22 March 2024 , 00:00
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Wyndham Clark has addressed allegations of cheating at the recent Arnold Palmer Invitational, insisting he had "no ill intents" over the incident but admitting it didn't "look great".
Clark has been one of the PGA Tour's most in-form players so far this campaign, following up a victory at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, with runner-up finishes at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and Players Championship. His performance at the Arnold Palmer however was marred by accusations of cheating during his third round.
After finding the thick Bay Hill rough with his final tee shot of the day at the 18th, TV cameras zoomed into Clark's lie where he placed his iron on the ground which appeared to move the ball and grass.
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Many were quick to accuse the U.S. Open champion of illegally to better his lie, but the American has pleaded his innocence. "It is unfortunate, because I had no ill intent to try to cheat or improve my lie," he told Fox News Digital. "I didn’t even know anything had happened until I got into the scoring tent, and that’s when they showed me the video.
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"You see the video, and you’re like, ‘Oh man, that doesn’t look great'. It’s unfortunate that it looks poorly, but I really had no ill intents." Per rule 8.1b (4), Clark was able to, "ground the club lightly right in front of or right behind the ball.” With this in mind, the 30-year-old continued to defend his actions.
"In my defence, you’re allowed to put your club down and see your lie," he added. "It is what it is, and hopefully in a few weeks it passes by. But I’ve never tried to cheat in the game of golf, and hopefully people don’t think of me that way. I just think the camera was zoomed in and made it look worse than it really was."
Wyndham Clark was accused of cheating at the Arnold Palmer Invitational (Getty Images)Clark offered a similar sentiment in the immediate aftermath earlier this month, commenting: "I actually had no idea that that even happened. They told me in the scoring tent. Showed me the video. I wasn’t trying to do anything like cheating or anything like that or improve my lie. I just simply put my club down.
"And, you know, obviously they zoom in, [and] it makes it look worse. We all talked about it. Scottie and the rules officials, they didn’t think it moved. So fortunately that didn’t happen. So yeah, I was unaware of that until I got in.” Clark was defeated at Bay Hill by Scottie Scheffler, and one week later followed the same fate.
The American had a birdie putt at the final hole of the Players Championship last week to force a playoff with Scheffler, but suffered a brutal lip out to ensure back-to-back wins for the world No. 1. Clark trails Scheffler in the FedEx Cup standings too, with the in-form pair one and two in the season-long leaderboard.