U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark reveals a college-era betrayal involving an ex-girlfriend that fueled his long-standing grudge against the polarizing Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback.
Plenty of people don’t like Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ quarterback Baker Mayfield.
Some don’t like him because he turns the ball over too much.
Others still see him as the QB who grabbed his crotch in a game against Kansas way back when.
Wyndham Clark isn’t among Mayfield’s haters. In fact, the recent U.S. Open winner likes the Buccaneers’ quarterback … now. But if what Clark said recently on Pardon My Take is true, well, the great golfer would be justified to root against No. 6 and the Bucs.
Clark tweeted, “I hate Baker Mayfield” on Dec. 3 2016, at 6:18 p.m.
On the surface, the reason looks obvious. Mayfield was an established QB at Oklahoma whose Heisman Trophy-winning season was ahead of him.
Clark, who spent most of his college career at OU’s chief rival, Oklahoma State, was finishing it up at Oregon, having already been a Big 12 Player of the Year and, as it turned out, about to become a PAC-12 Player of the Year. Oklahoma had just beaten Oklahoma State, 38-20, and Mayfield balled out, completing 13 of 19 passes for 288 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions.
But it turns out, this was about a little bit more than “Bedlam.”
"My girlfriend at the time cheated on me with Baker Mayfield," Clark revealed days after winning the Open.
Clark didn’t name the ex-girlfriend, and Mayfield’s camp has yet to issue a response. But Clark did say that he was over it.
“I am actually a Baker fan now,” Clark said. “I think he's a homie.
"You know, that's your initial response, 'screw that guy.' But really, it's screw the — you know. I'm a Baker fan, no, but that's where it came from.”
Both Mayfield and Clark have moved on from whoever the ex-girlfriend was.
Mayfield met his now-wife, Emily, in 2017, and the two have been married since 2019 and now have two kids, both born during Mayfield’s time in Tampa.
Clark is in a relationship with Emily Tanner, a model from Michigan, whom Clark told Golfweek during the U.S. Open was his “good luck charm.”
Mayfield and the Bucs could use a “good luck charm” of any kind in 2026. The team is coming off one of the worst collapses in franchise history, starting 6-2 and then, somehow, finding a way to not win the NFC South, where no team won more games than it lost.
Barring something unforeseen, Mayfield will be Tampa’s QB in 2026, but what happens after that is far less certain. He’s in the last year of his contract, and the two sides are nowhere close to getting an extension done. Mayfield wants to sign before training camp, which starts in a little more than a month.
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