MEET WYNDHAM CLARK | The Scoop

2023 U.S. Open champion joined Claire Rogers on the Scoop to discuss winning a PlayStation on the course as a kid, high school basketball, mental health and how his life changed after winning the U.S. Open. Get to know the three-time PGA Tour winner over a scoop of mint chocolate chip ice cream.
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most of us will never win a professional golf tournament let alone a major what is it like to win a US Open well it definitely changes your life um my life has changed quite a bit since [Music] then Windam Clark welcome to the scoop yeah thanks for having me on we cheersing all right what we what’ we go with your request uh I’m a mint and chocolate chip guy pretty original and classic but but I actually love all ice cream this is kind of my go-to I was going to say I think I saw a photo of you after Pebble Beach and you had like a big Sunday or something at dinner that is not normal so I’m pretty conscious of my diet but we were at the tap room and I had some friends there and we’re all hanging out and one of my friends I guess was like hey bring out something cool and special and it was the biggest Sunday I’ve ever seen and I’m like I don’t want to have that and then they all pressed me and doing it and then we got a picture and it went all over the media and everyone’s like that’s how Windom celebrates I’m like not normal but it that’s how I would celebrate so I like it um how did you become a golfer uh it started when I was three my mom um as the story goes I don’t really recall a lot of it but um my mom said that my dad was out of town um my brother was just born my sister was at something so it was just me and I guess I was being a little P around the house so much energy wanted to do stuff and then dealing with a newborn her mom’s like we got to get him out of the house and so she started driving to try to take me somewhere to do something and then she looked she was at the stop site and saw or stop sign and saw um a Mountain View range which was this tiny little public uh hitting just a driving range in put put course and she took me there asked the pro she knew nothing about Golf and she said my son wants to hit some golf balls and got me a bucket of balls had no clubs they got me some I hit one bucket and said Mom can I hit another one and it turned into about like an hour and a half 2 hours where I just sat there and so it was a great kind of repri from my mom and then for me that’s kind of when I fell in love with the game I heard I think a funny story about your first hole in one with a PlayStation what happened there so first whole one when I was six this I do remember the entire day I was six we were um during fourth of July it was July 3rd and we went and played played um Keystone Ranch golf course and it was number 12 and the backstory leading up into that I wanted PlayStation and my dad said no you can’t we’re not getting you PlayStation so I kept bagging and begging and my dad said to give me kind of something to have hope for it he goes all right if you make an eagle I’m six years old my best score ever was probably a par at this at this point so if you make an eagle on this trip we’ll get you a PlayStation so we get to the 12th hole it’s 125 yards I pull out driver and I whack the driver landshore runs and then goes in the hole and I was like Dad where’d the ball go and he goes it went in the hole and he’s all excited and I’m all excited and then I’m like realize what that means then I get really excited because that means I get a PlayStation and then I kept saying dad I now I get a PlayStation and then that’s when my dad went oh crap you know so that was you know at that age I was more excited about the PlayStation than I was the whole in one and my dad was so excited about the whole one so that’s the story can you tell me about the first golf tournament you ever won um wow yeah I was um think I was eight or nine years old it was a par three tournament so you only play nine holes on a part three course and it was at Indian Creek I think is what it was called something like that but it was a par three course and um I remember yeah I remember I shot 27 and I the next score was 28 and then 30 and I think I beat Sam Rock which was a good play Young player and I was so excited afterwards we went God ice cream and um yeah that was my first first win and that’s when I really fell in love with tournament golf and competing you know in golf and all the nerves and excitement that brings you have a very good golf memory like you remember every yeah it it’s kind of I think all golfers just have that you can remember you could say hey this shot at this tournament explain it i’ be like oh I probably had 155 yeah I it just kind of comes with golf I think I’ve asked other players though like your first tournament like Brooks could not remember and that doesn’t shock me some some people know exactly some people like what was the I think Max couldn’t Max remembered the first time he shot under par but not the first tournament he ever won so um you went to high school with Christian McCaffrey I don’t know if your high school is big small but were you guys Pals do you have any memories with him during yeah so I was close with his brother Max uh Max and I graduated together we’re still close buddies Christian kind of hung out with our crew just because he was close with his brother and then he played obviously up in everything Christian was so talented and so he was always hanging around us so yeah we were we were buddies I was obviously around him more because I was with his brother um but as we’ve gotten older we’ve I think both really respected what each other does um in our craft and you know I’m a huge huge fan of his and I think he’s you know fan of fan of mine and he’s gotten into golf which is funny cuz he really wasn’t into golf in high school and now he likes it and so he’s kind of asking me questions and wants to get more involved and hopefully one day we’ll play you know the AT&T PR or some prom together and enjoy that but did you play high school basketball I did what’s your game like um yeah it was it was pretty good I I love loved basketball for the longest time I thought I was going to be you know that was going to be my career um and but yeah it was pretty good I have really good handles I can shoot I always everyone always said I had good uh like Court vision and IQ on the on the basketball court I just didn’t grow until later after I quit basketball so I was always a little undersized um which obviously hurts when you’re playing high school basketball against 68 69 kids and I was you know 5 seven or whatever it was so but I loved basketball I I trained really hard in it and I I still think I’m pretty decent I can kind of ball do you still ever play or like shoot no you know I I get a little worried about injury so I mean I would love to go play pickup basketball because it’s one of my favorite things to do but it just I watch when people do play pickup they get a maybe a little too into it and you always hear of guys tearing ACLS or breaking ankles and um I don’t want to yeah not worth it so I I do miss it though yeah Dylan over there plays in a basketball league and got a black guy last week but two weeks ago maybe yeah it was like black until yesterday it’s probably a good decision all right your caddy John he was the assisant coach at your school how did he end up on your bag so we he was assistant coach at Oregon the one year I was there and John and I kind of instantly I think hit H it off and connected we had a some mutual friends um actually guys that live here in Arizona that I hang out with and when he come to town we all hang out together so we had those mutual friends before we even met and so when we did meet we kind of connect on that level and then I think he connected with me as far as he knew I was going to be turning pro and so he kind of took me under his wing and was trying to help me um with what all that is and what what it takes to be a pro golfer and so fast forward done with uh my career in college I go on to the web.com he came caddy for me for two events and we finished 13th and 2nd and that essentially locked up my pj tour card I asked if he’d CAD the rest of the year and he’s like no you know unfortunately with my family it’s too much time and I don’t know if I can justify making that work so I said you know I said okay and finish out the rest of the year and then as I got my tour card I was like well would you come out and cat for me PJ tour and he goes you know what I think I would love to do that and so that’s kind of how it came about why do you think you work well together I think it’s a great combination of a friendship and kind of a mentor combined and so you know we’re 100% friends he’s it’s 100% business but then there’s also that kind of Mentor you know he is older than me he was my coach to where he can kind of in those key moments both in life in on the golf course you can kind of put on that Mentor coaching hat and say hey snap out of it or give me words of encouragement that I really listen to and um so I think that’s that’s huge and then you know then we have so much fun together too it’s not just a business relationship we are always messing around we uh joke a lot we play a lot of cards like gin together um we do vacations with our families together and so we’ve become really close you attended the waste management as a fan right yeah I like a couple years ago maybe mhm what was that experience like so I attended it actually as a player player fan so I played in the event missed the cut M and living here you know it’s obviously the Super Bowl every year for us Super Bowl golf at least here um it’s a big event all my friends go and so I had you know majority of my friends were at the tournament and they were all like come out come hang out with us let’s have some fun and I don’t think I’ve attended a golf event since College you know for fun and so I was a little reluctant but you know that event so different and we went to 16 and I was with all my buddies we’re having fun and and so it was really it was actually I really enjoyed it and I could kind of get away from it I could kind of watch and see it and then um but also just have fun with my friends and and enjoy golf from a different perspective um so it’s kind of cool seeing both sides of it I definitely prefer to be inside the ropes hitting golf shots that I do on the outside but you know that event is really fun to spectate most of us will never win a professional golf tournament let alone a major what is it like to win a US Open well it definitely changes your life um my life has changed quite a bit since then you know I won a PJ Tour event and it um you know that changes your life as a pro golfer forever you’re kind of in this really cool fraternity of being a PJ tour winner and you know there’s a lot of things that come with that and it was amazing but when you win a major it’s like a different fraternity of now you’re kind of in that you know potential to try to be in the Hall of Fame and and hopefully as your career progresses maybe one of the Legends of Golf and everything that comes with that is so much exposure and now people really watch what I do and and then to win your country you know major championship is was really neat too being an American American kid it’s it’s kind of the Pinnacle you want to win that and so it was really neat I mean it’s obviously my greatest accomplishment in golf thus far and you know I I’ll always hold that those four days and that whole week really close to my heart not a golf question can you describe your perfect day off mhm it’s pretty simple it would be fishing all day um fishing somewhere beautiful on a river in the mountains that leads to a great meal sitting by the fire with ice cream probably sipping a little whiskey or tequila and listen to music I mean that would be like the perfect most Zen relaxing day for me so I just watched your Netflix episode which I loved and probably my favorite character was Julie your sport psychologist not me uh second favorite sorry okay um what would what’s like a big takeaway you have that you think any athlete or could take away from something you’ve learned from her um I’d say for anyone is just like your mind is a muscle and if you don’t train it it’s never going to grow and so so many people find themselves in ruts and they complain about things or maybe they’re always being the victim of stuff and I was one of those so I’m I’m saying this from experience that I always was negative and living in that negative world and she told me she’s like nothing’s going to change unless you train it and work it your brain’s a muscle so you have to work it out and so that’s where we started working on working on that and there’s so many things that involve in that but as I did that I started feeling better both on and off the golf course my relationships got better um I was able to get away from golf where I wasn’t before it carried into my social life and my personal life off the golf course which is not healthy and so it’s it’s amazing what it’s done because it’s now allowed me to play golf at the highest level but then also live life at the highest level so I’m a huge proponent of working on your mental game what would you say to somebody probably men who a lot of men like won’t don’t want to work with a therapist or a sports therapist who’s maybe thinking about taking that step and do and working with somebody yeah I mean I I get it it’s everyone thinks working with a therapist means something’s wrong with you um and I don’t think I don’t think you should look at it that way I think it’s you should look at it as a ways if you had a trainer in the gym or a swing coach in golf or whatever it is this is someone to help grow your your mind and don’t look it as a crutch or you’re weak look at as you getting stronger in that area so kind of maybe turn that negative connotation towards it to something positive and you know I I was one of those people I thought it was made me look weak but it’s amazing how much It’s Made Me Stronger and um so I mean that would be my advice is just you even if you keep it quiet maybe don’t tell people but go do it it’s amazing what you’ll you’ll feel and how much will come out from that and it just makes your life so much so much better and and a more joy filled life so this is my final one it’s kind of a three-part thing um I’ve been asking people in their Prof professional golf career maybe a low a high and something that they’ve learned okay um so low man I’ve had I’ve had a lot of lows um one of the lows I had I professional career okay whatever though it could be M career in college one of the lowest ones I had I I walked off the golf course I was at Oklahoma State and we were in qualifying it was 13th hole and I hit a bad shot and for some reason I just snapped I and then literally snapped um a club and was embarrassed and mad and everything and I stormed off walked off the golf course got in um in my car and just started driving drove really fast and just drove for a long time and just didn’t even want to go back and obviously there’s a lot of repercussions that go with that and some of that was me ultimately leaving Oklahoma State and having to go somewhere else but it was um it was definitely a low point I didn’t know if I’d ever play golf again was embarrassed to face the teammates on my team was at a low point A lot of it was due to my mom’s passing so that was definitely a low Point um you know high points obviously last year was pretty amazing um you know I I think I think winning Quil Hollow was probably the high point even though people think the major was that was a that was awesome but breaking through and having my first PJ tour win and to do it where it was just my uh cadd John and I we were the only two there we celebrated together we got to enjoy that moment cuz he’s endured the really tough moments that we’ve had and all the bad and then to win and kind of get to enjoy that together was really special and then what I’ve learned um what I’ve learned learned is uh probably one of the biggest things is probably like accepting the journey I really thought coming out um of college I would win right away and have a lot of success and it bothered me that I didn’t and like I think I pressed too much to try to control all of that and now I’ve kind of Taken and let go of the rains a little bit and just allowed things to happen and and whatever does happened I accept it and when I kind of let go of that it’s amazing how now my career has started to take off and so just learning to accept the journey and whatever comes with that and just Embrace and enjoy it and and it’s been way more fun you know even though I’ve had success in this last year and a half um it’s been more fun even I know winning is fun but like even the times I haven’t played good I’ve had more fun and enjoyed it and looked at it more as a a growth all the time always learning versus so much result based so awesome thank you for sharing those I like those answers all right that’s all I’ve got thank you so much it’s good ice cream good it is good right 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