Wyndham against the world: How Clark ‘brainwashed himself,' won U.S. Open

SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. – The roars were subdued, the jeers vociferous. Wyndham Clark was the villain of this U.S. Open Championship, and he knew it.

Be it the big lead that the crowd wanted to dwindle, Scottie Scheffler's push for the career Grand Slam or the simple fact that Clark is not everyone’s cup of tea, Clark’s national open felt like a road game. Each clutch par save was met with groans. Every approach that rolled off the green was relished.

“People weren’t nice,” Clark’s caddie Dave Pelekoudas said with a chuckle.

Clark took in each cheer for Scheffler and pretended it was for him. Every jeer was a reason to get cocky. The heckles meant he was doing something right. If he stayed in his process, they would be forced to acknowledge him when it was all over.

To be clear: Clark understood the stick. The journey to his second U.S. Open was difficult. A year ago this week, he left Oakmont “in shambles” after one of the darkest moments of his life. One of his own doing. He isolated for days, down on himself and his game. He certainly didn’t see this coming. That he’s here now is a testament to an intentional effort to improve, inside and outside the ropes.

“He brainwashed himself,” said Julie Elion, Clark’s sports psychologist. “Like to know there’s a peace inside him and a fight that’s really cool.”

Those lows made Sunday sweeter. Clark held off a charging Sam Burns, making a circus birdie at the par-5 16th hole that provided the cushion he needed to win by one shot. He two-putted from 52 feet to win his second U.S. Open.

Clark watched his bunker shot jump into the air, careen off the downslope and trundle off the other side of the eighth green on Saturday. “That is the absolute worst bunker …,” Clark barked out, turning from the spectators as his voice trailed off. He marched away, but returned to the bunker after he hit his comebacker from the other side, staring down at the scene of the crime once more, still fuming.

Clark’s mental mantra at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club this week was simple.

It’s not what happens to us, it’s how we respond.

The third round had gone swimmingly to this point, but for the first time, Clark showed signs of a poor attitude at a poor time. He tapped in for bogey, then pushed his tee shot into the right rough at the ninth. As he walked down the fairway, the largest roar of the day reverberated through the property. Some 200 yards away, Scottie Scheffler stuck it to 15 feet for eagle at the par-5 16th. Would Clark let the lead start to slip? He kept his head down, racing blinders on. He chopped his ball out of the rough and onto the front edge of the green, leaving himself a dicey two-putt. His first attempt stopped 7 feet short, and as he settled over the par attempt, the crowd stirred again as Scheffler tapped in for birdie, the fans willing Scheffler into contention.

Clark didn’t back away. As the roars rang through the corridor below him, he continued, pulled his putter back and drained the putt. Then, at the 10th, Clark converted a remarkable up and down from behind the green, a spot of bother for much of the field that could have easily derailed him, too. He did it again at the treacherous par-3 11th, recovering from a poor tee shot with an excellent sand save. Those moments kept him comfortably ahead of the pack. Then at the 16th, he dealt a massive blow, stuffing his approach tight and pouring in the eagle putt. Clark grew his lead from four strokes to six.

“Probably one of the best shots I've ever seen,” Pelekoudas said.

Elion watched from the crowd. This isn’t like Los Angeles Country Club, she thought to herself. Clark is the same man, just with different baggage now. Back then, the insecurities stemmed from inexperience. He had never been in the position to win a major championship before. Could he actually outlast Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler in the final round of the U.S. Open? He was a phenomenal college player at Oregon, but was he good enough to hack it in the pros? Would he fold when the first sign of adversity hit?

Elion asked herself that question when Clark hooked an approach into thick fescue at LACC’s eighth hole. Clark took a hearty lash at the ball. It didn’t move. His second attempt flew over the green.

"I was like, oh my God, could this be the moment where he goes the wrong way?” Elion said. Clark made bogey, then needed another miraculous recovery shot to save par at the next hole and stay ahead of McIlroy. Clark was shaky, but he survived. It was proof he was capable.

Clark’s insecurities now stem from everything outside the actual golf. He spent the last year backtracking after Oakmont, when he smashed two lockers, frustrated after missing the cut. The photos surfaced over the weekend, sending him into a spiral.

“At that moment I just felt a lot of my career, world ranking, reputation, everything just dwindling,” Clark said.

He was asked about it the next week. His initial contrition lacked sincerity, further alienating him. “I thought his apologies at first were a little weak,” Elion said. “Sorry, Wyndham.”

It cost Clark fans. Fans that we would like to win back. He hopes weeks like this will go a long way. He endured significant heckling. It started isolated and targeted. As he hit his seventh tee shot on Saturday, a fan screamed, “locker smasher.” Soon after, another chimed in, “They give you a locker this year? No temper tantrum, I hope.”

By Sunday, Clark was hearing it after every swing. Scottie Scheffler and Wyndham Clark hit identical shots at the sixth that rolled off the back. For one, they pleaded for the ball to stop. For the other, they celebrated as it picked up speed. When Clark missed a par putt at the 13th, the crowd exploded.

“I can’t throw out a whole grandstand,” a USGA security official said as they looked up at the 14th grandstand.

Elion heard it, too. Her message to Clark was to call back to 2023. He was playing with Rickie Fowler in the final round that year, and Elion told Clark that every time he heard a cheer for Fowler, he should think of his own goals—same idea this year with a slightly different execution. Spin every heckle into an affirmation.

“Anytime he heard it, he just said, ‘It's okay. I'm okay. I've done the right thing.’ I think it's actually proof of, you know, we all make mistakes, and I really think he's facing it,” Elion said.

Clark gave the crowd no choice but to embrace him at the end. Clinging to a one-stroke lead at the 16th, Clark made a miraculous birdie after driving it into the fescue. He chopped out, hit a wedge to 25 feet and dripped in a difficult putt. He unleashed a massive fist pump, his first show of emotion all day. The jeers were there, but the cheers leveled it out. A three-putt bogey at the 17th cut the lead back to a single stroke, a mistake that came with another set of cheers, but Clark flushed the bad energy quickly. He hit a decent drive that tumbled into the first cut of rough, muscled one out to the front of the green and knocked his lag put to a few inches, just as he did on the final green at the 2023 U.S. Open.

“New York didn’t really like me,” Clark said in his trophy presentation.

He made them respect him.

Mental strength can only take you so far in a major championship. At some point, you need the shots to pull it off, too.

That breakthrough didn’t happen until the offseason. While he was back in his home state of Colorado, Clark bumped into Pat Coyner, the new director of instruction for Cherry Hills. The two got to talking and, naturally, Clark’s game came up.

Coyner and Clark worked to keep the club face more open at impact, which is counterintuitive for most but beneficial for him. Slowly, the left miss that inhibited Clark for most of 2025 started to straighten out and follow Clark’s patented cut shot. He had pushed back against the idea that he needed a full-time coach in recent years because when he had previously had one, he found himself focusing on his golf swing rather than playing golf. Things looked great on video. He was hitting every angle, but he just wasn’t playing golf. Once he started to just hit shots, good things started happening. But his swing slowly got out of place. After winning seasons in ‘23 and ‘24, Clark notched only two top 10s and never truly threatened contention in any events. He fell to 84th in Strokes Gained: Off-theTee and 154th in SG: Approach, categories he used to excel in.

That made the season downright miserable. Clark finished outside the top 50, missing the BMW Championship and automatic spots in the 2026 Signature Events.

Clark quickly found comfort in Coyner’s teachings, and it started to materialize at the Masters. He finished in a tie for 21st at Augusta National, notched back-to-back top 20s in Hilton Head and New Orleans, then won THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson. He rolled that form straight into a solo-third at the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday and a T11 at the RBC Canadian Open.

Returning to the U.S. Open carried different baggage, the perfect combo of mental fortitude and damn good golf. He couldn’t avoid his past misgivings. He was asked about it by reporters and reminded by crowds. He wanted redemption, but he also wanted to put it past him. Those were incongruent. He believes they no longer need to be. These days, he’s a lot happier. That was the case before he won. He’s in a good place with his game, with trusted swing and mental coaches. He’s confident in himself and the direction of his life. He has a new girlfriend, too. “He’s in love,” Elion quipped.

“I'm not getting angry as much as I used to,” Clark said.

That showed in the final round. It will be remembered as Wyndham versus the world.

Last year’s version of Clark likely would have crumbled under that scrutiny. He would have let the pressure of the lead get to him and the quips from the crowd seep in.

Not on Sunday.

“Today is my day,” Clark said with the U.S. Open trophy beside him.