Wyndham Clark is not the clear choice as a winner at the BMW Championship. The $3.6M winner’s paycheck has better claimants like Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, and others. Yet, Clark’s name is what you can be sure of hearing the most. The former U.S. Open Champion, a native of Denver, is, of course, the home favorite. 

PGA Tour has returned to Colorado after almost a decade. On top of it, there haven’t been many big names from the state in the last decade. It’s sort of a Justin Thomas & Valhalla-like situation. It feels amazing to play on your home turf, but the pressure is astonishingly high. 

And, Clark doesn’t want to pile anything on top of it. “Expectations, I’m trying to put zero. Obviously I want to do great. I want to perform in front of my home crowd. But at the same time, there is a lot of expectation put on me and a lot of pressure,” Clark said ahead of the BMW Championship. 

The three-time PGA Tour winner used to frequent Castle Pines as an amateur. The Jack Nicklaus-designed layout, one of the few courses with dramatic elevation changes, used to host The International. Clark remembers. That was his first-ever PGA Tour event as a spectator. 

In the field of 50, no one is as familiar with the course as Clark. Or, so you would think. Wyndham Clark doesn’t want to call himself an expert. When he comes back home, Golf isn’t his priority. Neither is surveying Castle Pines. Sure, he knows the nuances but expects everyone to figure them out by Thursday when the tournament kickstarts. 

But then again, that’s what he says. Not necessarily what everyone believes. Forget his friends and family members, who obviously want him to win, a lot of Colorado residents actually believe home support and course history should propel him to the top. 

Wyndham Clark has to reject a few ticket requests

Naturally, the Valor Christian graduate’s inbox was filled with ticket requests. After all, Castle Pines is getting a PGA Tour stop for the first time since 2006. But Clark had to be picky. Only family and close friends have got tickets from the former major winner. “As far as ticket requests, a ton. I’ve kind of had to limit it to mainly really close friends and family, otherwise we’d be giving out hundreds and hundreds of tickets,” Clark told media persons.

Nevertheless, Wyndham Clark hopes even those who didn’t get tickets from him, would come. As much home support as you can get, that seems to be his wish. Clark is currently sixth in the FedEx Cup ranking. After THE PLAYERS, his form took a nosedive, managing only a T3 at RBC Heritage, between March and June. But he is coming after a T7 at the FedEx St.Jude Championship, so expectations are not totally unreasonable. Wyndham Clark will tee off with Rory McIlroy at 11.10 AM local time (1.10 PM ET).