It’s a crisp Autumn Tuesday and I’m at TPC Boston about to hit the links. Beside me is Wyndham Clark, 2023 US Open Champ, current PGA sixth-ranked player and one of the most captivating stars of the Netflix series “Full Swing.”
Fresh off his team win at the President’s Cup in Montreal and about to take a multi-week break from the sport, he’s in town to amplify the fun ahead for the 2025 Traveler’s Championship, the annual June tourney in Connecticut he’s yet to win but holds most dear.
We’re about to head out to tee off and lucky me: I’ve got the chance to pick the brain of one of the very best golfers in the world.
What did I ask him about? How to hone in on more precise chips? When to lay up and take my medicine and when to go bold? Nope. Rather, I was lucky enough to have Clark share insight on what he sees as the most powerful tool any golfer can add to their bag: solid, well-maintained mental health.
Clark, who found himself not only struggling to make cuts in tourneys but in a dark place overall after losing his mother to cancer and then not achieving in the PGA as quicky as he’d hoped, has been open, public and honest about his struggle and his path not just back but forward. His “Full Swing” episode deep dives into it all.
“What’s the best advice I can give you?” he said to me. “Believe in good things and they are going to happen. I know it sounds simple but if you miss five putts and you think you are going to miss the next; you probably will. If you think ‘hey, the next one will be amazing,’ eventually it is – and you flip the switch. Good things are going to happen.”
Clark points out to me that his road to being able to not just say that but own it has been a long one. He turned to therapy and sports psychology after a long series of rough finishes, and after seeing his negative reaction to bad play seep into his entire life. Things were bad, he told me; and he knew he had to at least try to take action.
Now, playing at top level with that US Open win and President’s Cup under his belt, he tells me owning good mental health takes more than saying these things. It takes practice, study, patience and habit. But any golfer who embraces it, he believes, will in time find the priceless value.
Clark starts his day with meditation and a practice of writing out his intentions for that day. He readily admits to me that at first it felt a little weird; he wasn’t sure it would stick.
“The first time I meditated? Yeah, it felt strange,” he said. “I have a racing mind, and to slow it down is really hard. But you know what I learned? The brain is a muscle. It can be trained.”
At first he could only do five minutes of meditation; now he’s all in on as much time as he needs for any given day.
The list writing felt forced at first too, but now it comes naturally – as normal to his morning routine as brushing his teeth and making sure his clubs are clean.
What did he write down on the morning of that final round of the US Open? I was expecting something along the lines of “go big off the tees.” That’s not, he told me, how it works. It’s more nuanced
“That morning? I wrote down ‘Look up and smile at the crowd’ and ‘play cocky.’ In other words, don’t shy away from both appreciating the moment you are in and from going for what you believe you can do.”
It won him the glory of a Major win and a $3.6 million check. But there’s way more to what mental health practice brings to him – and to all golfers, he says.
“All this hasn’t just made my game better; it’s made my life better. I’m more focused and happier in all ways. And I like it,” he said.
Clark says he has a special affinity to the Traveler’s Championship (https://travelerschampionship.com) because it was his first invite to a PGA event and this past year he won their famed 15 ½ hole – an upside down umbrella hole that the closest to the pin wins $10,000 for their favorite charity. His winnings went to The Play Big Foundation, which he founded in honor of his late mom.
That plays well into his mental health focus too: Finding joy on the course beyond the simple first place win is good for all of us.
My take away? As odd as it may feel to some of us at first, polishing our mental health betters our games – and our lives. You can see Clark up close playing Traveler’s come June. Why not use this winter off season to explore this part of your game?
As Clark said to me, “Get yourself to a place where all good things can and will happen.” I think I’ll like it there.