From 'Wynner' to U.S. Open champion, Wyndham Clark plays big for mom
LOS ANGELES – Before Wyndham Clark was a champion, he was a winner.
That’s what his mother, Lise, would call her middle child whom she started taking to the driving range when Wyndham was 3 years old, hoping it’d be an outlet for her rambunctious, older son’s endless energy. It ended up being so much more.
Lise Clark, at age 55, died after a second battle with breast cancer nearly a decade ago, which meant she couldn’t be there Sunday at Los Angeles Country Club to watch that little boy she’d drive to countless junior tournaments achieve his lifelong dream of becoming a major champion.
The shine of the U.S. Open trophy sitting in front of Wyndham Clark illuminated the tears building in his eyes as he was asked what his mother would say to him after he’d just beaten Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler and the rest of the world’s best players. Clark imagined there would’ve been plenty of hugs and tears, and that his mother would simply say, “I love you, Wynner.”
“I know she'd be very proud of me,” Clark said. “I miss her, and it's obviously great to think about her ... and winning something like this makes me think of her even more.”
And just how far he’s come.
Clark has always possessed the physical tools needed to win a U.S. Open. Athletic and powerful. Slick short game. Smooth putting stroke. But the can’t-miss prospect from Denver was also highly emotional on the golf course, prone to outbursts where he’d either verbally explode, break clubs, or walk off the course – or sometimes all three.
“The outward shell was so out of control,” said Mike McGraw, who recruited Clark to Oklahoma State. “But it was coming from inside because he was so emotionally upset all the time about golf, and about life, and about his mom's sickness, and everything was just coming down on him. … The golf course would be a safe haven normally, but it's where he blew up.”
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Clark played just two tournaments for the Cowboys his first semester before McGraw benched him for behavioral issues. When his mother’s cancer returned in January 2013 after 14 years in remission, it pushed Clark over the edge mentally. Clark quit the team three times that spring, cleaning out his locker and storming out of the team’s facility at Karsten Creek.
Each time, however, McGraw would grab Clark’s things and put them back.
“I just wouldn’t let him quit,” McGraw said.
McGraw recommended that Clark apply for a medical-hardship waiver and redshirt for the remainder of the season, and though Clark and his father, Randall, initially disagreed, it didn’t take long for McGraw to get the two of them onboard.
“At first, I really was mad,” Clark said. “I'm competitive. I didn't want to not play, and I thought it was bad if you redshirted, that you weren't good enough. But it was also the best thing for me.”
With his golf career on hold, Clark sought help for his emotional instability. He attended a weekly Bible study with teammates, and he dove into his schoolwork. Lise died on Aug. 2 of that summer, right before Clark reached match play at the U.S. Amateur at The Country Club. She’d always tell Wyndham to play big, and that next season, Clark did, earning Big 12 Player of the Year honors and leading the Cowboys, under new coach Alan Bratton, to an NCAA runner-up finish to Alabama, where McGraw had been hired as the assistant.
“I get emotional just talking about it just because he’s such a great guy, and he’s somebody you really pull for,” said McGraw, currently the head coach at Baylor. “I look back, and God placed his path in a direct collision course with mine for a reason. And that’s why you coach, not because you think you want to win titles but because you get the opportunity to have an impact at a critical juncture of a kid's life. … I don’t regret one thing I did. I feel like every decision was made so that Wyndham, long term, would be better off.”
Added Clark: “I owe Mike a lot for that.”
But Clark’s blowups, while less frequent, didn’t go away. He experienced two wretched seasons at Oklahoma State before deciding to transfer to Oregon for his senior year. And as a pro, Clark needed only a year to get on the PGA Tour, and though he has yet to lose his card, for the first four seasons he couldn’t break through into the winner’s circle.
“I've had many times where I've gone home and was yelling in my car and punching things,” Clark recalled, “and just so mad that I'm like, ‘Why can't I do what my peers are doing, [peers] that I know I can play with and against and beat?’”
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McGraw’s initial grace helped make Clark receptive to help. During Clark’s senior season, Ducks head coach Casey Martin re-instilled the confidence that Clark had lost; Clark nearly was the national player of the year while leading the Ducks to another NCAA final. And last November, Clark’s caddie John Ellis, his assistant at Oregon, and agent Rob Mougey urged Clark see a mental coach to unlock his full potential. Just months after first visiting sports psychologist Julie Elion, who has also worked with Phil Mickelson and Max Homa among others, he notched a trio of top-6 finishes this spring before capturing his first PGA Tour title, at the Wells Fargo Championship in May.
Under Elion’s guidance, Clark added meditating to his routine, which also includes lots of prayer, and she’s gotten Clark into the habit of setting mini goals. For each round at this U.S. Open, those goals were: 1. Enjoy himself, 2. Stay cocky, and 3. Remind himself of the first two.
On Sunday, Clark would find the task of accomplishing those objectives harder than ever. Not only was he in unfamiliar territory, tied for the 54-hole lead and in the final pairing of a major, but he’d have almost no one in the L.A. crowd considering Clark as their first choice to lift the trophy at day's end. McIlroy and Scheffler, two superstars, teed off just in front of Clark, and completing the other half of Clark’s twosome was the ultra-popular Rickie Fowler, an Oklahoma State alum also chasing his first major title.
“No one was really giving us a chance,” Ellis said. “I watched all the stuff on TV, and it was all about Rory and everybody else.”
Knowing Clark would be a heavy underdog, Elion challenged her client: Every time Clark heard someone chanting Fowler’s name, she wanted him to show them who he was.
“I did that,” Clark said. “It was like 100-plus times today. … Now, maybe they'll be chanting my name in the future.”
Surely. The calmness and confidence that has been injected into Clark, little by little, over the years – and by different people – showed itself in spades about midway through Clark’s final round. The 29-year-old Clark had taken a comfortable lead thanks to three birdies on his first six holes, the third coming after a deft chip from a tricky lie in the fescue at the short, par-4 sixth. But Clark yanked his second shot at the par-5 eighth and drew a near-impossible lie in the barranca. Trying for the hero shot, Clark whiffed on his first attempt.
“Going under that ball obviously was the worst-case scenario,” Clark said, “and then I hit the next one. I didn't even know where it went.”
The ball raced through the green and into the rough, though Clark, unbothered, told Ellis, “We’re fine,” and proceeded to cozy a chip up to the hole and get out with bogey to keep his advantage. Several holes later, with McIlroy bogeying in front of him at the par-5 14th, Clark then hit his shot of the tournament, a towering, cutting 3-wood from 282 yards that bounced onto the green and rolled to 20 feet, setting up a two-putt birdie to push Clark three clear of McIlroy.
Talk about playing big.
“Probably one of the best shots in U.S. Open history,” Ellis said.
When Lise Clark, a former Miss New Mexico, was in her 20s, she moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in acting and dance. She married Wyndham’s dad just a few miles down Sunset Boulevard at Riviera Country Club, another George C. Thomas design. Decades later, it was Wyndham chasing – and realizing – his dreams in La-La-Land.
A couple bogeys, at Nos. 15 and 16, didn’t matter, and after Clark lagged a 60-footer to a foot, he reached into his pocket and marked his ball with a special coin that he had been gifted earlier in the day.
Engraved on one side: Prayer hands with his mom’s famous words, “Play big,” along with the date she died.
On the other: John 16:13.
I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.
Once Clark tapped in his winning putt for even-par 70 to finish in double digits at 10 under, he let his emotions, controlled all week despite the nerves, flow out in celebration, clutching both fists and pumping them several times. He hugged Ellis, and then Fowler, also a mentor of his.
“Your mom was with you,” Fowler told Clark on the green, cameras flashing all around. “She'd be very proud.”
Clark had overcome so much to conquer this U.S. Open.
And now, “Wynner” had become a champion.
