A blunt answer on Pardon My Take

Wyndham Clark’s second U.S. Open triumph brought the usual round of interviews. One of them, however, moved well beyond golf when the 32-year-old was asked about a 2016 social media post in which he wrote: “I hate Baker Mayfield.”

According to Mike Cole in Heavy’s report on Clark’s Pardon My Take appearance, Clark hesitated before explaining the origin of the post.

“I’m trying to decide if I should tell the story, screw it, I don’t care, people already hate me … My girlfriend at the time cheated on me with Baker Mayfield,” Clark said on the podcast.

Clark added that his feelings toward the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback have changed considerably since then.

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“Here’s what I’ll say: As I have come to, I’m actually a Baker fan now, I think he’s a homie,” he said. “That’s your initial response, screw that guy, but it’s really it’s, you know, screw your girlfriend. I’m a Baker fan now, but that’s where it came from.”

From old resentment to a possible round of golf

Clark did not name the former girlfriend. The story dates back to the athletes’ college years, though the timeline needs a small correction from the original account: as clarified by Oregon’s official player profile, Clark played the 2015-16 season at Oklahoma State before making his Oregon debut in the fall of 2016. Mayfield was then the star quarterback at Oklahoma.

Clark said he now hopes the story is taken with humor rather than bitterness.

“I hope this is a bro moment for us to be like ‘Oh, bro, I didn’t know. My bad. She never told me,’ and I’ll tell him, ‘It’s all good, we’re homies, let’s play golf.’ That’s where I hope it comes from.”

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Mayfield has since built a long NFL career and is now with the Buccaneers. As reported by UPI in its article on the birth of the couple’s son, he and his wife, Emily, married in 2019 and have two children, daughter Kova Jade and son Maverick Thorne.

A victory shaped by redemption

The personal admission came only days after Clark won the 2026 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills. According to David Shefter in the USGA’s official championship report, Clark closed with a 3-over-par 73 to finish at 4-under 276, one shot ahead of Sam Burns.

It was Clark’s second U.S. Open title, following his breakthrough win at Los Angeles Country Club in 2023. This one carried a different kind of weight. Clark arrived at Shinnecock still followed by criticism over his conduct at the 2025 U.S. Open at Oakmont, where he missed the cut and damaged a locker. During the final round in New York, he also faced a hostile crowd as Burns pushed him to the end.

“The first one was amazing, and this one seems even better,” Clark said, as quoted by the Associated Press in its U.S. Open report. “I think especially after such a sour taste last year in this championship, to have some redemption and win this again is almost surreal.”

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For Clark, the week produced two forms of closure: another major title, and a public explanation for a nearly decade-old grudge that he now appears ready to leave behind.

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