CROMWELL, Conn. — Wyndham Clark did not sit behind the microphone on Wednesday at TPC River Highlands like a man looking for sympathy. He leaned forward. He spoke clearly. He answered directly. There were no verbal traffic jams, no awkward pauses and certainly no shrinking from what happened Sunday at Shinnecock Hills, where a portion of the gallery treated his second U.S. Open victory less like history unfolding and more like an annoyance.
Clark knows some people wanted Scottie Scheffler to win. He knows some people to say that they were at the U.S. Open when the world No. 1 completed the career Grand Slam. He knows some people are still angry about Oakmont.
But he also knows this: He won the trophy.
What made Clark’s pre-tournament press conference ahead of this week’s Travelers Championship interesting was not merely that he addressed the heckling. It was how little it seemed to bother him. Three days after becoming a two-time U.S. Open champion, Clark sounded less like a player trying to repair his image and more like one who has accepted that the best rebuttal to the haters is to keep playing great golf.
At the moment, that is exactly what he is doing.