CHARLOTTE, NC — Windham Clark hit a 68 on Sunday for a four-shot victory over Xander Scheufele at the Wells Fargo Championship for his first career win on the PGA Tour.
The 29-year-old Clark struggled to hold back tears as he putt a bogey putt on the 18th hole for the win.
Clarke finished the tournament at 19-under 265, the second-lowest score for par in tournament history behind only three-time champion Rory McIlroy’s 21-under 267 in 2015 when the tournament was par for 72.
Schauffele had accuracy issues with his driver on Sunday and shot 70 goals in the 15th minute.
Terrell Hutton and Harry English finished tied for third with 12-min, the best being a single shot from Tommy Fleetwood and Adam Scott. Defending champion Max Homma hit a 70 on Sunday and is tied for ninth at 9-under 275.
Clark’s victory came the hard way.
The world number 80 opened the final round with a two-putt putt, handed it to Schauvelli after seven holes and then came back to prevail after playing the last 11 holes in the 4-under.
Despite never having won a Tour before, there were signs Clark was due. He has finished in the top six in three of the last five tournaments he has entered, including a third-place finish at the Zurich Classic last month.
Show the champ’s poise after a tough start.
Clark pulled his shot left on No. 1 over the cart path, leaving him with a difficult shot that bogey. Schauffele pulled ahead with birdies of 3 and 7 and it looked like Clarke, who had been struggling just to make a birdie over the first six holes, might collapse under the pressure of trying to win his first major.
But the momentum changed on the eighth hole.
Clark cracked to within 4 feet and rolled a short birdie putt to pull back to par and then took the lead for good at the turn when Schauffele pulled off a putt in the ninth.
Schauffele began to struggle with his driver, missing four straight lanes. Clarke kept pressure to putt a sinking birdie at No. 10 and 12 sandwiched between Schavelli’s bogey at No. 11, and pushed the lead to four strokes with six holes left to play.
Clark matched Schauffele’s birdie on the 14th and 15th holes to maintain a four-shot edge heading into the three difficult holes known as the Green Mile.
From there, the only real drama was whether he would break McIlroy’s championship record.
But Clarke played the last three holes on the 1, bogey of 18.
Playing for the first time since missing the loss at the Masters, McIlroy played the last three rounds with three rounds, including a 72 on Sunday to finish tied for the championship.
He had nine Top 10 starts in 11 starts including wins in 2010, 2015 and 2021 at Quail Hollow, but this was his worst outing since missing the cut 12 years ago.
McIlroy declined to speak to reporters after his latest tour.