Wyndham Clark’s US Open fan abuse was so bad, his psychiatrist went into hiding
SOUTHAMPTON, NY – It started on the first hole and didn’t stop until the last putt dropped on 18: jeers, barbs, pleas for balls to hit the greens and bunkers. Sunday at the US Open was Wyndham Clark against the world – or at least against the Hamptons.
“Man, they really didn’t want me to win,” Clark said afterward.
But he won: with a clutch lag putt from 52 feet on the 72nd hole that secured a fourth-round three-over 73, a four-under par and a one-shot victory over the hard-charging Sam Burns.
Not everyone was against Clark. Among his supporters was Julie Elion, who since 2022 has been Clark’s sports psychologist – a relationship, at first, that did not come easily. “I was hesitant to do it,” Clark said after winning the 2023 US Open at LA Country Club. “I am so happy that you were brought into my life.” Clark praised Elion’s “great calmness and presence about him that made me feel at peace and at ease.”
When Elion first met Clark, he met a player who, he said, was full of negativity and doubt. “We had a little heart,” Elion said of Season 2 of Netflix’s “Full Swing.” “I was like, ‘Buddy, you’re going to be out of the PGA Tour or you’re going to be a star. You have to make a change because you can’t keep doing this to yourself.’
This it was a way of thinking and living that was deeply contradictory and even harmful. In “Full Swing,” Clark says, “I had trained my mind for years to be self-deprecating and negative, to lock myself in rooms and not go out too much or drink too much or be mean to people. I didn’t want to play golf.” But with Elion’s advice, Clark worked for himself, and changes were made. He began to feel better about himself and his abilities. In May 2023, he won his first PGA Tour title, the Wells Fargo at Quail Hollow. The following month, he became the LACC grand champion.
This week in Shinnecock, Clark supported that US Open win – which greatly angered the galleries of New York, who seemed to be turned off by the “bad” persona of Clark, raised by his loose behavior at the 2025 US Open, where after missing the cut he took out his anger in a few cold rooms of Oakmont’s Museum.
On Sunday, as Clark plans his approach to testing William Flynn’s Shinnecock design, he will smear him like paint spilled on a table. The situation got so bad that at least a few fans were shown the door.
Elion heard. How he couldn’t do you have On the 8th hole, he said he was “so upset” by the crowd’s comments that he needed to withdraw from the course. “It came to me,” he said. “I had to go into the house and talk to someone.”
Not that the cold reception came as a surprise.
“We planned,” said Elion. “We knew.”
Elion compared the crowd’s vitriol to what Clark experienced at the 2023 US Open, when all of California (and many parts beyond) were pulling for Rickie Fowler to end up with the big money. “When everyone was yelling, ‘Rickie!'” Elion said, “he yelled, ‘Wyndham!’ inside.” On Sunday, Elion said, Clark took a similar approach, staying true to his goals and vowing not to let fans get to him.
However, on a recent Saturday night, Elion wasn’t sure if Clark was in a good mood. After his third round that included two of the last four holes, Clark texted Elion a series of angry face emojis along with a note about how many shots he felt he had left on the fairway.
“I was like, ‘Oh, my God, here we go again,'” Elion said.
But on Sunday, Clark, full of evil, found peace. “Whenever someone said something negative to me, I replaced it with something positive,” he said. Clark’s singer, David Pelekoudas (aka “Big Wave Dave”), was also critical. “I used to joke about it with Dave when we heard someone like me, I’d say, ‘Oh, there’s someone who likes me,'” Clark said. “So we can make jokes and make it lighthearted.”
Cold-blooded intimacy didn’t hurt Clark’s cause either. He took the field back, but he didn’t go back – which points to what might be his most powerful mental tool.
“That’s what makes him great,” said Elion. “He’s very competitive.”
