Wyndham Clark breaks silence on latest rules drama: "How is that my fault?"

PGA Tour star Wyndham Clark says he wasn't trying to cheat during the Arnold Palmer Invitational. 

Clark was on the receiving end of a plethora of negative comments from armchair rules officials once again over what transpired during the second round. 

The former U.S. Open champion nuked a drive down Bay Hill's fourth hole and took a free drop from the fairway after finding his golf ball plugged. 

Had his Titleist ProV1x rolled into a different pitch mark, then he would have been penalised for taking free relief. 

Initially, there was confusion as PGA Tour Live's Craig Perks claimed Clark's ball might have gone into another player's pitch mark. 

That was not the case and rules officials later cleared Clark of any wrongdoing. 

And videos that were posted on social media of the incident have now been scrubbed. 

Clark addressed the latest 'cheating' accusations ahead of the 2025 Players Championship at famed TPC Sawgrass. 

"Obviously I found out after the round," Clark told reporters. "I have a few comments on this rule in general.

"So, I approached scoring, and they approached me like, 'hey, there's something that's going to come up in media about what happened on three'. I was like, 'on three?'

"I hit it in the middle of the fairway, hit it on the green and two-putt. I'm like, what are you talking about. He goes; it's your drop'.

"I was like, what do you mean, did I do an improper drop? He said, well, we didn’t know if you were plugged. Long story short is you're okay."

Clark added: "They showed me the video and it leads me to thinking, well, how are we supposed to know. We were 300 some yards away.

"We didn't see the ball bounce from our distance, and we get up there and it's plugged. How was I supposed to know? No one told us.

"So, my frustration was that if I did get stroked, how is that my fault when no one told me that I rolled into something — if I did roll into someone else’s pitch mark?

"That's one of those rules in golf where it's like, why are we making this so complicated? 

"I can't see that, and if the volunteers don't tell me and I get stroked for something that I didn't know happened, it kind of seems unfair.

"But I am glad that it was correct because I wasn't trying to cheat by any means. 

"We just walked up, ball was plugged, took an embedded ball rule."

Clark was also accused of wrongdoing during the 2024 Arnold Palmer Invitational. 

Footage appeared to show Clark tapping down the grass behind his ball. 

Again, he was cleared. 

But Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee was one of many that were fuming with the decision.

"I would respectfully disagree with the rules officials," he previously said.  

"I would respectfully disagree with Wyndham Clark. The ball clearly moved. He clearly didn't ground the club lightly.

"I don't need video to see this; I saw it live and I knew the ball moved. I think he should have been penalised."