
Wyndham Clark apologizes for club throw during PGA Championship
Wyndham Clark, maligned by the public following a club throw during the PGA Championship over the weekend, has apologized for his actions.
"As professionals," Clark posted on X on Monday, "we are expected to remain professional even when frustrated and I unfortunately let my emotions get the best of me."
Standing on the tee box of the 16th hole at Quail Hollow in Charlotte on Sunday, Clark flared a drive right into a fairway bunker. The 31-year-old former U.S. Open champion then flinged his club toward the back of the tee box, snapping the head off as it crashed into signage with a volunteer standing mere feet away.
Clark went on to bogey the 16th -- his seventh of the day -- en route to a 3-over 74. He finished the championship in a tie for 50th place at 4 over.
On Monday, Clark posted on X that he wanted to "sincerely apologize" for his behavior.
"My actions were uncalled for and completely inappropriate, making it clear that I have things I need to work on," Clark said. "I hold myself to a high standard, trying to always play for something bigger than myself, and yeterday I fell short of those standards. For that I am truly sorry. I promise to better the way I handle my frustrations on the course going forward, and hope you all can forgive me in due time."
Since tying for fifth at the Texas Children's Houston Open in early March, Clark has struggled, finishing no better than a tie for 27th over his past four tournaments.
Clark has spoken publicly about his mental health and its impact on his career, including being transparent about his experiences with grief and anger management after his mother died of breast cancer just over 10 years ago.

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Hindustan Times
8 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
Tennis-Sabalenka eyes claycourt supremacy with Gauff hoping to be second time lucky
PARIS, - The French Open women's singles final takes centre stage at Roland Garros on Saturday. World number one Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus takes on last year's semi-finalist, American Coco Gauff, as she looks to land her first French Open crown to add to her three Grand Slam titles. SABALENKA POWER Long considered a hardcourt specialist, the 27-year-old top seed Sabalenka, the most powerful player on the tour, will try to establish herself as an all-rounder with her first title in Paris. She has already won back-to-back titles at the Australian Open in 2023-24 as well as the U.S. Open crown in 2024 but she had never before reached the final in Paris with the slower clay not naturally suited to her heavy-hitting game. Her three-set semi-final victory on Thursday over four-time French Open champion Iga Swiatek, who was looking to become the first woman since tennis turned professional in 1968 to win four editions of the tournament in a row, elevated Sabalenka to a new level. The Belarusian did not change her power game or adapt it to clay. Instead she used it effectively to forge past her opponent. Despite the closed roof that made the ball even slower, Sabalenka's serve was still a major weapon as she dished out a third-set bagel against Swiatek, who had been on a 26-match winning streak at the tournament and is nicknamed the 'queen of clay'. "I wasn't really trying to overhit," Sabalenka said after her semi-final win. "I didn't really think to overhit and hit harder than I usually do." It is this power that Gauff, a far more natural claycourt player than Sabalenka, will need to overcome. A finalist here in 2022, Gauff is also looking for her first singles crown in Paris. She won the women's doubles last year but will be looking to add the Suzanne Lenglen cup to her Grand Slam collection that so far has one major, the 2023 U.S. Open where she beat Sabalenka in the final. The American does not have anywhere near the punching power from the serve or baseline that her opponent will bring into the encounter but her athleticism, precision and ability to stay in the rallies will be key. One of the best movers on the tour, Gauff has dropped just one set en route to the final. She also superbly handled the pressure in her semi-final against local wildcard Lois Boisson, coping admirably with home crowd's vocal support for the surprise semi-finalist. "Obviously she's someone who has great big shots, and she's going to come out aggressive," Gauff said. "She's going to come out swinging. I think I just have to expect that and do my best to kind of counter that." FRENCH OPEN ORDER OF PLAY ON SATURDAY COURT PHILIPPE CHATRIER 1- Aryna Sabalenka v 2-Coco Gauff


The Hindu
11 hours ago
- The Hindu
No. 2 Gauff faces No. 1 Sabalenka in women's final
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Mint
15 hours ago
- Mint
She's the French Open's grizzled veteran—at age 21
Paris: Coco Gauff began this French Open with the rookiest of rookie mistakes. She walked on court for her first-round match without her tennis rackets. Somewhere between the hotel, the locker room, and the red clay of Roland-Garros, she'd simply forgotten to put them in her bag—less than ideal when you're trying to win a second career Grand Slam tournament. Gauff was able to laugh it off and, once her coaches delivered her equipment, won her match anyway. But that brief oversight was a rare reminder of just how young she is. Most of the time, her consistency, experience, and status as the world's highest-paid female athlete make it easy to forget that ever since she burst onto the scene at 15, her career has been on fast-forward. 'I definitely feel like I'm…more mature than maybe some of my peers," said Gauff, now 21. 'Playing tennis forces you to grow up faster for some people." Especially when you break through as early as she did. Gauff made a stunning run to the fourth round of Wimbledon as a teenager in 2019 and has been a top-10 player for almost four years. In 2023, she claimed her first major by winning the U.S. Open. And on Saturday, Gauff will take her shot at a second when she faces world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the French Open final. She got there by dispatching France's Loïs Boisson, the Cinderella of this tournament, in just 1 hour and 9 minutes. 'She was just too good," said Boisson, who began the tournament ranked No. 361. 'I just feel like I was running everywhere on the court today." Gauff was always going to be a heavy favorite in that match. And despite the raucous home crowd under the roof of Philippe-Chatrier Court, she remained unflappable. Boisson found her so frustrating to play against that when her coaches whispered a piece of advice in the second set, she shouted back in French, 'But I can't!" Even so, this week has irrevocably changed Boisson's career. The 22-year-old will climb 296 places in the world rankings, to No. 65, and more than quadrupled her career earnings by taking home $790,000 in prize money for reaching the semis. Gauff, on the other hand, has long been at the other end of the tennis food chain. Since turning pro, she has already racked up $24 million in prize money, and brings in at least that much annually through endorsements. What makes it all the more remarkable is that through all of it, her game has remained a work in progress. Gauff's tennis education has unfolded in plain sight of the world. Her serve, for instance, remains maddeningly inconsistent—she scores the lowest percentage of points behind her first serve of any woman in the top five. But her court coverage and her return game mean that she can keep herself in any rally long enough to do damage. So it makes sense that the slower surface of Roland-Garros, which rewards baseliners and defenders, has turned into her happiest hunting ground. Gauff acclimated to clay early in her career by training in the South of France and has reached at least a quarterfinal here every year since 2021, plus a final in 2022. In fact, she is the youngest player to reach at least 25 match victories at a single major event since Maria Sharapova was dazzling the Australian Open in the late 2000s. 'My first final here I was super nervous and I wrote myself off," Gauff said. 'This time I have a lot more confidence." Sabalenka's affection for clay is more recent. Better known as the best hard-court player in women's tennis, she had never gone beyond a semifinal here in eight years of trying. But with a few tweaks to her free-swinging game, mixing in more variety, Sabalenka was able to take down the three-time defending champion, Iga Swiatek, 7-6(1), 4-6, 6-0 in her semifinal. Swiatek hadn't lost a single match at Roland-Garros since 2021. 'It felt like a final, but I know that the job is not done yet," Sabalenka said. 'I have to bring my best tennis and I have to work for that title, especially if it's going to be Coco." Write to Joshua Robinson at