One of the hardest things to do in professional golf is win a golf tournament, but that only leads to another tricky dilemma: managing expectations after you’ve racked up one or two of those life-changing wins.
That’s one thing sports psychologist Julie Elion helps several players on Tour with, including Wyndham Clark, who she worked with when he won the 2023 US Open and, most recently, the CJ Cup Byron Nelson last week.
Elion joined the latest episode of GOLF’s Subpar Podcast to discuss her work with Clark and the power of a strong mental game in golf. (Her new book,Mastering your mental game,” will be available next week.)
Subpar co-host Colt Knost brought up names like Ben Griffin and JJ Spaun during the interview. Both players had huge 2025s, but now had to live up to high expectations this season. How do players manage this? She said it’s not that different from Clark after he won the US Open.
“From my perspective, (Clark’s) world became so big and complicated, but also in great ways — sponsors, conversations and media,” Elion said. “So it was helping him manage it. But I don’t think it’s always that easy to manage.”
Spaun recently admitted it has been a struggle to manage expectations. after winning the 2025 US Open at Oakmont and earning a spot in the Ryder Cup in the fall, Spaun missed four cuts in seven events to start this season. But he turned it around by winning the Valero Texas Open before the Masters.
“I was so confident and so confident right after the US Open … then when I kind of had it as the physical end of the season and now it’s like a new beginning, like I put a lot of pressure on myself that I had to be (one of the best players) in the world that I make it clear every week that he has to show up and he has to play well and he has to fight after his win, Spaun said. “It’s an uncomfortable position for me because I’ve never been there, but it was more like the complete opposite mindset I had last year, where last year I agreed to play with nothing to lose. I felt that it helped to free me mentally.”
He said at the Texas Open that he was able to go back to what was working before, realized he didn’t need to be the best to win, accept the results and move on.
“I think the biggest lesson for me this week was learning that I don’t have to be perfect to win golf tournaments,” Spaun said. “I don’t think I was perfect at the US Open, I don’t think I was perfect when I won here in 2022. But I’m proud that I was able to hit the shots I wanted to hit when I needed to at the moment. It showed me how wherever I feel like my golf swing is or wherever mentally if I’m not confident and I’m not confident to hit it today when I can hit it. That’s all that matters.”
