SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France — For all you Twitter haters, Wyndham Clark would like a word. And it wasn’t just the twin 65s he shot on the weekend that helped him rebound from an opening 75 to tie for 14th at the Olympics.

Clark, the 2023 U.S. Open champ who drew social media grief for even being on Team USA instead of current U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, made it clear that he earned his spot on the squad. He also wasn’t going to listen to any grief about him attending a handful of Olympic events instead of focusing on his golf. Clark started with three bad swings on his first three holes on Thursday to start the first round, sandwiching two bogeys around a double after putting the ball in the water off the tee on each hole.

“I think some of it wasn’t very justified because I was the third-highest ranked player for the U.S. to come here,” he said. “I don’t think it has anything to do with attending events or not attending events. This potentially could be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and to be able to go watch events, spend time in the village and get the full experience, may never get that again. So I wanted to make sure I did everything. I don’t regret anything I did. Once I got to Tuesday, I shut everything down and was ready to go.

After the three-over start on Thursday, Clark played his remaining holes 14 under par. A double bogey on 18 on Friday turned a 66 into a 68, but he finished the weekend by making 15 birdies for his last two rounds. Clark said he’s been battling slow starts in the big events much of the year. That includes missed cuts at the Masters, PGA Championship and Open Championship. Of course, he’s also had runner-up finishes at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Players Championship and top 10s at the Travelers and Genesis Scottish Open.

“Starting poorly, that’s something I’ve really got to work on,” he said. “At least just get out of the gates somewhat solid. I feel like I can play good on the weekend.

“I played really good golf this week for 60 holes. I just had nine bad holes.”

Clark pointed to the USA on his golf shirt, citing that as motivation for the turnaround at Le Golf National.

“I think it’s more pride for myself and my country,” he said. “I wanted to make sure that I showed up for my country. I didn’t want anyone to think that I was doing this as just an exhibition or just coming here to have fun. I was serious about it. I was very pissed after Round 1 because I wanted to medal. So I’m really bummed about it.

“But at the same time, I said this is for something greater than myself. It’s for my country and it also builds a lot of momentum for the Playoffs that we have coming up.”

This article was originally published on golfdigest.com