CNN
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Walking up the final fairway at Quail Hollow on Sunday, victory all but assured, Wyndham Clark made a conscious effort to soak up all the sights and sounds around him. Moments later, the American tapped home to clinch the Wells Fargo Championship and his first ever PGA Tour title.

“You only can win your first tournament once,” Clark reflected, but this was a victory played out in his imagination countless times.

“It’s surreal, I’ve dreamt about this since I was probably six years old,” Clark told reporters in Charlotte, North Carolina.

“Since I’ve been on the PGA Tour, you fantasize about it all the time, and I’ve done it multiple times this year where I catch myself daydreaming about winning.

“To do it at this golf course against this competition is better than I could ever have imagined.”

The manner of victory was the stuff of dreams too, as Clark carded 19-under to seal a four-shot victory over compatriot Xander Schauffele, ranked 75 places above him at world No. 5. It marked the second-lowest score in relation to par in the event’s history, second only to Rory McIlroy’s 21-under in 2015, according to the PGA Tour.

McIlroy, making his first start since missing the cut at The Masters, finished 31st in a star-studded field featuring six of the world’s top 10.

A final round three-under 68 sealed the 29-year-old Clark’s fourth consecutive round in the 60’s, a composed closer after a scintillating 63 on Saturday had given him a two-shot lead over Schauffele heading into the closing round.

Having turned pro in 2017, Clark was five years and 133 PGA Tour starts without a win. After finishing sixth at the Corales Puntacana Championship in the Dominican Republic in March, the American began to think that he might never taste victory.

“I know that sounds crazy because I’ve only been out here five years, but I had a lot of chances to where I was within two or three shots either going into the back nine or starting on a Sunday and I always seem to fall short, and not only that, but seem like I fell back in positions,” Clark admitted.

“There was multiple texts and calls and times when I was so frustrated with people in my camp where I didn’t think I would ever win and I was like, ‘Let’s just stop talking about it,’ because I didn’t want to think about it. I said maybe that’s just not in the cards for me.

“So being in the position this time, I was like, ‘Well, we know what not to do.’”

Those lessons were tested immediately Sunday, as Clark opened with a bogey and remained at one-over approaching the eighth tee. However, a subsequent birdie, followed by four more across the first six holes of the back nine, saw him cruise home.

When he rolled home his closing bogey, Clark looked overcome with emotion. After embracing his caddie and Schauffele, he looked to be holding back tears as he saluted the crowd gathered at the 18th.

Victory secured Clark the $3.6 million winner’s prize – dwarfing his previous-best payday of $485,000 – and stamped his ticket to the 151st Open Championship at Royal Liverpool in July. It also saw his world ranking soar 49 places to No. 31.

It fulfilled a dream that almost never got off the ground. When a 19-year-old Clark was establishing himself as a talented player at Oklahoma State University, his mother died of breast cancer.

Clark lost his “rock” and seriously considered walking away from the sport entirely.

“I was playing terribly,” Clark recalled. “There’s many times when I stormed off the golf course in qualifying or in tournaments and just drove as fast as I could, I didn’t know where I was going.

“The pressure of golf and then not having my mom there and someone that I could call was really tough for me. Then professionally, I’ve had multiple moments like that where you just, you miss multiple cuts in a row or you feel like your game is good and you’re not getting much out of it and you just contemplate doing it [walking away].

“Max Homa has a great quote: ‘Every golfer’s one shot away from thinking they can win the Masters or one shot away from quitting golf.’ It really is a great quote because that’s the truth. I’m glad I stuck it out and am here now.”

CNN
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In 2013, a 14-year-old Alex Fitzpatrick caddied his older brother Matt to victory at the US Amateur Championship in Brookline, a win that secured the champion an exemption for the following year’s US Open.

The rest is history: Matt Fizpatrick would return to the same site in 2022 to clinch the major, announcing his arrival as England’s premier golfing talent.

Now, the world No. 8 has the chance to return a favor to his younger sibling.

On Thursday, the Fitzpatrick brothers will pair for the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, a PGA Tour event that will see 80 two-player teams battle it out at TPC Louisiana for a split of the $2,398,000 winner’s purse.

The triumphant pair on Sunday will also receive a two-year exemption on the PGA Tour. Though not a motivation for the field’s elite names like Fitzpatrick, for his 24-year-old younger brother – ranked 705th in the world and forging his path on the Challenge Tour – it could be life-changing.

“That would be incredible for him, there’s no doubt about that,” Fitzpatrick told CNN Sport’s Don Riddell.

“We know what’s at stake and we know what possibilities there are if he does well and, hopefully, we can do that.”

A few months after Fitzpatrick’s dramatic US Open triumph, he found himself pitted in the same field as his younger sibling at the Italian Open in Rome.

After the second round, the junior Fitzpatrick led the major champion in average driving distance by 0.36 yards – a slender gap, yes, but enough to warrant a jab via text. The reply – shared via Fitzpatrick’s Instagram – showed a screenshot of the US Open winner’s name atop the leaderboard, with his brother’s tied-18th position included for good measure.

Yet beneath the cheap shots, it’s all brotherly love, and the pair gel well on the course despite contrasting styles.

“Our games are pretty opposite,” the elder Fitzpatrick said. “I’m a good driver, he’s a good iron player. He’s a good short game and I’m a good putter.

“He wants to do as well as he can, of course he does, but for me his path is probably going to be a little bit different than mine. The golf world is very different from when I started to when he’s playing now so he’s going to focus on the Challenge Tour probably, he’s excited for that.

“Hopefully, he can follow in my footsteps.”

They will be some tough footsteps to follow.

Triumph at the RBC Heritage on Sunday, sealed with a dramatic playoff win over three-time major champion Jordan Spieth, penned the latest glorious chapter in what has been an outstanding few years for Fitzpatrick.

The fact that the victory came at Hilton Head, a long-time holiday destination for the family from Sheffield, made it even more special, as the 28-year-old realized a childhood dream of lifting silverware on the Harbour Town course.

“Moments like that, you wish time travel was real and you could go back and say, ‘This is what’s going happen in a few years,’” he said.

“I would have been amazed, it was always one that I wanted to win and it was very special to do it.”

And as if winning couldn’t have been any sweeter, it arrived in the face of overwhelmingly one-sided crowd support for home hero Spieth, with ‘U-S-A’ chants soundtracking much of the deciding playoff holes.

Spieth gestured to fans for quiet, but Fitzpatrick relished his leading role as a villain.

“It was great … I definitely enjoyed being in it,” he said.

“I wouldn’t say I’ve played in that atmosphere too often, but it’s certainly nice to perform under that pressure and I think that’s what made it mean so much as well.”

Fitzpatrick is looking forward to a role reversal of crowd bias when Italy hosts the Ryder Cup for the first time in September.

Rome’s Marco Simone Golf and Country Club will be the stage for what Team Europe hopes will be a decisive rebound after a bruising defeat at the hands of their American rivals at Whistling Straits in 2021.

Fitzpatrick, a member of that team and the similarly defeated 2016 roster, is yet to win a singles match at the biennial tournament but would touch down in Rome a far more accomplished player should he be selected.

“I’d really like to be one of the top players that week and play really well,” he said.

“I’m just excited for that opportunity and I think that’s what’s really important is to first make the team, and then look forward to it, enjoy it, and go out there and try to win some points for Europe.”

His other main aim for 2023 is to add another major to his trophy cabinet, no easy feat with the caliber of names chasing the same goal.

A tied-10th finish at The Masters signaled a strong start to the major season for the Englishman, who finished eight strokes adrift of dominant winner Jon Rahm.

The Spaniard’s second major title consolidated his reputation alongside Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy in the so-called ‘big-three’ atop the rankings. Yet Fitzpatrick – dubbed the hardest-working golfer on the PGA Tour – has no intention of accepting his place in the food chain.

“I don’t wanna just sit back and be like, ‘They’re all too good for me and I’m just happy with where I am.’ That’s not me as a person,” Fitzpatrick said.

“I’m constantly looking at ways to improve and get better, and that’s what’s really important is to keep pushing myself and try and catch them up.”