Wyndham Clark is trying to win his third major at Royal Birkdale this week, and he showed up to Monday’s practice session with a piece of dry cleaning equipment. That’s not a joke. He had a wooden coat hanger wedged against his club grip like a training aid.
Clark explained the whole thing to the Golf Channel. Mondays are technical days for him. He said his swing has gotten sloppy, especially Sunday. So the coat hanger is there to help him lock in his left wrist position. More inflection, he called it. That way he can square the clubface better and stop spraying it.
“Mondays are my technical days. You won’t see me doing a bunch of that stuff the rest of the week. My swing’s gotten a little off. I kind of hit it kind of crappy, especially on Sunday — or just yesterday. Yeah, the coat hanger is for wrist angle, trying to get a little more inflection in my left wrist so I can square the face more. That’s just what it is,” Clark said.
His coach Pat Coyner suggested the drill. Clark places the hanger against the grip with the hook running parallel to the clubface. He hits 15 to 20 balls like that. Then it goes back in the closet.
This is Clark’s fifth time playing the Open Championship, and it hasn’t been an easy ride. He tied for 76th in 2022. After winning the U.S. Open in 2023, he finished tied for 33rd here. He missed the cut in 2024. But last year he finally put something together — a tie for fourth, his best finish at the event by a long shot.
Royal Birkdale is the venue this year. The tournament starts Thursday. Clark has a later tee time, going off at 10:04 a.m. ET alongside Cameron Young and Ludvig Aberg. He’ll play the second round Friday at 4:58 a.m. ET, which is basically dawn. That part isn’t glamorous, but the coat hanger drill might help him stay square when it counts.
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