THE MODERATOR: All right, we would like to welcome Wyndham Clark into the interview room here at the Travelers Championship. Wyndham, it's pretty cool to be a U.S. Open champion, but how special is it to be a two-time U.S. Open champion and to become just the ninth player to do it in wire-to-wire fashion?
WYNDHAM CLARK: Yeah, it's awesome. Sounds really good too. Yeah, I think, I guess I just did an interview and someone said Max, when he won his first time, you know, you don't know if it's a fluke or you'll ever do it again. You win a second time and it's kind of validation to all the hard work you put in. Now being a two-time major champ is I think a little different level than winning just one.
THE MODERATOR: And it's also your second win in your last four starts. You haven't finished worse than T-11 in those four tournaments. Talk a little bit about how good you're playing golf right now and how excited you are for this stretch run coming up to end the season.
WYNDHAM CLARK: Yeah, I've been playing amazing. I finally started putting good. I had been hitting it pretty good all year, and finally making putts. That's kind of brought me back to playing good golf. All this is building great momentum for the rest of the year. Especially this week, it's one of my favorite weeks, they treat us amazing, it's where I got my first TOUR start. I've had some good success here, so I'm really looking forward to this week as well.
THE MODERATOR: What is it that Travelers does that makes this so special?
WYNDHAM CLARK: Well the golf course is super fun, I'll just start with that. If your game is on, you can shoot low. But if it's not, you're going to struggle. And then the tournament Nathan Grube and his team and Andy do an amazing job with how they treat the spouses, the caddies, us. The food is spectacular. Their concierge service is amazing. It's just kind of like a fun tournament. Yeah, it's always been one of my favorites, that's for sure.
THE MODERATOR: We'll start with questions.
Q. Keegan Bradley was in here and he was asked about your win and some of the things you had to sort of overcome as you were doing it out there. He said that as golf is expanding, we're bringing in more people than just golf fans that are now coming to golf tournaments, and that that sort of, he was sort of implying that that could be both good and bad. Would you agree that as more and more people who may not necessarily have always been golf fans are coming to big events, maybe not necessarily always like Travelers, but certainly at major championships like the U.S. Open that some of the things you had to go through may be an inevitable consequence or something that comes along with that?
WYNDHAM CLARK: I don't really see any negative in more people coming to the golf. I think of, jokingly think of Happy Gilmore when he first came out and they had all those crazy fans, when he played in that movie. But I think that's good. It brings new audiences. I think it's great for the game of golf. Golf is cool right now. That's going to bring cool people, and they're going to want to watch golf and they might react differently. I think maybe it's a little different in New York than maybe other places, but, no, I think it's all good.
Q. At what point during your tournament at the Nelson did it really click for you and how hard is it to sustain what you've done since then in every tournament that you played?
WYNDHAM CLARK: It actually clicked the week before the PGA. I thought the PGA I would have a really good chance of being in contention and winning. I missed the cut. The week at home I didn't shoot worse than like 65. And one or two of the rounds I had a chance to shoot 59.
Q. Going into the PGA?
WYNDHAM CLARK: Going into the PGA. And I was hitting it amazing. I get to the PGA and I just was driving it horrible. If I hit the fairway I actually almost made birdie. Like the two days I played, because I missed the cut, I think I only hit five or six fairways each day and I birdied four or five of those holes. But then I was just in the rough the whole time making bogeys. So I was a little bummed because I thought, man, this could be our week. I went and fixed that at CJ and then I hit a ton of fairways and then won. So that was the momentum kind of started just before the PGA. And then obviously any time you break through and win and make all those putts you just believe you're going to keep playing good golf and that's kind of what I've done.
Q. Was it mentally more than physically?
WYNDHAM CLARK: I think it's a little combination of the two. You got to keep your swing in check. Every week whoever hits -- it's the guys that hit it the best, or the guy that putts the best of the guys hitting it the best that week. You can't out-putt to win a PGA TOUR event. Maybe once. But usually it's the top-10 ball strikers and whoever putts better of those guys. So ball striking's got to be on and then the momentum putts. I always talk about momentum putts in golf. It could be on the 8th hole of the tournament and you make a huge par save or even a big bogey putt that keeps your momentum going. I hadn't been making those. So now that I am making those, I think you can keep that momentum going and know that you are going to continue to make those. So, yeah, I think it's a little bit a combination of both.
Q. Wanted to get your reaction to yesterday's news about the new structure on TOUR and specifically about the idea of promotion and relegation as the Championship Series and Challenger Series work together.
WYNDHAM CLARK: Yeah, I think it's great. I think it's going to give more opportunities for guys to play even though people think it seems less. I mean, now we have Korn Ferry Tour, the Challenger Series, and the Championship Series. And then I think it's going to be easier for fans to understand like, all right, when you're watching a PGA TOUR Championship Series you're going to see all the best players. And then I love the idea of the relegation and promotion. I just think that will add so much excitement for the fans. Then, yeah, the match play. I mean, I think that's going to be a really exciting thing for the TOUR Championship. I just have to applaud Brian Rolapp and the advisory board for all the great work they're doing for us. It seems like golf's in a great place and that our team and representatives are making the necessary changes I think that are going to lead the TOUR into an amazing place for the future. So I'm all on board, I think it's awesome. I have been dealing with a lot of other stuff I haven't really seen the feed back from other people but I'm really happy about it.
Q. In 50 years of sponsoring players Ping has never done a putter-only deal. How did that deal come about?
WYNDHAM CLARK: Well, I would say they had good timing (laughing). It's a nice hard launch for them. I was joking with the guys just recently. You know, I think -- I got to applaud them. Last time I won a U.S. Open, the Jailbird went viral and went crazy. And I think with my display at the CJ, and they were seeing how good I was putting, I think they were like, Hey, this could be an opportunity for us that could maybe result similar to the Jailbird. I think after CJ the guys on the Tour truck were, like five to seven players came in and wanted your putter just after that week. I knew guys at Whisper Rock where I play at home multiple guys already had the putter. So it was kind of already a similar thing. Then obviously putting good this week. I think that was just how it came about. I didn't know that they had never done that for a putter. I feel really fortunate that we got to do that and I love the thing and it seems like we're going to have a nice relationship going forward.
Q. To clarify, they approached you?
WYNDHAM CLARK: Yeah.
Q. And then when, go back to when you started using that head in March and then switched to the counter balance, what is, what was it exactly about that putter that drew you to it and what were you looking for with it?
WYNDHAM CLARK: So I was in the Ping truck getting some lofts and lies checked and they just had their putters there, I'm kind of wasting time. I pulled out the Ally Blue and I'm like, man, this thing looks really good. I'm sitting there and I keep putting with it in the trailer and I go, Can I get this? And they go, Yeah, sure. What grip do you want on it? So we put on a SuperStroke grip. And about a week later I put it into play in Houston. Then I used it at the Masters and I automatically had a nice like tick-up of putting. It was better. Then it was at RBC when I went to the kind of the similar setup I had in 2023 of counter balanced, longer, super heavy. And then that week, right away my stats were like top 10 and they have been really good since. So that's kind of the history behind it.
Q. To clarify, you mentioned Whisper Rock being your home course. When did you get Scottsdale or the Phoenix area to be home, because I know obviously Colorado was home before that?
WYNDHAM CLARK: I'm going on seven years.
Q. So before that, when you would have been transitioning obviously playing college and stuff like that, Colorado, the Denver area being at 5,000 feet of altitude, here in Hartford, in case you're wondering, we're at 30 feet of altitude. Did you have to make a transition when you had been practicing at home in those kind of conditions and then coming to other places, just because obviously the ball and the game reacts differently when you're up that high, but then a lot of different events and places where you would have played you're at sea level or a lot lower in altitude.
WYNDHAM CLARK: Yeah, growing up in altitude I think it's a disadvantage, to be honest, because the ball doesn't, it flies really straight, so your misses still stay on line. I remember when I was younger, when I didn't necessarily know enough about golf and my IQ maybe wasn't as good, I would go play in Florida and be like, Why is my ball curving so much when I miss it? And that was just simply because of the altitude. But the great thing it was kind of in college when I went to Oklahoma and then at Oregon, and we played everywhere. That's where I learned how to hit the golf ball and understand the wind, and I prefer now to play at sea level over altitude, to be honest.
Q. Ted Scott went out of his way to mention some things to you. How special or meaningful -- it's one thing for Scottie and a competitor, but Ted's been around and seen a lot of things as well. I would imagine that that was kind of meaningful for you.
WYNDHAM CLARK: Yeah, it was really nice of him to say the nice things that he did. He did go out of his way. Especially because they were there, they were the eyewitnesss for all the stuff, and obviously everyone's rooting for him. But they also heard and saw everything that was happening. And it was just really nice that he was like, Hey, that was really impressive, and, you know, that was difficult, but it was fun to watch and you handled it with class. So it was really nice of him.
Q. A couple years ago right after the U.S. Open I spent some time with you and did a profile focusing on mental health and I was really impressed with your forwardness and honesty about it and sharing it. I'm just wondering, since I watch you all the time since then, well and before, clearly you had a dip, Oakmont last year, could you talk a little bit about the process of getting past a low like that in a mental health situation? Like, what did you learn, and it seems like you're better than you were even before it. So share a little bit about how you brought yourself back around instead of just falling into despair.
WYNDHAM CLARK: Yeah, great question. So, first thing is having a great team. Even if you don't play sports, but having a close circle of people that, regardless of what happens in your life, they're in your corner. And I've been blessed with having a few people like that that, you know, they hit me with the hard questions and said, Yeah, this is a bad situation, this sucks, but it's not who you are, don't let this moment define you. So that was the first thing.
And then the next thing is kind of having the perspective of, you know, life and especially the mental game is kind of like climbing Everest -- Julie always talks about this -- and if you ever watch people climb Everest, there's sometimes really steep peaks and then sometimes they have to go low to go back up. And that was a really low point, but now I'm on the steady incline right now. So it's nice. So when you have that perspective, you kind of look at things, when things aren't going your way, you go, Okay, I'm just in a little valley. My time's going to come. So that was a big thing. And then getting back to the things that made me great in the first place. Making sure I'm doing kind of my daily disciplines, as I like to say, and building consistency in that. It's amazing, you work your way out of bad situations and then, boom, you win a tournament, and then you win a major. So it takes consistent work, that's for sure.
Q. I know you went a couple years without a swing coach and you prided yourself on ability to self correct. What was the moment that you decided that you needed to reach out and get help and just get another set of eyes on your game?
WYNDHAM CLARK: Yeah, I think that's part of the reason why in 2025 people were like, What happened to Wyndham, whatever. I went two years really without a swing coach. I was also not looking at video that much because sometimes I get obsessed with the video and try to play golf swing and get too perfect into the angles and dangles of the swing. So it got off -- I would say the biggest thing was my driving was just horrendous. In the fall I was at Cherry Hills in Colorado, and Pay Coyner, who is the director of instruction was there and I was just hitting. And he came over and we were just chatting and I said, Hey, what do you think? I'm hitting it like crap right now. He goes -- it's actually funny because he's like, I had a feeling you were going to ask me. And I was like, Really? And he goes, Yeah, it's not looking good right now. And so he said, I was looking at your swing for the past few days, just wondering if you were going to ask me. And he goes, in 2023 your club was like this (indicating) you had more width, and I see a couple things. So that's when we started working together. And he goes, Let's just in these next six months try to get us back to where you were in 2023, and then going forward we're going to continue slowly but surely try to improve even some of the things you had in your, you know, swing in 2023. So that's that was literally what happened. I'm glad I did. My iron game has gotten so much better, starting to drive it a lot better. It's still not exactly where I want it, but it's, you know, slowly but surely getting better.
Q. You're a guy who doesn't travel with a swing coach, you don't need to have your hand held each and every week on the PGA TOUR. How important is it for you to have ownership of your game for when you do have situations like last weekend where maybe you're not hitting your best but can still survive?
WYNDHAM CLARK: Yeah, Pat has traveled a little bit this year. I told him I wanted to minimalize it. I don't want to get back into where I was where I had someone every week and something goes on and I'm like, What do I do, and you don't have ownership. So we've done it to where he comes maybe every sixth event and it's just simply, we work on Mondays and that's it. That's when we do technique. The rest of it is on me. So he texted me today and he's like, How's the golf swing feeling? And I go, Well, I haven't hit any balls, but I do know what I need to fix from Saturday and Sunday. And that's a sign of a good coach is if his player can fix his own golf swing.
Q. Just a couple of things I was hoping you would touch on, but one is, if you could kind of share your memories of that first start here when you launched here. Then also, just regarding last week, is the public perception of you something that you're concerned about and want to try to change or is it more of just be who you are and those things will kind of work themselves out?
WYNDHAM CLARK: For the Travelers, I mean, that was almost more of a whirlwind than winning a U.S. Open because it's your first TOUR start, first time doing media, it's your first time being on a TOUR truck, and people, signing autographs. I remember when they announced my name and there was actually a crowd clapping. There was hundreds of people on the tee box. You don't really get that in college golf. It was nerve wracking. I didn't make the cut. I was nervous. And I'm like, Man, this TOUR golf, these guys are shooting so far under par, and I was over par. The rough was challenging, the pin placements were a lot closer to the edges than I was used to. So it took some adjusting to it. But it was an amazing first start because this course is so much fun and the atmosphere here is one of the best on TOUR.
Then as far as perception, yeah, I mean, I'm not going to lie, it's not great to be disliked. But I'm just going to continue to be the person I am, because I know who I am and I think people will hopefully see that I'm not that guy that -- I'm not the person that did those terrible things last year at Oakmont. Hopefully, over time, people actually believe that and become Wyndham Clark fans again.
THE MODERATOR: All right, Wyndham, thank you for your time. Congratulations once again.
WYNDHAM CLARK: Thanks, guys.
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