Wyndham Clark motivated by trophies not money ahead of The Open Championship
- Planet Sport writer
- 19 July 2023
US Open champion Wyndham Clark revealed he would pay to play and have a chance at being crowned the Champion Golfer of the Year.
Wyndham Clark is beaming ahead of The Open Championship at Hoylake...
This week's champion at Royal Liverpool will take home a record $3million for the event. It may help that Clark banked 3.6m USD for his one-stroke victory over Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy at the Los Angeles Country Club last month, but the 29-year-old insists the pursuit of more silverware is his primary target.
Asked whether he would travel across the Atlantic to play in golf's oldest major if there was little or no prize money on offer, the American said: "It wouldn't make a difference.
"Obviously this is our living and I think the money in our sport is a bonus, personally. Some people make it more than others and I think we've all seen that in this last year or two (a veiled reference to the LIV Golf breakaway).
"But to have someone like Tiger Woods continue to try to play and try to win majors shows where his mind is at: he cares more about maybe the record books or going down in history or winning majors and he loves to compete.
"I'm not comparing myself to Tiger but I love competition and wherever the best players are, I want to be and I want to play and I want to compete.
"So yeah, I would be here if I had to pay to play. If I could play in a major championship, I want to be there."
Clark, who won his first PGA Tour title at the Wells Fargo Championship in May, is playing in his eighth major. He has missed the cut in four previous attempts and finished no higher than 75th in two others.
Asked whether his breakthrough at the US Open in California last month had changed him, he said: "No, I would hope not. If it does, I hope someone punches me in the face and says, 'Get back to who you were'.
"I really hope nothing changes. I think it fuels my confidence and belief in myself. Obviously certain things change; my status and how much people know who I am, but as a person I hope I don't change.
"I think I've instilled a lot of great values and have a really good team around me to help keep me in check."
