Post-round interviews on Sundays are often short, but can be extremely revealing. ever it is through tears or muffled responses. Other times it’s just a big exhale and a scattered brain as reality washes over them. For Wyndham Clark on Sunday, it was a curious response to one of his darkest moments: the situation between himself and Oakmont Country Club after he damaged a locker at last year’s US Open.
“I have to thank a lot of people first,” Clark said after winning the CJ Byron Nelson Cup, “because what happened at Oakmont was not the best thing.”
He then thanked each of his sponsors by name for sticking with him through a difficult time. “I’m very grateful for that,” he continued, adding, “You know, the biggest thing about having a slump like this is the comeback. Today feels really special after we’ve had a tough year and you’ve wrapped it up.”
Not everything was made clear by that response, but the fact that it was volunteered so immediately and publicly acknowledged says something. Perhaps Clark will add more as the weeks and months go on, once he’s hit the Tour mountain again. The immediate response Sunday was partly because Clark hadn’t talked much about the Oakmont tenure.
Last June, in the final minutes of the US Open, Clark severely damaged one of the lockers in that club’s old locker room. In the weeks that followed, whatever happened—or didn’t—led to the club barring Clark from the Oakmont property. In a letter to the Oakmont membership, club president John Lynch said: “Reinstatement will be contingent upon Mr. Clark meeting a number of specific conditions, including full restitution for damages, a significant contribution to a charity of the Board’s choice, and successful completion of counseling and/or anger management sessions.”
As with many things in pro golf and involving an exclusive celebrity golf club, not much more was said publicly. A month later, in the open championshipClark said he wanted to do “everything” he could to show Oakmont, “what happened there was not a reflection of who I am and it won’t happen again.” He apologized again, but made it clear that he intended to right his wrongs.
Until this week, that was the last we’d heard of him. Until Clark’s opening post-victory interview response.
Perhaps it’s more appropriate for this kind of statement from Clark, whose journey to the top of the pro game has often been linked to a discussion about mental health. He admitted to Amanda Balionis that there were times in 2025 when he worried he might never return to the winner’s circle. On Saturday, as part of a tournament initiative that allows players to decide what name or phrase will be velcro’d to the back of their caddy, Clark included the term “Unlok,” the name of a mental health app he hopes to launch next year.
His career triumph, at the 2023 US Open, was a mental health story, and not always a positive one. It was during his championship press conference that he admitted to “three or four” moments of mental anguish in his career through which he stayed the course. Those moments included, by his own admission, yelling at his car, punching things, etc. That led him to PGA Tour sports psychologist Julie Elion, whom Clark thanked endlessly in the months that followed. Their work together unlocked his true potential, helping him rise to No. 3 in the world.
But when his good golf began to fade, that mental battle continued to show. It showed when he drove his club into the 2025 PGA Tour sign, and it showed how he responded during a disappointing weekend at Oakmont. The golf pro journey and mental health journey is rarely linear. He finished 2025 outside the top 40 in the world and fell further this spring. Then, almost out of the blue, he led the field in Strokes Gained: Putting on Saturday AND Sunday, making over 250 feet of putts and boat races on the 30-under course.
Asked afterward how he did it, Clark said he was in a zone, but different from his past victories. He called it a “quiet zone” and admitted it was a little strange. But it’s the same word he used many times at the Masters last month: calm. Peace of mind with life off the golf course. The arrival of calm for the first and final rounds. Quiet enough to go out, hit the golf course and maybe do anything.
“It almost felt like I was playing at home here,” Clark said, “and every hole was a new hole. I wasn’t worried that I just made six birdies or that I needed to make more. I was just like, OK, I’ve got this 20-footer. I see it on the left side and I’m going to hit it and it’s going to go in.”
