{"id":100572,"date":"2026-08-26T03:22:56","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T03:22:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/people-can-think-what-they-want-wyndham-clark-responds-to-rules-scrutiny\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T03:22:56","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T03:22:56","slug":"people-can-think-what-they-want-wyndham-clark-responds-to-rules-scrutiny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/people-can-think-what-they-want-wyndham-clark-responds-to-rules-scrutiny\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018People can think what they want&#039;: Wyndham Clark responds to rules \u2018scrutiny&#039;"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Getty Images\" src=\"https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/golf_articles_613\/6a7755916993c46078ca8fdb2c8dde63.jpg\" data-uuid=\"80121be3-4387-3811-ac55-2e69ea304a85\"><figcaption>Wyndham Clark and his ball on Sunday on the 14th hole.<small class=\"credit\">Getty Images<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Wyndham Clark says he didn\u2019t take \u201ca bad lie and make it good.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And if you think that he did during Sunday\u2019s final round of the BMW Championship?<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cPeople can think what they want,\u201d Clark said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><iframe data-yahoo-uuid=\"inlinelinkedvideo_71651f50-eda7-3991-8fd0-8f50126c4a5f\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His comments came Tuesday ahead of this week\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/golf.com\/news\/2026-tour-championship-tv-watch-tee-times\">Tour Championship<\/a>, where he was asked about a scene to the right of the 14th hole at Bellerive Country Club, host of the BMW. There, while Clark prepared to hit his second shot on the par-4, a CBS camera positioned to his right caught the following:<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2013 Clark grabbed an iron from his bag, placed it behind his ball, then took a practice swing just to the left of the ball. Twice more, he placed his iron behind the ball and took practice swings, before going back to his bag for a different iron. At the time, Clark was tied for the lead with Rory McIlroy.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2013 CBS cut away to Gary Woodland on the 15th hole.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2013 When it returned, Clark was placing an iron behind his ball. He then took another practice swing to the left of it before his caddie, David Pelekoudas, moved between Clark and the camera, though another practice swing could be seen. Clark then went back to his bag for a different iron. Three times, he placed that iron behind his ball and took practice swings. At about this point, CBS analysts said the following:<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Trevor Immelman: \u201cHe\u2019s taking a long look at this. This is like the third club that he\u2019s placed down behind the ball there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Frank Nobilo: \u201cSo the lie might be better.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">From there, Clark placed his 9-iron behind the ball and hit, finished the hole with a par and went on to <a href=\"https:\/\/golf.com\/news\/at-bmw-cold-top-mishits-wyndham-clark-bombs\">win by three<\/a>. But Nobilo\u2019s comment, along with several similar remarks on social media, is interesting. Did Clark improve his lie? On Tuesday, Clark was asked the following question:<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Wyndham, your drive on 14 Sunday went into the right rough, and there was a lot of scrutiny on social media but also even the TV announcers. Curious about you changing clubs and tapping down the rough multiple times. Just curious what you were thinking there, and there was a similar situation possibly at the U.S. Open, and if you\u2019ve been hearing about this at all.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI didn\u2019t really hear much about it,\u201d Clark said. \u201cI know the shot that you\u2019re talking about. I think any player, when they\u2019re trying to judge a lie, takes out different clubs to see what it feels like.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI never fully put the club down behind it. I don\u2019t think anything of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<section>\n<div class=\"g-component article-card article-card--vertical article-card--default\">\n<figure><a class=\"article-card__category news\" href=\"https:\/\/golf.com\/news\/\"> News <\/a><a class=\"article-card__image\" href=\"https:\/\/golf.com\/news\/pga-tour-details-new-postseason-structure-match-play\/\" title=\"Match play included in PGA Tour&#39;s radically new postseason structure\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Match play included in PGA Tour&#39;s radically new postseason structure\" class=\"lazy inner\" src=\"https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/golf_articles_613\/2d8d0a29a79f9077ef4d312ca870c0db.jpg\" style=\"background-image:url(https:\/\/golf.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/scottie-scheffler-east-lake-tour-championship-sunday.jpg?width=30);\" data-uuid=\"b4199c64-d507-3e79-a90e-26c18c24abce\"><\/a><\/figure>\n<div class=\"article-card__content\"><a class=\"article-card__title\" href=\"https:\/\/golf.com\/news\/pga-tour-details-new-postseason-structure-match-play\/\" title=\"Match play included in PGA Tour&#39;s radically new postseason structure\"> Match play included in PGA Tour&#39;s radically new postseason structure <\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-card__footer\">\n<div class=\"article-card__authors\"><span>By: <\/span><a class=\"article-card__author\" href=\"https:\/\/golf.com\/writers\/james-colgan\/\">James Colgan<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As part of his answer, he also noted a pair of previous incidents in which his actions around the ball have been questioned \u2014 during the third round of <a href=\"https:\/\/golf.com\/instruction\/rules\/wyndham-clark-controversy-wasnt-cheating\">the 2024 Arnold Palmer Invitational<\/a>, Clark placed his iron behind his ball, causing the grass and ball to move, though no rules penalty was assessed; then, at <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/BRENTHENLEY\/status\/2068885716558360880\">this year\u2019s U.S. Open<\/a>, a video of Clark stepping on the grass around his ball circulated online. On Tuesday, Clark also brought up the actions of Bryson DeChambeau at this year\u2019s Open Championship, where <a href=\"https:\/\/golf.com\/news\/bryson-dechambeau-controversial-ruling-scene\">DeChambeau was penalized<\/a> for improving the area around his intended swing.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhen the cameras are on you, they\u2019re going to find anything,\u201d Clark said. \u201cAnd I think you saw that in Bryson\u2019s case. It happened to me at the U.S. Open, it happened to me at Bay Hill. It\u2019s happened to a lot of guys where they can see stuff that maybe looks like something that maybe it\u2019s not.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.usga.org\/rules\/rules-and-clarifications\/rules-and-clarifications.html#!ruletype=fr%C2%A7ion=rule&amp;rulenum=8\">Rule 8.1b (4)<\/a> states that <a href=\"https:\/\/golf.com\/instruction\/rules\/rules-guy-permissible-flatten-grass-behind-ball-with-club\/\">players are allowed to, \u201cground the club lightly<\/a> right in front of or right behind the ball,\u201d with \u201cground the club lightly\u201d meaning, \u201callowing the weight of the club to be supported by the grass, soil, sand or other material on or above the ground surface.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThat lie was never bad,\u201d Clark said Tuesday. \u201cIt was more just judging what it was. By no means did I take a bad lie and make it really good.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cPeople can think what they want. I know I didn\u2019t do anything that was costing the integrity of the field. That\u2019s all I\u2019ve got to say about that.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure>\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowfullscreen frameborder=\"0\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jl92lRhhs1s?feature=oembed\" title=\"A golf club&#39;s unusual act of kindness gives teen caddie a life-changing tip\" width=\"640\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/golf.com\/news\/people-wyndham-clark-rules-scrutiny\/\">\u2018People can think what they want&#39;: Wyndham Clark responds to rules \u2018scrutiny&#39;&nbsp;<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/golf.com\">Golf<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/articles\/people-think-want-wyndham-clark-024543752.html\"><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wyndham Clark and his ball on Sunday on the 14th hole.Getty Images Wyndham Clark says he didn\u2019t take \u201ca bad lie and make it good.\u201d And if you think that he did during Sunday\u2019s final round of the BMW Championship? \u201cPeople can think what they want,\u201d Clark said.&nbsp; His comments came Tuesday ahead of this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":100573,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[30395,15491,321,1742,1623,2010,30394,20446],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100572"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}