Wyndham Clark was engaged in an epic battle with Xander Schauffele during the third round of The Players Championship.
Schauffele had started the day four behind the runaway leader, but eventually he caught Clark, and the pair were both locked on 17 under-par heading onto the penultimate hole of the day at TPC Sawgrass, the notorious island green.
That has been causing havoc all week, with plenty of balls lost to the water, and its potential peril will have inevitably been on each player’s mind as they approached the tee box.
Clark went first and, unfortunately for him, his effort fell way short of the green. In fact, his shot travelled just 102 yards, falling some 64 feet short of the hole, after he opted for a sand wedge and made a poor connection with the ball.
Co-leader Wyndham Clark's ball finds the water at No. 17. pic.twitter.com/jnfLqyWSJjMarch 16, 2024
Next, it was Schauffele’s turn, and he held his nerve considerably better to find the left side of the green even if, for a second or two, the ball did flirt with the idea of inching closer to the water.
Clark then returned for his third shot and made a far better job of it, reaching the green and leaving himself a good chance of a bogey, which he duly converted. Schauffele went on to make par and take a one-shot lead heading into the final hole of the day, which each player parred.
While Clark avoided the kind of disaster at the 17th that saw 2013 US Open champion Justin Rose miss the cut after hitting the ball into the water twice at the hole during the second round, the momentum has now shifted to Schauffele, whose 65 will surely hand him plenty of confidence that he can claim his eighth PGA Tour win.
As for Clark, he can take heart from the fact that, even with his mistake on the 17th, he still managed to finish with a two-under 70 to leave him just one behind with one round to play.
After his round, Clark also reflected on the error, and admitted that the fact he only dropped one shot at the hole could be a factor heading into the all-important final round.
He said: "Yeah, it's massive. It's unfortunate on a hole that's so iconic and has a bunch of trouble to have kind of your worst swing of the day.
"But yeah, I followed it with a great swing and a great putt. I'm in the final group tomorrow, which is huge. I'm hoping that's a huge point in the tournament and we look back after tomorrow and look at that hole and say, 'hey, that was maybe the shot and the putt that meant it all.'"
