For Wyndham Clark to achieve his true golf potential, he had to re-wire himself.
He hired a sports psychologist to learn how to trade self-depreciation for relentless positivity. He ordered a duplicate of another pro’s putter to solve his inconsistencies on the green. And he firmly believed that just a few years removed from nearly losing his tour card, and a decade after losing his mom, it was his time to become a major champion.
Those were the new ingredients that allowed Clark to become the first Colorado native to win the U.S. Open last week in Los Angeles, and they’re why those closest to Clark believe the 29-year-old is emerging as a premium talent amid his breakout season on tour.
“The ability and the skillset that he has was always there to be a top-10 player in the world,” observed his caddie, John Ellis. “But he was way too hard on himself, and his expectations were too high. He didn’t allow himself to unlock what he was. He sort of played tight and fearful of what the next shot might be, good or bad.
“He just didn’t allow himself to be who he is — a world-class player.”
Clark, a Valor Christian graduate, was a prodigy from a young age. He groomed his game at Cherry Hills Country Club as a boy, won his first state title as a sophomore in 2009, and then the next year became the youngest winner of the Colorado Golf Association Stroke Play Championship since 1971. He won another state title as a senior, shooting 16 under par to obliterate the field.
“The stamp on his greatness in high school was that 16 under par at Pelican Lakes (in Windsor),” recalled current Valor Christian golf coach Justen Byler, who coached Clark in basketball. “That’s just different. When you go 64/64, that validated what we were all feeling — that he was headed in a whole different direction than anybody who came before him in this state.”
But as expectations built, so did the pressure Clark put on himself. That would become a common theme throughout his college and pro career, and one he had to buck in order to start winning on tour like he has this year, first at the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte before claiming the U.S. Open in just his sixth major appearance.
Clark went to powerhouse Oklahoma State and was living up to his status as a top recruit, earning Big 12 Player of the Year as a redshirt freshman. But the death of his mom, Lise Clark, to breast cancer during his time at OSU caused Clark to lose perspective — and eventually get burned out with the Cowboys.
“I think the combination of my mom passing away and then having to grieve that, and then the pressure of having to play good golf to keep a spot in the lineup and maintain grades and expectations on the course — it got to where golf meant too much to me, and it was starting to affect my thinking on and off the golf course,” Clark said. “That’s one of the times I wanted to quit.”
With the Cowboys, Clark was a “confident but extremely self-critical player,” Oklahoma State coach Alan Bratton said. It was in Stillwater that Clark started cemented his reputation as a golfer that has a “huge heart” — and was his own worst critic.
“He would do anything for his teammates and would spend hours helping them with their games, and he was super positive with what they were trying to do,” Bratton said. “But then with himself, he was super critical of whatever he saw as his flaws. He’s the type of guy that you would love for him to be able to jump outside his body and see himself, and if he could see that view, then he would have a different opinion about his game and where he was headed.”
Clark needed a fresh start after fizzling out at OSU, and he found one in Oregon, where he knew he could come in as the program’s top player. Clark flourished in his one season with the Ducks, winning the Pac-12 championship held at Boulder Country Club, earning the conference’s Player of the Year and leading Oregon to a national runner-up finish.
“It was so refreshing because no one really knew me there,” Clark recalled. “They didn’t know I lost my mom, or how tough it was on me, and the tough times I had when I was there after that. They just knew the Wyndham that I was in that moment, and that was big for my mental game.”
But with Clark’s resurgence in Eugene came renewed, and heightened, expectations.
Clark made his pro debut at the Travelers Championship in 2017, missing the cut at 12 over. The next four years would be a grind as Clark battled to keep his card and struggled to find his footing as a pro. Currently ranked No. 13 in the world, he finished the 2020 season ranked No. 147 and was one of the last players who qualified to keep his card. Clark dropped to as low as No. 313 in May 2022, and even as recently as this January was ranked No. 160.
“My greatest adversity as a pro was overcoming the expectation that everyone had of me, which I think affected me early on,” Clark said. “I would come out here and feel like I should be playing better. I had peers I played against in college who were roughly my age having tons of success, and I’d look at them, and be like, ‘Why am I not doing this?’
“That really affected me, because I thought I should be doing that as well. Overcoming that was huge for me. It’s obviously taken a little longer than I thought, but … I grew so much as a person and player and got stronger mentally, physically, and was able to handle all the stuff that comes with this (tour) life.”
At the advice of Ellis and others within his camp, Clark hired renowned sports psychologist Julie Elion in January to transform his mental game. Clark said the move “changed my life,” and Ellis agrees.
“I was sort of adamant, as were some other people on his team, that he couldn’t just keep going down this path because he’s way too good to be somewhat wasting his talent away,” said Ellis, who has known Clark since coaching him at Oregon. “But I give him credit. Working with the sports psychologist, he’s made huge strides on the golf course but also off the course too in just life in general.
“There’s more acceptance by him of who he is. Like, if he shoots 62 or 72, it’s not going to dictate whether he has a good evening or bad evening. That’s tough when your identity is golf and that’s what you do … but he’s made huge strides in that respect.”
With his mindset in order, Clark has been playing well all year, but his power off the tee and precision with his irons was negated until relatively recently by sub-average putting.
“I was gaining anywhere from one to three strokes a day ball-striking, but then was losing that in putting,” Clark said. “It was frustrating. Like at (the Arnold Palmer Invitational at) Bay Hill in March, I was No. 1 in ball-striking and only finished (tied for 34th). Same thing at The Players Championship — I hit it great, but didn’t putt well and finished (tied for 27th).”
That’s when Clark decided to switch to the exact same putter that Rickie Fowler uses. Clark tinkered with Fowler’s putter during a practice round the two played together, and Clark made the switch at the Valspar Championship in mid-March. Ellis was admittedly skeptical, but since the change, Clark’s putting improved. Heading into the weekend, he’s tied for 22nd in putts average at 1.725.
All of those speedbumps — losing strokes on the green, being too scathing of a self-critic, going from self-described tour “bubble boy” to a tour winner — paved the way for Clark’s success at Los Angeles Country Club. Clark knew he was peaking, too — he played a practice round at the course the week before the U.S. Open, and afterward texted Ellis that he was going to win the tournament.
Clark delivered on that prediction last Sunday by out-gutting superstar Rory McIlroy, who finished a stroke back of Clark’s -10, and Fowler, who was in Clark’s final grouping but faded with a 5-over final day to finish 5-under.
McIlroy called Clark’s performance “rock solid” after Clark shot even par to secure the championship. Clark weathered bogeys on holes 2, 8, 15 and 16 to stay atop the leaderboard, and closed the tournament with a magnificent up-and-down on 17 to save par, and then a perfectly executed two-putt on 18 to clinch.
“The chip on 17 was amazing, the lag putt on 18 was amazing, and there were a bunch of shots before that over the last couple rounds that really kept him in it,” said Oregon coach Casey Martin. “That’s the cool thing about Wyndham — he’s a power guy, and when you go to the range, he hits it as far as anybody. But to be able to have that kind of touch, that’s what separates him and always has. He’s a complete player and now it’s showing.”
Martin believes Clark now has the chance to become the very best player in the world — if he can stay the course he’s been on the last six months.
“With the tear he’s on, he’s going to be in that top-10 window very soon, which is where he belongs talent-wise,” Marin said. “But at the same time, I was texting with him (this week), telling him to not fall victim of what people expect of you now. … Just enjoy life, play golf, see how good you can get.
“That notion of, ‘He’s now going to (soon) be the No. 1 player in the world!’ I mean yeah, for sure he could be. But that brings more baggage, and I think that was sort of the issue when he when to Oklahoma Sate. My hope and prayer is he doesn’t get caught up in that rat race again, because he’s a massive talent. We’ve known it all along, and he’s really stepping into it right now.”
Clark said this time, he’s ready for the greatest of expectations.
“I’m not done,” Clark asserted. “Winning a U.S. Open is obviously an amazing feat, and something that I will hold onto dearly for the rest of my life. But I want to win multiple (majors). And I want to get to where I’m a top-10 player in the world, and then a top-five player, and hopefully the No. 1 player in the world.”
