Wyndham Clark makes case for Player of the Year honors

Three wins, including a major, makes Clark’s case for being the best on the Tour

By Jim Bebbington

Just one week ago Scottie Scheffler seemed to have wrapped up the PGA Tour’s Player of the Year Award.

He has won twice, and leads the Tour in nearly every major statistical category.

Then Wyndham Clark entered the chat.

Clark won last weekend’s BMW Championshp with a dominant finish – three straight birdies while playing alongside Rory McIlroy, who was working hard to close the gap. Clark is tied with two other PGA Tour players with most wins on the season – three – but neither Chris Gotterup nor Matt Fitzpatrick won a major this year.

So, how does someone win the Player of the Year Award? It’s pretty simple – PGA Tour members all vote from a list of nominees presented by the Tour. Most votes win.

What criteria are voters supposed to take into account? Anything they want.

It’s not a statistical competition. It’s called the Jack Nicklaus Award, and reflects the way peers feel about the best among them. And while Scheffler has had an outstanding year statistically,  he won just twice. And, playing alongside Clark at the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills, he blinked.

Clark’s win at the U.S. Open remains one of the signature events of the PGA Tour year. It is almost unheard of for a PGA Tour golfer to have to compete against the teeth of an away-crowd. Millions of televised viewers heard hours of coverage of the U.S. Open galleries cheer Clark’s poor shots, and remain silent when he overcame them.

Then this weekend the vibe at the BMW Championship was notably pro-Rory, if not anti-Wyndham. And while Clark frittered away his Sunday lead over the front nine, he rallied, sank his birdies, and ended up winning by three strokes, which at this level is a blowout.

“I wasn’t really nervous, I was kind of out of it,” Clark said Sunday about his lead-wasting front nine. “I was just making dumb bogeys. I just wanted to start getting myself going…. You’re up by five it feels like the only thing you can do is blow it.”

As he and McIlroy came into the final three holes the difference between them came down to putting. Clark has improved immensely on the greens this season, and is now No. 16 on the Tour for strokes-gained putting. “I’m really proud of myself that I didn’t let it get away,” he said.

Moments after his final putt dropped he was asked to summarize what the win meant for him. “I think it shows I’m one of the best players in the world,” he said. ” I feel like I’ve come into my own – three wins in one season is my best year yet coming off my worst season ever.”

His 2025 season was his worst since he rose to fame winning the 2023 U.S. Open – no wins and a host of missed cuts. The switch to this season’s run of excellence couldn’t be more dramatic. Clark told reporters Sunday that he’s proud of his year, but is also realistic about what his chances are to be named Player of the Year.

“I mean, obviously Scottie’s the best player in the world right now,” he said. “Honestly, I didn’t even think about coming off such a terrible year. Didn’t even think about Player of the Year. I was more just wanting to get back into contention, wanting to make it to East Lake. And then I win, and win a major and then it’s like, Okay, now I want to make the Presidents Cup team. So, yeah, I mean, honestly, this has all come pretty quick, and I honestly hadn’t really thought about it. So hopefully that maybe is in the cards, but if not I’m just really pleased with how the year’s gone.”

 Colorado AvidGolfer Magazine is the state’s leading resource for golf and the lifestyle that surrounds it, publishing eight issues annually and proudly delivering daily content via coloradoavidgolfer.com.

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