[Photo: Mike Mulholland]
The opening chapter of sports psychologist Julie Elion’s new book, Mastering Your Mental Game, describes her client Wyndham Clark’s win in the 2023 US Open, and their work in helping him get there. At Los Angeles Country Club, Clark had to fend off his own doubts and a crowd that was cheering for playing partner Rickie Fowler. That he persevered to win his first major was a tangible sign of his growth, even if Elion knew the work was ongoing.
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“Self-improvement – be it in golf or in life – isn’t always going to be on a smooth, upward trajectory,” Elion writes. “In fact, it’s most often not.”
Elion then goes on to reference the low point of Clark’s 2025 season: a missed cut at US Open at Oakmont, and a tantrum in the player locker room that led to a temporary ban from the club. If nothing else, there are photos of a disfigured locker to underscore Elion’s point that progress isn’t linear.
But she could also point to what’s happened since. In 2026, Clark is coming off a win at the C.J Cup at Byron Nelson, and is back contending at the US Open at Shinnecock – leading by four shots during the second round.
These are not contradictory concepts, she says. The same golfer who unloaded on a locker at Oakmont, and weeks earlier hurled his driver in anger at the PGA Championship, can also be the golfer faithful to his work with a leading sports psychologist. It’s no different than a golfer who has worked diligently on their putting, but is still prone to the occasional three-putt.
“Our highest highs can be followed by some pretty low lows,” Elion writes. “Wyndham Clark took a long time to begin examining his life, and my belief he was rewarded for doing so. But for any of us, this is a process.”
Asked earlier in the week, Clark said the Oakmont incident was something “he deeply regretted… and there were so many good lessons in that that really taught me a bunch. I’ve really come a long way”.
Specifically, Elion has said she and the golfer have reframed one of their core tenets of setting “daily goals” and focusing more on “mission statements”. She said the difference is less outcome-focused and more channelling a specific emotional state.
“Every one of my clients – not everyone, but pretty much everyone – sticks to a protocol of, ‘What am I trying to feel today?’ It might be confidence, it might be free, it might be no leaderboards, it might be, ‘I don’t like who I’m playing with, and I’m not gonna let it bother me,’” Elion said last month on the Subpar podcast. “It could be anything. But like I said earlier, I just try to stay on them to make sure they’re paying attention, not to just technical.”
How well Clark can manage his emotions during a challenging weekend at Shinnecock is still a valid question. Contending in a US Open is an added stress, and the first time he did it, he had the benefit of low expectations. But a regression doesn’t negate the work he’s done to this point, only that there’s always more to do.
