LOS ANGELES — Wyndham Clark’s secret weapon waited for him by scoring in a sweater that spelled out “Golf” across the front.
Julie Elion is Clark’s mental coach and she’s working her magic yet again, helping a gifted player that couldn’t get out of his own way to find the winner’s circle.
Clark’s breakthrough season on the PGA Tour continued on Friday at Los Angeles Country Club as he backed up an opening-round 64 with a 3-under 67 in the second round of the 123rd U.S. Open. He’s alone in second behind only Rickie Fowler, just one stroke off the lead at the midway point.
In January, the 29-year-old Clark began working with Elion, who is best known in the golf world for working with the likes of Phil Mickelson and helping Jimmy Walker win a major. Earlier this year, Max Homa was singing her praises after he won the Farmers Insurance Open in January. Elion likes to keep a low profile — her nickname on Tour is Stealth — but she agreed to say on the record that Clark “is the hardest worker she’s ever worked with.”
U.S. Open: Leaderboard, tee times, hole-by-hole
As part of that work, Clark has benefited from meditating, praying and setting daily goals. Clark’s caddie, John Ellis, who encouraged his boss to speak to Elion as did Clark’s agent Rob Mougey, said that she has helped “simplify things” for Clark, who was winless on Tour entering this year despite having no shortage of talent.
“In this game, you’re always losing and you’re always looking ahead, so she’s told us let’s just make three little goals,” Ellis said. “Simplify things, right?”
Asked about how Clark did on his three goals on Friday during a major championship, Ellis said, “He did great, but you’ll have to ask him what those goals were.”
Now leading the #USOpen…@Wyndham_Clark! pic.twitter.com/kjWNFn1z2f
— U.S. Open (USGA) (@usopengolf) June 16, 2023
“Pretty simple,” Clark said during his post-round press conference. “For me, it was enjoy myself at a beautiful golf course. It was be cocky out there.”
And the third? “It was remind myself of the first two,” he said. “Those were honestly my three goals, and I thought if I could do that and keep myself in the best mindset, that the golf would take care of itself.”
Clark was feeling cocky after taking a full whack at his ball in the greenside rough at 14 and lofting it high in the air over a bunker to 12 feet. It may go down as one of the most remarkable rescue shots of the championship and he cashed in the putt for a birdie that Ellis said was “stealing.”
“He went for the hero shot and he pulled it off,” NBC’s Peter Jacobsen said. “Should Wyndham Clark go on to win the U.S. Open Championship, undoubtedly he’ll look back at 14…Magnificent stuff.”
How many times out of 100 would Clark have been able to pull that shot off?
“If it comes up short, I for sure probably maybe bogey,” Clark explained of his risky third shot at the par 5. “I brought bogey into play, but I thought I had a really good chance of getting it up and down, or at least getting it on the putting surface. Out of 100? I had a good lie, so I’d say I would do 70 or 80 out of 100, honestly.”
MORE: Five things about Wyndham Clark
Clark began strutting at that point and was enjoying himself so much that he was chuckling before he drained a 45-foot birdie putt at 16. Later, he explained why.
“I was laughing with my caddie because I hit that putt like three or four times in practice different days, and then we had a putting game closest to this disc in practices with Luke List and a couple other players, Adam Schenk, and I misread it every single time,” he recalled. “So I kept playing like a foot out left and I’d miss it four feet left. So as we were walking up, I go, at least we know this putt; it’s a foot out left, right? My caddie laughs and he goes, what do you see? I said, ‘I’m not reading this, you read it.’ He is like, ‘You played roughly 16 inches out on the right,’ and then to make that putt was just funny because we just laughed it off because I literally did nothing other than hit the putt because I didn’t know where it was going to go.”
It may be an exaggeration to say Clark suffered from being a mental midget in the past, but Clark lacked a closer’s mentality and complained to Ellis that he had blown too many chances to get his first Tour title. He had failed to convert on the back nine at the 2019 Puerto Rico Open, lost a playoff at the 2020 Butterfield Bermuda Championship and couldn’t close as the 54-hole leader in April at the Zurich Classic, a team event, just to name a few of the missed opportunities. That all changed last month at the Wells Fargo Championship, where he got the monkey off his back and closed in style to win by four strokes at a designated event at Quail Hollow Golf Club in Charlotte, a course that has hosted majors.
“For me, winning any tournament was big, and then that one in particular felt like a major,” said Clark, who has improved to No. 32 in the world. “I just feel like I can compete with the best players in the world and I think of myself as one of them.”
He made over 100 feet of putts en route to shooting 64 on Thursday and is going to have a late weekend tee time at the U.S. Open after a scrappy 67. With plenty of time between rounds, Clark likely will spend time with Elion, his mental-game Sensei, and keep striving to achieve his daily goals.
“He’s got so many tools in his toolbox,” said Mougey, Clark’s agent, who made the initial call to connect Clark to Elion. “He’s embraced the mental side of the game. He’s all in with her and it’s a significant reason for the success he’s had this year.”
