LOS ANGELES (AP) — Wyndham Clark felt so good about Los Angeles Country Club he thought he didn't even need a practice round when he arrived this week for the U.S. Open.
It has shown through 36 holes, with Clark opening with rounds of 64-67, right in contention going into the weekend.
His secret weapon was a caddie. And not just any caddie.
Preston “P.J.” Fielding played college golf at Penn and was named to the All-Ivy League first team his final two years. He now works as a portfolio manager and senior analyst at Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors. And he's a member at LACC.
“He's a good friend of mine. I've known him for probably six, seven years,” Clark said. “Every time I'm in LA, I hang out with him. We go play some golf either at Brentwood or here. We hang out and have dinner.”
Clark, who beat an elite field at the Wells Fargo Championship for his first PGA Tour title last month, came to LA for that small matter of the U.S. Open. It was a perfect time to reconnect. Even though the North course was closed to members, Fielding was able to accompany Clark for a round.
“I asked him last week if I could come in and play and if he would caddie for me, and he was up for it,” Clark said. “He really knew the golf course. A lot of times when you take out a local caddie, sometimes they give you the information that you can see and you already know, but he had some really good insights on putts and speeds of putts and also how the fairways, when they get really firm, they do this and you’ve got to be here and lines off the tee.”
Clark began the week with a 30-foot eagle putt from just beyond the green on the par-5 first hole and wound up with a 64. On Friday, he quickly moved into the lead with three birdies on the back nine, one of them with an amazing flop shot from the rough over a bunker complex to 12 feet, another with a 40-foot birdie putt that he figured out on his own.
Clark couldn't help but share a laugh with his regular caddie when it dropped. They practiced that putt three or four times in practice, once in a contest with Luke List and Adam Schenk.
“I misread it every single time,” Clark said. “I kept playing like a foot out left, and I'd miss it 4 feet left. So as we were walking up, I go, ‘At least we know this putt — it’s a foot out left, right?' My caddie laughs and he goes, ‘What do you see?’ I said, ‘I’m not reading this, you read it.'”
As for that other caddie? Turns out Fielding was pure gold for his friend.
“He’s a good player and he really knows the golf course,” Clark said. "That 18 holes was the equivalent of probably playing 27 to 36 because he was telling me how certain putts — how they break, how this one is faster than this, this plays this way. He was spot on.
“So when I left that practice round on Tuesday I felt like I could have come here and not even played a practice round. I felt like it was that in depth.”
He played nine holes each day. He felt fresh. And mostly he felt prepared.
“Definitely helps having a little experience out here,” he said.
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