Ryan Barath pushed back on X, saying, “Can broadcasters please stop saying that Wyndham Clark overcame something that happened to him? He made a decision to throw a fit and destroy a locker; the locker didn’t attract him.”

This is when Michael Kim stepped in to save Clark, replying, “They are probably referring to him losing his mum early to cancer, man.”

Clark’s mum, Lise Thevenet Clark, passed away in August 2013 at the age of 55 after battling breast cancer. Her connection to his golf story went back much further than that. She was the one who first took him to a driving range when he was only three, and Clark has said he loved it immediately.

Before she died, she told her son that she wanted him to “play for her” and to always “play big”. Clark has also described the message as playing for “something bigger than yourself,” which is why his mother’s memory has often been part of the way his biggest wins have been framed.

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01/10

On Which Hole Jordan Spieth’s Ball Got Stuck Under a Trashcan?

14th 15th16th 17th

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Her death also nearly derailed him. After returning to Oklahoma State, Clark said “the grief boiled over,” and he struggled with being away from golf, no longer being able to call his mother, and questioning why he should keep playing a sport that brought so much frustration. His later move to Oregon became a reset point in that arc.

Clark won the CJ Cup Byron Nelson by finishing 30-under. He earned $1.854 million and 500 FedExCup points. The win was his fourth on the PGA Tour and his first since the 2024 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. It also moved him from 75th to 44th in the Official World Golf Ranking and from 82nd to 34th in the FedExCup standings.

He interacted with CBS broadcaster Amanda, and she asked him how satisfying it felt after his struggles dating back to last year. Clark credited his sponsors, Power Design, SoFi, T-Mobile, and Lexus, for staying with him after Oakmont, saying:

“The greatest thing about having a downfall like that is the comeback.”

What happened at Oakmont in June 2025 was controversial. Wyndham Clark, who won the U.S. Open championship in 2023, missed the cut. As a reaction to this, he damaged the locker room by throwing his club, and afterwards, the Oakmont authorities banned him from the course. Although he apologised later, posting the following on social media:

“I promise to better the way I handle my frustrations on the course going forward, and I hope you all can forgive me in due time.”

The Oakmont incident also did not exist in isolation. At the 2025 PGA Championship, Clark threw his driver into signage after a poor tee shot, damaging the sign and snapping the club head. He later apologised for that as well. So for many fans, the issue was not whether Clark had faced real adversity in life, but whether a self-inflicted controversy should be folded into the same comeback narrative.

This was not the first time Kim had publicly backed Wyndham Clark, either.

When footage emerged in March 2025 questioning Clark’s embedded ball relief at a tournament, Kim broke down the ruling on X and said he had no issue with what Clark did. In 2024, during a rain delay at the Wyndham Championship, Kim labeled Clark one of the “biggest card sharks” on the Tour.

2025 wasn’t an easy year for Clark. He missed the cut at The AmEx and WD from The PLAYERS Championship because of a neck injury. His best finishes were a T4 at the Open Championship and a T5 at the Texas Children’s Houston Open, and this year he has been trying to turn things around. His best finish of 2026 so far is a T13 at The American Express. He played well at the Masters and the RBC Heritage, with finishes at both inside the top 25. He missed the cut at the PGA Championship.

After winning at Craig Ranch, Clark also withdrew from the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial, with Lanto Griffin taking his place in the field.

But it looks like more than his game; the Kim support became a focus of discussion among fans trolling him.

Fans were not letting Michael Kim’s defense of Wyndham Clark go easy

It all started with sarcasm! “The great white knight MK steps in to save the day,” a fan wrote.

Kim is one of the vocal golfers on X. His repeated public defense of Wyndham Clark, from the embedded ball ruling in 2025 to the card shark praise in 2024, made this feel like an established habit and not a real standalone response, and fans noticed.

“I don’t think so, Mr. Kim. I’m sorry for the loss of his Mom and that road has been traveled,” one more fan responded.

The loss was acknowledged, but fans drew a firm line between personal grief and professional conduct at Oakmont.

“Oh wow he’s the only player on tour to ever lose a parent? No way, good for him,” a user commented.

They pointed it out directly, taking a dig at Kim’s reasoning. “That was 13 years ago Mike. That’s not what they were referring to,” read one comment.

“We are humans, we lose close loved ones all the time, doesn’t make an excuse for being an ego filled beach baby hiding behind mental stress, that’s a childish cop-out my friend,” another fan wrote.

With the timings not adding up, many felt Kim had sidestepped the actual issue at Oakmont rather than addressed it.

“I can’t make myself like Clark. I just can’t. Don’t feel like we ever got a real apology for him destroying a famed locker room and acting like a child,” read another reaction.

The 32-year-old might have acknowledged the incident,, but for fans, that gap never closed.

That is where the debate around Kim’s reply became complicated. He was not wrong that Clark’s mother has been central to his golf journey. Clark’s 2023 U.S. Open win was widely framed through that story, and the “play big” message has followed him throughout his career. But fans were reacting to a different point: grief may explain part of Clark’s larger life story, but it does not excuse damaging a locker room or throwing clubs in frustration.

So Kim’s defense had a factual basis, but the backlash came because many felt the broadcast framing blurred two very different things: personal adversity and personal accountability.