With a First Win at Wells Fargo, Wyndham Clark Gets Much More Than Money (But Lots of That, Too)

The 29-year-old is set for the rest of the year's majors plus all the designated events for next year on the PGA Tour.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A lot of perks come with winning a PGA Tour event and we’re not even talking the $3.6 million in prize money at the Wells Fargo Championship. Wyndham Clark can take a bow and some time to digest all of that now that he has his first victory.

His 3-under-par 68 on Sunday capped a brilliant weekend of golf that saw him make just two bogeys and win by four shots over the more seasoned Xander Schauffele at Quail Hollow Golf Club.

So Clark can begin counting all the nice things that will come his way.

He was all but assured a spot in the PGA Championship in two weeks, but this victory locked it up. He will now undoubtedly qualify for the U.S. Open next month via the top 60 in the Official World Golf Ranking, having jumped to 31st in the world. (He moves to 19th in the SI World Golf Ranking.) And since this was one of the qualifiers for the British Open, he can make his plans for Royal Liverpool, too.

A trip to Hawaii for the Sentry Tournament of Champions along with knowing he’s in next year’s Players Championship for sure are added bonuses. And, of course, his first trip down Magnolia Lane for the Masters.

And then there is the newest perk: he will be eligible for all of the 2024 designated events on the PGA Tour.

While that is yet to be official, moving to fifth in the FedEx Cup standings suggests he will be among the top 50 by the end of the season. And that is one of the all-important demarcation lines for qualification.

Next year, tournaments such as the Wells Fargo are expected to be limited fields with no 36-hole cut. Clark, who had never been ranked higher than 80th in the world and has never qualified for the Tour Championship, might not have been eligible for the event he just won, as fields will be capped at 80 players.

"There’s pros and cons to every change and that would probably be a con if the likes of him weren’t playing," said Schauffele, whose 64-70 weekend couldn’t keep up. "I wouldn’t have minded because I would have won the tournament by three if he wasn’t here. I do understand ... and yes, that is a downside to it."

The designated events have largely been a success in the current format, with strong fields and generally compelling leaderboards.

So far, Jon Rahm won the Sentry Tournament of Champions and the Genesis Invitational (as well as the American Express and the Masters). Scottie Scheffler won the WM Phoenix Open (as well as the Players Championship). Kurt Kitayama held off the likes of Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth to win the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Sam Burns won the WGC-Dell Match Play over Cameron Young in the final. And Matt Fitzpatrick defeated Spieth in a playoff at the RBC Heritage.

This tournament lacked some of that drama down the stretch, but Clark made up for it with his strong play. He made just two bogeys on the weekend, one meaningless on the final hole.

And after taking a two-shot lead into the final round, bogeying the 1st hole and seeing Schauffele going ahead of him with a birdie at the 7th, it would have been easy for past failures to get the best of Clark, 29, who previous best payday of $425,000 was seven times less than what he earned Sunday.

Prior to this week, he had just 14 top-10s in his five-year career.

But Clark never wavered. A tricky chip shot at the 8th hole set up a tying birdie and then Schauffele bogeyed the 9th. When Clark birdied the 10th hole he had a two-shot lead.

He played a nine-hole stretch in 5 under par to push himself toward that first win.

“Be right!” 🎯@Wyndham_Clark goes right at it @WellsFargoGolf. pic.twitter.com/edmGavJwk0

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) May 7, 2023

"It’s really surreal," Clark said. "I've dreamt about this since I was probably 6 years old. Since I've been on the PGA Tour, you fantasize about it all the time, and I've done it multiple times this year where I catch myself daydreaming about winning, and to do it at this golf course against this competition is better than I could ever have imagined."

Clark led the field in strokes-gained tee to green, greens in regulation and strokes-gained approach, a pretty stout combination.

"It’s an extremely impressive weekend," said Tyrrell Hatton, who tied for third, seven shots back. “I thought those two yesterday shooting 8 under and 7 under as a group ... yesterday was hard, the wind was all over the place and those guys shooting those scores was extremely impressive.

"To go and put that round together to finish at 19 under is a fantastic effort. Yeah, he deserves to be holding that trophy."

And that means getting to play in these big events next year.

"My goal when we learned that this was going to be the schedule was for sure the top 50 (FedEx Cup) and my goal every year is to make it to the Tour Championship (top 30)," Clark said. "I haven't done that yet, but this year I think it was a really attainable goal and definitely the top 50, which would have been my best finish thus far in a season.

"So I'm really happy that I'm going to be in those events because I like competing against the best players on the best golf courses.

"Obviously the increase in pay is nice, too."