Winning a major championship in golf isn’t just a test of physical skill. It’s also largely a quest for mental strength. ‘Am I good enough?’ is a thought that often creeps into the minds of even the world’s best players.
For Wyndham Clark, breaking through to win the U.S. Open three years ago required exceptional play but also tapping into a winning mindset, something discovered once he found an ability to dig deep, with the help of author and mental health coach Julie Elion.
More: Five things to know about 2023 U.S. Open contender Wyndham Clark
The following is an excerpt from Elion’s book, which is available here.
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By the time Wyndham Clark stood in the 18th fairway at Los Angeles Country Club, the light over the City of Angels was low, and I had worked my way around to the green to try to best get a glimpse of my client trying to close out the 2023 U.S. Open.
Our path to this point was both methodical and remarkably fast. Wyndham Clark and I first met only six months earlier, in December 2022. By that time, I had spent more than a quarter century working on the PGA Tour and with golfers from around the world on their mental approach. Wyndham was initially skeptical that working with a coach to help him control his thoughts would help him actually win tournaments. “You guys all say the same things,” he told me when we first met. “Nothing works.” He was saying the same things to his team — his caddie, his agent — even though those closest to him believed what I had to offer could help him unlock his potential, which was enormous.
That’s not an atypical reaction, and it could be the same for people picking up this book: How could talking with someone — or reading about how to control our thoughts and emotions — produce better golf shots, lower scores, and better results? Is it psychobabble?
Even with all my experience on tour — and all the success my clients have had, more than 25 majors and 120 PGA Tour victories — I run into those doubts all the time.
Wyndham’s reluctance eventually waned. In February 2023, we met at a Starbucks near his home in Scottsdale, Arizona. Shortly thereafter, we started meeting by Zoom every week. Over the ensuing weeks, Wyndham started to feel better about himself, and his golf improved. This wasn’t a straight line, and you’ll discover in the coming pages that the journey to better golf — just like the road to a better life — is almost never linear.
He beat a terrific field to win the Wells Fargo Championship, his first PGA Tour win! My reaction that day (and his): This stuff works.
Our highest highs can be followed by some pretty-low lows. Any golf fan knows that Wyndham’s 2025 season was rocky, marred by inconsistent play on the course and some unflattering incidents off it. At the PGA Championship, he hurled his driver in anger following an errant tee shot, snapping off the head and nearly hitting a volunteer. At the U.S. Open, he took his frustrations out on a locker in the Oakmont Country Club clubhouse. Mastering our mental game in golf or reaching a state of growth and self-improvement in life isn’t always a permanent condition. It takes more work over more years, and there are frequently hills and valleys.
But back in 2023, with the U.S. Open just more than a month away, Wyndham and I began talking more profoundly and thoroughly about everything that makes him who he is. We began digging deep.
My nickname on the PGA Tour used to be “Stealth,” because I worked quietly around the edges of tournaments with a wide array of clients, some of whom were comfortable being associated with me in public, many of whom preferred our relationship to be private. Either is fine. Discretion — particularly 25 years ago, when fewer people publicly addressed their mental health — is part of the job.
A newer nickname, though, cuts closer to what I do. In recent years, one of the physical therapists who works with players and is part of the tour’s traveling circus began referring to me as “Backhoe.” The reason: I dig deep. Every one of us has a past that’s worth mining. When I begin talking with a client, we work to excavate all the material that’s under the surface, history that can prevent anyone from becoming their best as a golfer or being their best selves. We might not know what we’ll find. It might not be pretty. It could be scary. But people don’t come to me or stay with me unless they know — consciously or not — they want to dig deep.
To begin this process of self-examination — of digging deep — I always start by asking clients to send me two lists. The first: 10 things you’re great at mentally, both on and off the golf course. The second list: 10 things you need to improve. The framing is important. It’s positive. These aren’t 10 things at which you’re bad. They’re 10 elements that need work. This process can spark a curiosity about what you do well and what you need to work on, and that can lead to clarity about what needs to get better and how to get there.
“Mastering your mental health game” from Julie Elion.
In the final round, Wyndham was paired with Rickie Fowler, a longtime fan favorite, in the last group of the day. Like Wyndham, Rickie was looking for his first major championship. Unlike Wyndham, Rickie had been in the spotlight for years. He had won The Players Championship, the PGA Tour’s flagship tournament. In 2014, he finished in the top five of all four majors. He had 12 top-10 finishes in majors. Wyndham had only played in six majors, and never finished higher than 75th. By no fault of Wyndham’s, the crowd was going to be on Rickie’s side.
So one of Wyndham’s goals on that Sunday: Whenever he heard “Go, Rickie!” or “Come on, Rickie!,” he simply deflected it and said to himself, “I got this,” and remembered his own goals. It was a way for him to take the crowd’s energy for his opponent and channel it into his own game. It was a way for him to stay focused not on what Rickie was doing, but on what he needed to do.
“It was great walking by, hearing a lot of people chant for Rickie’s name because it fueled the fire underneath me that I could do it,” Wyndham said after the round. “My mental coach, Julie, told me … ‘Every time you hear someone chant, “Rickie,” think of your goals and getcocky and go show them who you are.’ I did that. It was like a hundred-plus times today, I reminded myself of my goals.”
When Wyndham finally nestled that long putt near the hole and had just a couple of feet left to win a major championship, we knew. I felt so much joy for Wyndham and thought about our quick journey, from a phone call in December to a meeting in February to a breakthrough first victory on the PGA Tour — to this.
A little while later, when I walked into the post-tournament party, the crowd started chanting, “MVP! MVP!” The group tried to get me to drink champagne from the massive U.S. Open trophy. I couldn’t lift it, and it spilled all over me. What an amazing moment in my career.
We can all do some version of what Wyndham Clark did in that final round of the U.S. Open. Sustaining that state of being is another challenge. But at any point in our lives, we can all set goals, put them into action, and positively affect how we play and how we live. I have watched this work with dozens of players — stars who have won the most prestigious tournaments in golf, lesser-known characters who simply wanted to improve, college golfers looking to find their way, and everyone in between. Get out the backhoe, and let’s dig. Deep.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Book excerpt: Mastering your mental game by Julie Elion