Wyndham Clark wins BMW Championship despite rough start in final round

[p][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/clark-wyndham/x4NXN7qb/"]Clark[/a] had claimed his second US Open title earlier this summer by barely clinging on to a huge final-day advantage, and history repeated itself at the penultimate event of the PGA Tour's FedEx Cup playoffs.[/p][embed guid="9113fce8-3073-4240-a5d5-9f4521f8aa79" url="https://x.com/PGATOUR/status/2091648915728740588?s=20" social-type="twitter" /][p]Having struggled all day, Clark finally made his first birdie on 16, followed it with another on 17, and watched on with relief as his final pair partner [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/mcilroy-rory/djwanksN/"]McIlroy[/a] bogeyed after finding two separate bunkers.[/p][p]Clark sealed the memorable win with a 17-foot putt for a third straight birdie, and a round of 70 to finish at 17-under par.[/p][p][b]"It was weird. I wasn't really nervous. I was kind of like out of it, and I just was making just dumb bogeys,"[/b] Clark said.[/p][p][b]"As much as I would have loved to run away with this, it was fun getting the juices going, and (to) really feel the angst coming down at the end,"[/b] he added.[/p][embed guid="14c56249-4e54-459f-a815-f4833ec1e4f3" url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ih664567bk8&pp=ygUNV3luZGhhbSBDbGFyaw%3D%3D" social-type="youtube" /][p]Clark's five-shot overnight advantage had immediately dropped to three on the first hole at Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis, Missouri, as he three-putted for bogey while McIlroy opened with a birdie.[/p][p][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/woodland-gary/lQRqur2j/"]Gary Woodland[/a] then cut the gap to two, with birdies on two, four and five.[/p][p]A jittery Clark wobbled as the pressure mounted. He saved par on five after totally mis-hitting a simple fairway approach, then bogeyed the next hole after a heavy chip.[/p][p]The double Major winner then escaped with par again after hitting the lip of a fairway bunker on eight, before bogeying 10.[/p][embed guid="471c836e-2602-48d6-9466-581674b3b6b8" url="https://x.com/PGATOUR/status/2091644774625255453?s=20" social-type="twitter" /][h2]Cantlay, McIlory take second and third[/h2][p]McIlroy briefly appeared to falter, with bogeys on four and seven. But he pulled those back with birdies on eight and nine.[/p][p]And the popular Northern Irishman dramatically tied Clark for the lead with a perfectly judged putt on the 11th green that sent the crowd wild.[/p][p]The two men exchanged pars over the next four holes, before Clark rolled in a 17-foot putt on the tricky par-three 16th for his first birdie of the day.[/p][p]For the third straight hole, McIlroy narrowly missed his birdie putt, giving Clark a one-shot advantage with two holes to play.[/p][p]On the par-five 17th, McIlroy from deep rough yanked his ball into a fairway bunker, and found another bunker with his next shot, essentially handing the tournament to Clark, who birdied.[/p][embed guid="398cd709-2c65-4e89-95ef-3880da059712" url="https://x.com/GolfonCBS/status/2091650710290964517?s=20" social-type="twitter" /][p][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/cantlay-patrick/bwQM8qSt/"]Patrick Cantlay[/a] - trying to secure his place in the final field of 30 at next week's Tour Championship - had earlier briefly moved just one back from Clark.[/p][p]His wild round included five birdies and three bogeys in his first 10 holes, before finding the water on 11 for a double, for his challenge to fade away.[/p][p]But Cantlay birdied the final three holes to grab second place on 14-under, and book a place at the season-ending event in Atlanta, Georgia.[/p][p]McIlroy finished third on 13-under, followed by the American trio of Chris Gotterup, [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/morikawa-collin/0UlRrMgE/"]Collin Morikawa[/a] and Gary Woodland a further stroke back.[/p][p]World number one [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/scheffler-scottie/bXfIuBYu/"]Scottie Scheffler[/a] continued to climb the leaderboard after his nightmare, illness-affected opening day 72.[/p][p]He finished the tournament seven-under, tied for 12th place.[/p][embed guid="8b3a6c68-a355-487f-9ff3-e4d5ece264c0" url="https://x.com/PGATOURComms/status/2091651509658304908?s=20" social-type="twitter" /]