SOUTHAMPTON, NY – It started on the first hole and didn’t stop until the last shot dropped on 18: taunts, putts, prayers for the balls to roll off the greens and into the bunkers. Sunday at the US Open it was Wyndham Clarke against the world—or at least against the Hamptons.
“Man, they definitely didn’t want me to win,” Clark said afterward.
But he won: with a late clutch putt from 52 feet on the 72nd hole to give him a fourth-round victory with a three-over 73, a four-under week and a one-stroke lead over the struggling Sam Burns.
Not everyone was rooting against Clark. Among his supporters was Julie Elionwho since 2022 has been Clark’s sports psychologist – a partnership that didn’t come easily at first. “I was a little reluctant to do it,” Clark said after his 2023 US Open win at LA Country Club. “I’m so glad she was brought into my life.” Clark praised Elion’s “calmness and great presence around her that just puts me at ease and relaxed.”
When Elion first met Clark, she met a player who, she said, was filled with negativity and self-doubt. “We had a little heart-to-heart,” Elion said on season 2 of Netflix’s “Full Swing.” “I was like ‘Buddy, you’re on the verge of not being on the PGA Tour or on the verge of being a star. You’ve got to make a change because you can’t keep doing this to yourself.’
it it was a way of thinking and living that was profoundly counterproductive and even destructive. On “Full Swing,” Clark said, “I had trained my mind over the years by putting myself down and thinking negatively, locking myself in rooms and not going out for long periods of time or drinking too much or being mean to people. I didn’t want to play golf.” But with Elion’s advice, Clark worked on himself and changes were made. He began to feel better about himself and his abilities. In May 2023, he won his first PGA Tour title, the Wells Fargo at Quail Hollow. The following month, he became a LACC Grand Champion.
This week at Shinnecock, Clark backed to win the US Open – much to the dismay of the New York galleries, who were apparently put off by Clark’s “bad boy” persona, which was reinforced by his bad behavior at the 2025 US Open, where after missing the cut he he took out his anger in some of Oakmont’s museum pieces closets.
On Sunday, as Clark plotted his way around the demanding test that is William Flynn’s Shinnecock design, it won’t paint him like spilled paint on a counter. The ruckus got so bad that at least some fans were shown the door.
Elion heard him. like couldn’t she has On the 8th hole, she said she was so “pissed off” by the crowd’s comment that she had to pull off the course. “It came to me,” she said. “I had to go in and talk to someone.”
Not that the cold reception had come as a surprise.
“We planned,” Elion said. “We knew.”
Elion compared the crowd’s vitriol to what Clark encountered at the 2023 US Open, when all of California (and many parts beyond) were rooting for Rickie Fowler to finally win a major. “When everybody yelled, ‘Ricky!'” Elion said, “he yelled, ‘Wyndham!’ inside.” On Sunday, Elion said, Clark took a similar approach, staying firm about his goals and vowing not to let fans get to him.
However, by Saturday night, Elion was not convinced that Clark was in a good mental space. In the wake of his third round that included bogeys on two of his final four holes, Clark texted Elion a string of angry face emojis accompanied by a note about how many shots he felt he had left on the course.
“I’m like, ‘Oh, my God, here we go again,'” Elion said.
But on Sunday, Clark, in a whirlwind of mischief, found peace. “Every time someone said something negative to me, I replaced it with something positive,” he said. Clark’s caddy, David Pelekoudas (aka “Big Wave Dave”), was also critical. “I was joking about it with Dave, where if we heard someone cheering for me, I’d be like, ‘Oh, there’s a person who likes me,'” Clark said. “So we’d kind of joke and make it maybe a little light.”
Being a cold-blooded closer didn’t hurt Clark’s cause. He left the field behind, but never to the end – which shows what might be his strongest mental tool of all.
“That’s also what makes it great,” Elion said. “He’s very competitive.”
