen and can you take me back to those early days at the uh Family Sports Center and what that meant to you and getting involved in golf yeah I mean I it's I was um my agent and um some friends friends were here and we went to where I train now with a guy and the course I originally grew up on and hit balls for the first time was Mountain View which was right off bellw 925 and that is no longer there and it's five Sky Rises so it's it's uh kind of crazy to see that and then obviously Family Sports Center um I used to work with Derek tolan's dad uh originally and I remember my dad and I would go there for four or five hours and I just hit balls and then I go short game and play that those nine holes so it's amazing amazing to see where I started at a kind of local mun and then going through the college ranks and being here it's it's um that's pretty awesome and it's fun it's always fun coming home because I can see where my roots were and keep me grounded we're moving to very far right window we already saw Rory on the driving range hitting the ball over the netting into the yards across the street would you expect you and your peers to have I mean by by Thursday will everybody have elevation figured out or do you expect it to be would you expect it to be a challenge for everybody throughout the whole weekend I think everyone starting Thursday will have a good um you know they'll they'll feel comfortable with it a lot of guys I mean we play a few events at altitude and have played them the tough thing with elevation is it's it's not as consistent as sea level um so if you hit your seven iron always about 185 at at sea level it constantly goes 185 here at altitude you now that's you you know let's say it's called 205 well it could go 205 one shot and then 210 the next shot and then 200 the next shot so there's a little inconsistency in the thin air and the altitude depending on how high you hit it so if anyone seems to air go long or short it's probably because the trajectory so that that's going to be the challenge I mean everyone's going to have a good idea of how far they're hitting the clubs but you can sometimes just hit one forever in Colorado and over here on our front left went up um given I think you said two months ago that you played it roughly 30 times out here most of I think maybe a couple guys have played this ever before this week between the altitude and coming to a totally new course how much of a challenge putting yourself in the in the shoes of most of these players is it going to be for those guys I mean that we're all so good now and our books are so good our information's so good our teams are so good that you know I think guys just one time seeing the golf course have a really good idea for it now some of the nuances of maybe angles into certain pins or um maybe certain breaks that maybe I'm more comfortable with just because I've been out here they might not have um but we there's a lot of major courses that we go to that we've never been to and after two three days of prep guys feel really comfortable on it so I don't think guys are going to be uh too far behind the eightball but you know I I like to think I have a little bit of Advantage at least with being comfortable hitting the ball at altitude and the ball not curving as much and things like that we're just passing the microphone one row back here hey Mark kizla Denver Gazette I have to ask a followup because I live like on the third or fourth hole of Mountain View right now at what age did you first start hitting balls there and pardon this but it I played there too it was it's fairly humble did you at that age did you see yourself sitting in this chair right now I mean not at that age I was three um so that was in 96 so it was uh yeah I wasn't thinking at that age you know I think where maybe I started fantasizing trying to be a professional golfer was closer to 9 10 years old and at that time I think Mountain View had already been torn up so that's when I was over at Family Sports Center and at that age I I for sure envisioned it um but at the same time you never really know what it's going to look like and this has honestly kind of surpassed my expectations and dreams tag along at age three or are you bugging the family at age3 to hit so the story my dad was out of town on a business trip my mom was home with me my sister who was six and my newborn brother and I was a lot of energy active and my mom was like I just got to get wind him out of the house so she started driving thinking she's going to go like to some fun play area and then saw the golf course that pretty close to our house and she just pulled in and said well maybe this will distract him for a while and I ended up hitting two buckets of balls for like two or three hours and just loved it I just was in fascinated with hitting the golf ball and and that's kind of where it started we had time just for a few more when I talked to you a few months ago you told me that this course typically plays fast and firm uh things are different now it's the longest course in PGA tour history at over 8,100 yards it's different at elevation obviously but um you just played a practice round what's your take on the course right now uh what are your expectations what do you kind of have to key on uh as we start the tournament on Thursday yeah I mean the course is very healthy it's uh very green and Lush it's pretty soft so it's playing all of that 8100 you know obviously with the altitude it is shorter than 8100 but it's playing about as long as it could right now because the ball's not rolling as much as maybe it normally does and then um you know the greens aren't firm either so depending on the weather and you know people that live here know the the thunderstorms come up in the afternoon if they don't come up and it's and it's dry this course is going to play really firm and fast which makes it pretty tough which is how it normally plays um but yeah I mean with how it is right now the rough's more challenging than maybe it would normally be but you know after seeing it I think scores might be a little lower than maybe people wanted you know some of the members here just because it's so soft but you know you can't control human nature so all um yeah I mean definitely probably a little bit more of carry not as hitting sometimes here you can hit it low and get a lot of run um but because it's so soft it's kind of all about carry um and then typically when I've played here in the past you know if the flag is at 150 you want to land at 140 and that gets to that 150 it really is that firm usually right now I'm landing it right on 150 so um if it doesn't change much guys are going to be throwing darts at the at the flag so um I expect some lower scores unless there are any others I'll finish up with one there's one there sorry about that um what's the difference of playing in front of your home crowd uh being that there are a few golfers from Colorado is there an additional pressure you feel like having to W the state in this tournament um I'd be lying if I said no um I definitely feel a little more pressure that way but at the same time I I think people just want to come watch um me play and all of us play and I think if I give my best effort and and feel like I did everything I could and whatever the outcome is I'm hoping people just enjoyed that we're all here getting to play and so I'm trying to not put as much pressure as I can on myself and I'm just really trying to enjoy the enjoy the moment and then just a few weeks ago spent opening ceremony with the Colorado Native professional basketball player Derek white want to know the relationship um there and when it dated back to uh D and I have know each other I mean starting probably at like 9 10 year old basketball we used to play against each other and he I was on the Cherry Creek team he was on they were called the Dolphins but I forget what kind of District they were in but we used to play each other and we were both point guards and so I'd guard him and and we had a lot of battles and it ended up always being championship game was us first them and so I've D and I played against each other a lot and then in high school we competed um quite a bit in high in basketball as well and it's really neat to see uh D's career going from you know going to a junior college and then playing at CU and then obviously getting drafted and now is a you know NBA champion on for the Celtics so and an Olympian so it's really neat to see kind of Colorado Sports kind of coming on the map with Derek myself and Christian and and some of the other Olympians and it's uh it's a good good thing for Colorado I feel like the sports are in a good spot here perfect that's all the questions we have wendam thanks for the time and good luck this sweet we're actually