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Money Matters

You won’t believe how much Wyndham Clark surpassed his all-time biggest payday with his win at Wells Fargo

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Mike Ehrmann

Winning your first PGA Tour title is a priceless experience, as an emotional Wyndham Clark conveyed to CBS’ Amanda Renner behind the 18th green at Quail Hollow Club moments after claiming the Wells Fargo Championship by four shots over Xander Schauffele.

Clark needed 134 PGA Tour starts to grab win No. 1, and the backstory of him grieving after the death of his mother to breast cancer shortly after he started college along with the worry that this day might never actually come made it easy to feel good for the 29-year-old Colorado native.

“It’s been a long five years to get to this point on tour,” Clark said after a final-round 68. “I thought I would have had one earlier, but it’s well worth the wait.

“There’s so much that goes into this. There are so many times I wanted to cry and break clubs … and I did break the clubs sometimes in this journey. To get to this point is so sweet. It’s just amazing to finally do this. You know my mom is obviously not here. I wish she was, but I know she’s watching … just very grateful.”

Yet while winning your first PGA Tour title might be priceless, the reward for winning—especially in this day and age of designated events—is anything but. Clark’s triumph—one in which he saw his two-shot overnight lead slip away after seven holes only for him to rally with five birdies in his next seven holes to seize control—earned him a hefty $3.6 million prize money payout from the $20 million overall purse.

Just how career changing a payday is that? Well, how about you consider the fact that Clark’s total earnings on the PGA Tour in the 133 previous starts before this week were $7,405,024. In other words, Clark just claimed nearly 50 percent of his entire career winnings on tour in four days.

Even more intriguing is the size of the prize money payout compared to Clark’s previous biggest payday on tour. Earlier this year, Clark finished T-10 at the WM Phoenix Open, a designated event that earned him $485,000. Clark’s triumph on Sunday in Charlotte was thus nearly seven times larger than his previous best payday as a pro golfer.