AVONDALE, La. – Wyndham Clark didn’t mind getting his shirt dirty. It was the snakes and alligators he was worried about.
Playing with teammate Erik van Rooyen in the best-ball format on Saturday, Clark hit his tee shot to the edge of a pond on the par-4 16th hole at TPC Louisiana. With van Rooyen having par locked up, he took off his shoes and socks, rolled up his pants and figured he had nothing to lose – except maybe a leg.
“The first thing that went through my mind was snakes because I had to take my shoes off,” he said. “There’s snakes in Louisiana, so I thought about the snakes. And then I was like, well, there’s alligators all over this golf course right now, and so I was just – and it’s also one of the ponds where there’s big ones. I definitely thought about it.”
Sam Ryder made an albatross on No. 2, holing a 5-iron from 206 yards, otherwise Clark’s shot would have been hands-down the shot of the day. He took a mighty whack with his wedge and the ball exploded out of the muck and sailed on to the green, nearly going in for eagle.
.@Wyndham_Clark isn’t afraid of gators or getting a little muddy.
pic.twitter.com/LB8LGGqR8E
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) April 24, 2021
Clark missed the 15-foot birdie putt but got a round of applause from the peanut gallery for the effort.