Wyndham Clark 2.0 keeps it rolling at U.S. Open

LOS ANGELES – To appreciate just how far Wyndham Clark has come in Strokes Gained: Attitude Adjustment, you must simultaneously hold two pictures in your mind.

One is of a man at peace.

The other, not so much.

Start with the Clark who twirled his driver on his finger, complemented his playing partners, and acknowledged the crowd while fashioning a second-round 67 at the 123rd U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club on Friday. He didn’t have his best, but made his own weather in the June gloom. His ridiculously good up-and-down yielded a birdie on 14, and he drained a 45-foot putt for another birdie two holes later, after which he looked at his caddie and laughed.

He birdied the par-5 eighth, too, becoming the first player to reach 9 under par, and is firmly in contention.

“No, nothing surprises me,” said Clark, who got his first PGA TOUR win at the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow Club last month. Quail, he notes, was major championship-hard; now he’s taming another brawny test.

The second picture of Wyndham Clark is not pretty, but he doesn’t shy away from it. He was at the 2020 Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit and had just made three bogeys in a stretch of four holes when, from the 13th green, one of the farthest points from the clubhouse, he quit and walked in. His caddie and coach gave him a wide berth, walking well behind him and discussing what if anything could have been done.

Was it his back? Was it his attitude?

“It was a little bit of both,” Clark said Friday. “But it was definitely the type of thing where the person and player I am today would have grinded it out and finished the round.”

It’s hard to reconcile these two versions of Clark; his comportment, his whole vibe, is completely different.

At the U.S. Open there are almost too many potential irritants to count. Waits on the tee can stretch to 10 minutes or more, as happened to Clark’s group at the drivable par-4 sixth hole. Stray shots can nestle into fescue so gnarly as to render the next shot nearly impossible. Also, the greens can play more like glass, as happened when Clark ran his birdie try nearly 10 feet past the pin at the par-3 fourth, then missed the comebacker.

But Clark is no longer that guy who packed it in. His mental coach, Julie Elion, gave him a hug after he signed his card on Friday. They’ve been working together since the start of this year, and while she likes to keep a low profile, she doesn’t need to say much. Clark’s transformation, first in evidence at the Wells Fargo, speaks volumes.

He first considered quitting golf a decade ago, after his mother, Lise, died of breast cancer. She was the one who started him in golf, driving him to tournaments, and she also leveled him out. Without her, he would lose his composure in qualifiers at Oklahoma State – he started in Stillwater before transferring to Oregon – and stay angry.

Although he was the 2017 Pac-12 Player of the Year at Oregon, he was fragile – his word. That volatility remained long after he turned pro, and middling results followed. Finally, his team insisted he address it.

“It was either that or quit,” Clark said at Quail Hollow. “I just wasn’t having any fun.”

So began a journey in which he went all-in on the mental side, which meant not only seeing Elion but diving into books like “The Obstacle is the Way” by Ryan Holiday and “The Energy Bus” by Jon Gordon. It paid off handsomely at the Wells Fargo, and so it has this week, as well.

Ditto for an early scouting trip to LACC, which Clark made last week, flying in from his home in Scottsdale, Arizona, touring the course with a friend who is a member of the club (who caddied for him), and then flying home. They got so much work done, and it was so illuminating, that Clark compared it to two normal practice rounds.

“When I left that practice round on Tuesday,” he said, “I felt like I could have come here and not even played a practice round. I felt like it was that in depth.”

Clark has exuded a calmness at LACC, even amid the rare missteps. His late mother was on his mind as he put together his opening-round 64 Thursday, and Clark smiled as he walked the fairways and soaked in the atmosphere.

“She was kind of my rock and my always-there supporter,” he said. “When things were tough or when things were going great, she was always there to keep me grounded and either bring me up or keep the high going. Yeah, I mean, I'm getting a little choked up. She's everything, and I miss her, and everything I do out here is a lot for her.”

There is, to be sure, a lot left to do at LACC, but you get the feeling Clark has it in him to do it.