ED HODGE: We'll make a start. Delighted to see for the final preview press conference of today joined by Wyndham Clark, the two-time U.S. Open champion. Wyndham, welcome to the 154th Open at Royal Birkdale. Given your success at Shinnecock, how is confidence coming in here? I take it it's in good shape.
WYNDHAM CLARK: Yeah, it's definitely sky high right now. I was happy that I could play last week, kind of get over here, get acclimated, get used to some links golf, the speed of the greens, the wind, et cetera.
Yeah, I'm feeling good coming in.
ED HODGE: Obviously a great finish last year at Royal Portrush, tied fourth. Something to build on again this week.
WYNDHAM CLARK: It was really the first time I've played well in this championship. You know, outside a tough first round, I really would have had a chance to win.
Yeah, I'm excited for this new challenge. The biggest thing for me is probably a nice start. As I said last year, shot 5-over and then shot, what, like 20-under in the last three rounds for a nice finish. If we could just start off good, I think I'll have a good chance.
ED HODGE: What are your early impressions since you got here this week?
WYNDHAM CLARK: I have not played the course yet. It looks beautiful. I'm sure everyone's talking about it; it's very firm, so it's going to be a fun challenge.
I haven't played a super firm Open Championship, so I'm looking forward to that.
Q. A couple of things. The first one is we had remember J.J. last year and Xander, and I don't know if this is a West Coast thing, they're talking about they don't know where the trophies are. They don't have a room for the trophies. They don't keep track of the trophies. I don't know what you do with your trophies. Do you have a trophy room?
WYNDHAM CLARK: So currently I live in a condo, and they're all basically on my dining table. So any fun thing I have -- I am in the process of building a home, and there's going to be an office where there'll be some trophies.
Q. And that would be your cellar too, I guess, no, with the wine?
WYNDHAM CLARK: I'll have a different wine cellar.
Q. Okay. They were talking about the firmness this week. What do you do to make it a matter of skill instead of luck? Because with these conditions, ball rolling that much, anything can happen.
WYNDHAM CLARK: For sure. I think you're really going to need a good caddie to tell you how far the ball is rolling out. Then yeah, you're going to have to hit shots and really be strategic.
I mean, you might hit a 4-iron that goes over 300 yards, and then you've got to look at a bunker and go, it's 320. How do we stay short of that because we can't cover it.
But that makes it fun. I like courses similar to Shinnecock where maybe there's a lot of strategy and you have to be on certain sides of the fairway to hit into the green, miss in certain areas. I personally enjoy majors like this.
Q. First, I'd just like to ask, just seeing you on the driving range there with what looked like a coat hanger as a training aid. Just wondered what that was about.
WYNDHAM CLARK: Mondays are my technical days. You won't see me doing a bunch of that stuff the rest of the week. My swing's gotten a little off. I kind of hit it kind of crappy, especially on Sunday -- or just yesterday. Yeah, the coat hanger is for wrist angle, trying to get a little more inflection in my left wrist so I can square the face more. That's just what it is.
Q. There was a lot of talk about the crowd at Shinnecock last month. When you come over here, I am just wondering what the reception has been like when you've come over here and played the British Open and how you've found the British crowds?
WYNDHAM CLARK: Oh, they're the best. I think any golfer will tell you they love playing over here. * the fans really respect the game, they respect the players, and they really understand golf. If you hit it into a tough spot and make the correct play or the smart play, the prudent play, they clap; they understand sometimes 20 feet is a great shot. So, yeah, I really enjoy the fans over here.
Q. Outside of the 126th Open Championship of the United States, which is the most important tournament that you played this year?
WYNDHAM CLARK: Most important? Good question. I would have to say probably the PGA. I missed the cut, but I had a ton of belief in my game. The week prior I was shooting some really good scores at home, and I really thought I was going to have a great chance to win at the PGA. I drove it terribly, but everything else, my game felt good.
I then took that, I had a weekend off. I went and practiced in Dallas, and then I went on to win the CJ CUP. So I felt like that was a huge turning point in the year.
Q. Have you ever missed a cut and felt good? Because it sounds like you felt good.
WYNDHAM CLARK: Rarely does that happen, but I felt great. That course, if you play from the fairways, you're going to have some success, and I didn't. I knew, if I just figure out the driver, I'm going to play great. Yeah, that was maybe one of the first times I missed a cut and felt good.
Q. We're all looking for tips. So who came up with the idea of the clothes hanger?
WYNDHAM CLARK: Me actually. It's been -- it's like an old, old training aid. People have been doing it forever.
Q. Really?
WYNDHAM CLARK: Yeah, at least I didn't come up with it, but for myself, I was like, okay, I know that helps wrist angles. Let me retract that. I didn't come up with it, but I decided to do it. My swing coach and I have been working on it. I get my wrist cupped and I've been trying to get it flatter. I feel like that's the best way to do that.
Q. How many shots do you hit using a clothes hanger?
WYNDHAM CLARK: I mean, typically it'll just be 15 to 20 just to get the feeling.
Q. Just back to the U.S. Open, I think it's fair to say in the final round you had to cope with a lot of crowd trouble, heckling and things like that. I just wondered, in your opinion and maybe in general, how much of the crowd behaviour do you think is down to sports betting and gambling?
WYNDHAM CLARK: Yeah, I think it's definitely one of the factors. The amount of times we hear guys in tournaments saying, oh, Wyndham, I have you 30-to-1 to win this week or 100-to-1, I'm betting on you. That happens all the time. So I do think in some instances that is definitely one of the culprits.
Q. One more thing, you've been very open about your mental process or trying to improve as a person and a golfer, and I was wondering where you feel you are in that process right now, and what are the indicators, through the people close to you or people around you, that you are on the right track?
WYNDHAM CLARK: I like your questions. You know, it's -- things are really good. I think people don't talk enough about what's going on off the course and equate that to what's going on on the course.
I think it's very difficult to have off-course issues and play really good golf. You may be able to fake it a couple weeks here and there, but for a season it's difficult.
I think last year I had a lot of off-course issues that were bleeding into the golf and led to some poor golfing decisions.
Right now I'm very pleased with my life off the course. It's very simple. I have an amazing girlfriend. I have an amazing family. Everything is set up awesome off the course, so then it's bleeding into playing really free golf on the golf course.
Q. Wyndham, going through what you went through at Shinnecock on Sunday, what did you learn about the thickness of your skin?
WYNDHAM CLARK: I've always -- I've known I've always had that for sure. It's funny, when everything's great you don't think anyone is going to say anything bad towards you, and then Oakmont happened and I kind of became a, quote, unquote, villain within the game of golf. I've had a lot of practice dealing with that the whole year leading up to Shinnecock.
Then in Canada, wore the Jack Hughes jersey and they really gave it to me. So that was pretty good prep. So I'd almost say I've become pretty calloused to it. I played other sports, and I always loved playing in an away gym. I love when you silence a gym.
That's kind of what it felt like at Shinnecock. They were giving me everything they got, and I felt like I overcame all of the challenges.
Q. I genuinely don't know the answer to this, and I don't think it's a standard tradition, but there's been a couple of Open champions -- sorry, U.S. Open champion that's have been given honorary memberships. Did you get that from LACC or any word from Shinnecock?
WYNDHAM CLARK: I did from LACC.
Q. Honorary membership?
WYNDHAM CLARK: Honorary membership, which is amazing. I don't know what Shinnecock will do. It was really nice that LACC did that. By no means does Shinnecock have to do that, but I'd be very honoured if they did.
Q. Have you used your honorary membership?
WYNDHAM CLARK: I've gone one time to LACC. So if Shinnecock is thinking of giving me one, I'm not going to come that often. So don't worry.
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