Mike McGraw helped save new U.S. Open champ Wyndham Clark

Wyndham Clark wasn’t sure how he’d be welcomed back at Karsten Creek. Clark had left Oklahoma State’s golf program; he transferred out to Oregon and even led the Ducks to the NCAA finals.

Since Sunday, of course, anyone in golf would embrace a connection with Clark, the new U.S. Open champion. But last autumn, Clark was just a young golfer trying to make his way on the PGA Tour, and he wondered if he was persona non grata in Stillwater.

But Cowboy coach Alan Bratton reached out to Clark, inviting him to OSU’s 50^th annual Pro-Am, a fundraiser that also serves as a reunion for the program’s grand tradition.

“I was like, ‘Yes!’,” Clark told OSU publicist Ryan Cameron last fall. “I have wanted to come the last few years. I just didn’t know what the atmosphere was like with me here. Once Coach opened that up, I really wanted to do it. I wanted to be back.”

Clark became just the second Cowboy to win one of golf’s four majors, joining Bob Tway, who won the PGA Championship way back in 1986.

But even before that magic weekend at the Los Angeles Country Club, OSU claimed Clark, and Clark claimed the Cowboys.

This is like Jalen Hurts, the superstar quarterback legitimately claimed by both Alabama and OU.

Clark did great things in his one season at Oregon. He was All-American, Pac-12 player of the year and the only Duck winner in Oregon’s 3-1-1 loss to the Sooners in the 2017 NCAA finals.

But Clark also did great things in his second OSU season; he was All-American, Big 12 player of the year and the only Cowboy winner in OSU’s 4-1 loss to Alabama in the 2014 NCAA finals.

Clark’s first year in Stillwater? That’s when his golfing career was saved by then-OSU coach Mike McGraw.

Grief-stricken golfer

Just before his first semester at OSU, Clark learned that his mother, Lise, was battling cancer. Clark and his mother were tight. The former Miss New Mexico introduced her 3-year-old son to golf, taking him to Cherry Hills Country Club in the Denver suburbs.

Clark’s dad eventually took over the golf mentoring, but Lise was a constant encourager, with texts and notes.

And just before Clark left for Stillwater and his freshman year, he learned his mother’s cancer had returned.

Clark became an emotional mess. Away from golf, he kept himself together. But during competition, his emotions took over. He began breaking clubs and walking off the course.

In his first fall tournament, at famed Olympia Fields outside Chicago, Clark had a…