Wyndham Clark Addresses Cheating Accusations While Admitting Close-Up Video Didn't 'Look Great'

Life hasn't been too bad for Wyndham Clark over the last nine months or so. The 30-year-old earned his first major championship victory at the U.S. Open in June, made the U.S. Ryder Cup team, picked up two more wins along the way, and now finds himself as the No. 4 ranked player in the world.

With success comes more attention, however, and some in the golf world have accused Clark of bending the rules in recent weeks.

At the Arnold Palmer Invitational earlier this month, Clark was seen grounding his club directly behind his ball in the rough with video showing the ball move. The video made the rounds on social media with many accusing him of cheating, but he did not receive a penalty and went on to finish second behind Scottie Scheffler.

Clark was made aware of the video after the round, but Scheffler, himself, and rules officials concluded that the ball "never changed positions" despite oscillating in the rough.

He admitted that that video didn't look all that great, but was adamant that he had no intent of trying to improve his lie.

"It is unfortunate, because I had no ill intent to try to cheat or improve my lie," Clark told Fox News Digital. "I didn’t even know anything had happened until I got into the scoring tent, and that’s when they showed me the video. You see the video, and you’re like, ‘Oh man, that doesn’t look great.'"

"It’s unfortunate that it looks poorly, but I really had no ill intents…"But I’ve never tried to cheat in the game of golf, and hopefully people don’t think of me that way. I just think the camera was zoomed in and made it look worse than it really was," he continued.

During this past week's Players Championship, where Clark finished second behind Scheffler for the second straight week, he was caught up in another controversy on the Par 4 10th hole.

READ: Wyndham Clark Said Nothing Wrong, He Should Think He's 'Better' Than Rory McIlroy | Mark Harris

After missing the green and his stance being impacted by a green-side drain, Clark elected to take a free drop. Prior to doing so, however, viewers noticed that he walked around the area quite a few times before taking the drop. Some accused him of laying down the rough with his footsteps before picking his spot and taking his legal drop. 

Clark went on to hit a solid chip near the hole, but missed his short par attempt before walking off the 10th green with a bogey.