A 17-shot swing in format. A two-shot drop in standing. And one post-round admission that said more than the scorecard.

Wyndham Clark and Lexi Thompson entered Round 2 of the 2025 Grant Thornton Invitational riding a tournament-record 17-under-par 55 from their opening scramble. The alternate-shot format told a different story. The pair carded an even-par 72 in foursomes, slipping from first to third place at 17-under, two shots off the lead. Asked about difficult moments in the round, Clark didn’t hedge.

“The par 5, I hit it to where she was up against the tree or bush. That was a bad shot by me, and then she made an incredible recovery, and I made a decent chip,” Clark said. “She saved me there. I kind of put her into a bad spot, and she really got us out of it.”

Thompson’s take was simpler: “We’re not robots, we’re going to hit bad shots.”

Their Round 2 scorecard told the story of a team fighting to stay level. Birdies on the 6th and 10th holes kept them in red numbers early, but bogeys on the 9th and 12th — the latter being a par 5 — dragged them back to even. They closed with six straight pars, unable to find the scoring chances that defined their opening day.

The exchange was brief. But in a format where one player’s mistake becomes the other’s problem, Clark’s willingness to name his error — and credit Thompson’s bailout — carried weight.

This is their first tournament together. Clark, the 2023 U.S. Open champion, had never played the Grant Thornton Invitational before this week. Thompson, a six-time Solheim Cup veteran, partnered with Rickie Fowler in 2023 and 2024. New pairing, new chemistry, and now a test of how they handle adversity.

Both know pressure from different stages. Clark’s breakthrough came at the Los Angeles Country Club in 2023, where he held off Rory McIlroy to claim his first major. He added Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup experience to his resume the following year. Thompson turned professional at 15, won an LPGA major at 19, and has spent over a decade navigating the weight of expectation. Their paths hadn’t crossed competitively until Tiburón.

Clark saw it coming. After Round 1, he confessed he hadn’t “felt really stressed once” during the scramble, adding, “I know tomorrow will be a little bit more stressful as an alternate shot.” That prediction landed harder than the score suggested.

But stress in alternate shot isn’t just about execution. It’s about what happens when execution fails — and who bears the cost.

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Wyndham Clark and the demands of alternate-shot golf

Foursomes strips away the safety net. In standard tour events, a poor drive is your own problem. In an alternate shot, it becomes your partner’s reality. The par 5 incident illustrated exactly that — Clark’s errant shot left Thompson staring at tree trouble, and she had to manufacture something from nothing.

Lauren Coughlin and Andrew Novak posted the day’s low round — a 4-under 68 — to take the lead at 19-under. Charley Hull and Michael Brennan, who shared the Round 1 lead, also struggled with foursomes, shooting 71 to sit second. The format humbled more than one team. But not every player named their mistakes publicly.

Thompson and Clark remain two shots back heading into the final round, a modified four-ball format expected to produce lower scores. The weekend will determine whether their chemistry holds under closing pressure.

But the par 5 moment — and how Clark handled it afterward — already revealed something. In team golf, trust isn’t built by avoiding mistakes. It’s built by owning them.