Wyndham Clark made seven birdies without a bogey Thursday to set the pace after one round of the WM Phoenix Open in Scottsdale, Ariz.
The round was suspended due to darkness at 6:13 p.m. local time. Nine players still have one or two holes to play, with the first round resuming at 8:15 a.m. local time on Friday, and the second round starting as scheduled at 7:20 a.m.
Clark’s 7-under-par 64 at TPC Scottsdale’s Stadium Course was one better than the scores posted by Taylor Moore and Lee Hodges. Six players, including Justin Thomas, are in the mix after opening at 5-under 66.
Clark, the 2023 U.S. Open champion, made four straight birdies beginning at No. 8 to get his week rolling. The first two came from 16 and 14 feet out, and his fourth of that stretch was a simple 4-footer after a picture-perfect approach.
“I haven’t played my best golf the last few weeks, so it’s nice to kind of have a clean round where we did a lot of good things,” said Clark, who missed the cut last month at The American Express before tying for 73rd last weekend at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am. “I was really patient and kind of eased my way into the round.
“I didn’t start off slow, but I just wasn’t necessarily making birdies, and Akshay (Bhatia, his playing partner,) came out with kind of a hot start. Then (I) had that little stretch where (I) made four in a row, which was really nice.”
Clark also saved par after hitting his tee shot 310 yards left in the water at the par-4 No. 17. After the penalty and drop in the left rough, he was 56 yards from the hole. His third shot stopped 16 inches from the cup, and he putted in from there.
“I was a little bummed because I’ve … hit it in the water there a lot in the past, and the last couple years we’ve been trying to hit draws off that tee shot,” Clark said. “A little caddie-player mishap there. He thought if I drew it, it would go too far, so then we wanted more of a straight shot, so I was kind of in between shots and made a poor swing.
“Needless to say, that’s a birdie hole, and to come away, hit it in the water and not really have a birdie look is kind of unfortunate, but to come away with a par was awesome, and that was huge.”
While Clark’s most recent win on tour came at Pebble Beach in 2024, Thomas is still on the hunt for his first victory since the 2022 PGA Championship. He started his round on the back nine and brushed off an early bogey by making three birdies on each nine.
“I felt like I got it around well and put it in good spots and took advantage of some birdie chances that I had,” Thomas said. “I just stayed patient. I feel like staying patient is important out here because you can make a lot of birdies, but if you maybe get a little aggressive or take on some unnecessary risks, you can make bogeys pretty fast.
“I just kind of plotted my way around and tried to get some when I could.”
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, in his second start of the season, had a wild back nine that featured two eagles and a double bogey along with two birdies. Combined with a 2-over 37 on his front nine, he settled in at 2-under 69, tied for 27th.
Other notables include Canada’s Corey Conners and South Korea’s Tom Kim at 4 under (tied for 10th), Jordan Spieth at 3 under (tied for 16th) and Hideki Matsuyama of Japan at 1 under (tied for 44th).
–Field Level Media
