At home with Wyndham Clark | Swing By | PGA TOUR Originals

In the fourth episode of the series from PGA TOUR Originals, “Swing By with Jason Kennedy,” the veteran entertainment news reporter finds himself at the CIVANA Wellness Resort and Spa near Scottsdale, Arizona, and the home of Wyndham Clark. Through a guided mediation practice by Clark and an in-depth conversation, we hear from the 2023 U.S. Open winner about the journey to mental wellness that he has taken with Julia Kemmling and how that has impacted his play on the course. Clark also reflects on his career ups and downs, how his late mother continues to inspire him and discusses new business ventures, one of which is with actor Mark Wahlberg.

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all right bro following your lead here into my zen garden this is your zen garden okay I’m in jeans yeah not not very uh that normal no but it doesn’t matter meditating it doesn’t matter do I keep my shoes on you know sometimes I take them off you can keep them since we’re outside you keep them I mean usually I’m Barefoot when I do all this stuff but got it out I’ve been interviewing celebrities for 20 years and honestly the whole stiff interview thing is not really my style so I wanted to talk to PGA core players to make them feel comfortable slate it slate it baby 2023 was a year for Windam Clark his first PGA Tour win followed by his first major put his name in the conversation but this dude has been through a lot from dealing with the grief of losing his mother in college to almost quitting the game altogether we thought it was only fitting to come to the Savana Wellness Resort and Spa outside of his home here in Scottsdale Arizona to talk about how he overcame some of his toughest mental challenges I must say I think I probably spent four to five months trying to get you on this show and I got Oprah before you because life must be super wild what is life like for wendam Clark it’s been pretty hectic I mean between you know gaining a bunch of new sponsorships representing those Brands and then obviously having friends like yourself other buddies of mine that have podcasts or whatever going on their show and then you know little newspapers and Colorado magazines and talk to the hometown boy yeah you do all that all that stuff and then you’re like oh my gosh I just spent two full days of just pure media and then you go okay well now I actually want to spend time with my girlfriend or my buddies and um and then obviously practice and so then that one week that I have off ends up being two three days of doing bunch of sponsor stuff in media and then the other days of trying to be a normal person and then also get ready for the next event so it’s it’s been pretty pretty nuts do you feel comfortable in the spotlight yeah I I I enjoy I think it comes naturally I think because I’ve um seen other friends and peers of mine have success and be in the spotlight and so I was able to see good models of what it’s like and how it works and so I felt like as I’ve gotten into the spotlight I almost just felt comfortable doing it yeah I I pick up that you handle it with Grace and ease which is a very refreshing feeling because we of course can see it go both [Music] ways you’ve overcome so much mentally and I admire that greatly and I feel like that can help so many people you’ve been really outspoken about that and I know that meditation has been one of those things that has gotten you there it’s kind of really changed my life I probably pretty consistent almost every day definitely during tournament weeks it’s every day and then the fun thing is I do guided meditation so someone’s kind of walking me through it but as I’ve gotten better at meditation I’ve started to do like do it myself when you sit there for 10 minutes on your own in dead silence it’s really hard to control your thoughts and you have to bring yourself back to your breath back to like the present and so it’s yeah it’s been really good that’s my biggest struggle cuz I’ll start grounding I’ll do like a cold plunge I’ll ground in the grass or something like that and I’ll have a good couple minutes and then I start thinking about the day and I have no idea what happens but I’m already I’m like having a conversation with someone in my head from 3 weeks ago how do you stay so focused when you’re in the middle of it cuz that’s what I suck at that happens like even if you do it a lot and you get really good at it it’s very hard unless you’re like you know some Yogi that’s incredible edit or some Monk to where you can just be you know 10 20 30 minutes without any interruptions but for me if I did a 10-minute meditation I bet you 30 times in that meditation you Veer off it’s just as you get better the time you Veer off becomes less cuz then you’ve are conscious to okay bring myself back and then the time that you’re really in the present starts to get longer so what’s great is when you come out of it is how how good you feel is there anything you take from these moments that you can do you know right before teeing off well I do it every morning before I tea off and I start you know start the day off that way well we’ll do a little here is that cool yeah let’s do it okay I don’t want to get you out of your routine oh no this is honestly I you always need it so I typically lay down okay and I like you know cross feet put your hands wherever you want and the way you start is typically with big breaths okay so if you take and it’s usually belly breaths so you do a for second inhale okay then you would typically hold for 4 seconds and then release for seven and it’s through the mouth and it’s long and get to where everything comes out and then you do it all again sorry I’ll get with you do it yeah let’s do it I love this is this more spiritual or mental or both well the breath is uh huge in getting you present think of a place or a person or a time that you were so happy and so like for me A lot of times it goes back to like a river I love to fly fish yeah so I go to a certain River in Colorado where I fish and I just imagine myself in that moment and I hear the water and you hear the noise of your fly going back and forth and you look at the beauty as much detail gets you as present in that moment as possible I’m there man yeah so you do all that and then as your mind drifts off you always come back to the breath which then gets you present if I’m about to play golf I’ll visualize great putts I’ll visualize times I’ve had success I’ll visualize me smiling on the golf course joy and happiness and then as you get away from that you bring yourself back to the breath and then back to where you’re trying to meditate on do you have a goal for where you want to be mentally at the end of the year yeah that’s actually where all my goals are is mental stuff I just want to get more consistent in everything so I want my lows to be not as low and I want my highs not to get too high and to kind of always be very level and consistent and so mentally I want to try to always be reading a book that’s one of my goals I want to meditate six of the seven days I want to be able to increase how long I can meditate and how long I can focus two guys I really idolize in the mental game that I love is Steph Curry and Roger feder to me both of them have stuff that I feel like I struggle with so Steph is super calm and joyful when he plays and loose you know yeah he just seems like he’s always having fun and then Roger in any moment good or bad is just literally so even ke and so I look at those guys and how they handle themselves mentally and I go okay that’s kind of where I want to be do they know that have you talked to them I actually have had contact with both of them I have not told that to them I feel like they would love hearing that yeah well maybe maybe one of these days I I’ll tell them that struggled with similar things that I did which is anger and frustration and showing outwards in front of people and now he’s just this like graceful human on the tennis court and I’d love to get like that on the golf course so I’d love to ask him questions and figure it out I wish I could do every interview like this this is the most relaxing are you a guru yet because dude I am like I’m in Colorado fly fishing with you I mean when you close your eyes and visualize it’s amazing how powerful the mind is how annoying is it when a guy’s asking you questions during a meditation well I don’t get to meditate you’re the one that gets to meditate yeah thanks for that I appreciate it you’re welcome that was nice yeah should we grab our mats and keep going yep of [Music] course we just saw a bobcat I mean this is like a safari we’re at the Arizona zoo but it’s my backyard I wasn’t sure where we were at anymore this is fire Arizona has some wild creatures it’s pretty nuts actually I’m learning that um let’s chat a bit about the game that you’re really good at how many times a day do you think about the US Open right now like the one coming up yes I’ve probably thought about it a couple times I would say I think about golf every 10 minutes I probably think about my swing I think about what I need to do even when I’m taking weeks off I have to try to shut it off like I’m always thinking about how to get better now in that sometimes I’ll then find myself thinking about upcoming tournament US Open but yeah I mean I more think about my game in itself than maybe one specific tournament and now that you’ve had some time to process the first two majors of this year obviously didn’t go the way you wanted what’s your takeaway well it was kind of just a perfect storm of game wasn’t in a great spot if anything I’ve just thought of it as you know this is a a little you know blip in the in the road but I feel like I’ll be better and stronger for it coming out how did you talk to yourself after those miscuts I was hard on myself I didn’t say good things to myself and then then all the training kic kicked back in and said you know what all right it’s one tournament whatever there’s there’s a masters next year you kind of get back to reality and go okay you know what I’ve done great and we’re having a good year and we can continue to have good year if we don’t let this affect us I can’t help but think about this renewed mental strike that has gotten a lot of attention through Windam Clark what was the biggest shift after full swing came out for you I haven’t watched it so I still you haven’t no I still haven’t watched it on purpose yeah watching yourself on TV I feel like is kind of weird like even something like this I I probably won’t watch it appreciate the support yeah well it has nothing to do with I’ll have I’ll have my agent and my family watch it and they’ll be like oh it was awesome it turned out great if it’s golf like I’ll watch some golf stuff to see how I handle myself on the course um you know see my routine did I get fast like I’ll watch it in that sense I critique stuff but this stuff this isn’t my necessarily my job so a lot of people would stop me and say I loved your episode it was amazing that you opened up when did we actually really do our last serious talk feel like we haven’t talked about life stuff in a long time actually we talked a lot of golf it seems like when I’m mentally not as strong the putts don’t fall it’s kind of a weird correlation well we’ve totally learned that if you keep working on the mental goals there’s nothing stopping you so it’s okay to go there but when your mind goes a little bit to worry or concern just circle right back that good things are happening it was a phenomenal episode I got a chance to spend time with Julie your sports therapist what an incredible woman she is she’s got this special way of bringing emotion and all these things that you kind of hold up inside of you out but you were probably like a lot of us were you hesitant what was your experience like working with her and how has that changed you well initially I was against it only in the sense that I’ve done a lot of it prior didn’t work uh and I felt like it didn’t work I wasn’t doing any personal growth so I think that was part of it and then I also think I always had men that were either Sports psychologists or therapists nothing wrong with it but I think for me in my life you know the fact that I lost my mom and didn’t really have that motherly fig in the last 11 12 years of my life I think having Julie being a woman it’s like I had the woman’s intuition and the gentleness that she has I just felt so much comfort that I felt like I could open up to her a lot of her initial stuff for me was therapy she’s like I think there’s a lot of stuff we need to deal with the passing of your mom your relationship with your dad any other current relationships where your anger is coming from and so she goes give me 6 months all in that’s it’s like a long time yeah but she yeah but she goes give me 6 months all in doing everything I tell you and after 6 months if you don’t see any Improvement and don’t like it then we’ll go our separate ways and we’ll be done and right at that about six month Mark was when I won the O open and so which is pretty cool cuz can’t get rid of her now you can’t get rid of her now so it’s honestly amazing how much better I am in so many areas and even if the score doesn’t always you know equate to how I feel mentally right I just know I can handle it so much better and feel like it’s helped me handle even some of the success I’ve had too I would love to go back a little bit if you’re cool with that yeah 13 years old you’re out there playing with your dad and you get upset and he decides he’s going to take your golf clubs away I’m I’m trying to get into the Genesis of where you would become so competitive and then frustrated uh well that would have been one of many times that that happened um that’s just the Tuesday yeah that was just one week uh you know it’s funny if anyone you know any of my friends would be watching this from when I was younger they could tell you all the stories I mean on the basketball court I got in many fights I was technical kicked out of games just cuz I would lose my temper and then it would cause fights or push kids in golf bad stuff would happen I’d throw balls I’d throw clubs and then I would just have you know a terrible attitude and my dad played Sports and obviously didn’t tolerate that in college is it true you were playing in a tournament and then you got so upset you just left and went on a drive yeah it was uh it was qualifying it was the 15th hole at still waterer Country Club I was at Oklahoma State and I hit a shot in the trees missed the green so it wasn’t even that bad of a shot I turned around and just break my club over the tree so you graduated to Breaking clubs graduated break Club break many in college and Junior Golf I knew how sacred my club expensive um but so I broke the club and then I knew I was like oh no I screwed up and I was so mad that I kind of had this almost manic moment where I just was like I’m done with this and it was right after my mom had passed and it was that fall and and so I I just walked off and just got in the car and just started driving very fast and I ended up in a river in the middle of nowhere Oklahoma probably an hour away from still water and that’s when I finally stopped and you know I was there for a couple hours and yeah so then it obviously led to me being pulled into the coach’s office and talking about things but yeah that was definitely one of the lower points in college what would you do if you quit golf all together did you have an idea of what you wanted to do for the rest of your life I thought about it a lot I think that was one of the things that one of the reasons why I didn’t quit because every time I thought about what would I do it would always come back to I’ve always wanted to play golf but there’s also times where I go golf’s the one thing that I get so angry about and all the anger all the grief all the anything in my life came out when I played in golf and I said I’d rather not ever have that come out and do something totally different clearly that wouldn’t have been fixing the problem but I honestly in those moments I I might just be a fly guide on a river Just Fishing year round and I’d go from summer in Colorado to Summer somewhere in Argentino or Biz and I would just be a fly guide and my mind would go down that route just say all right well I’m just going to do something I enjoy and who cares about winning tournaments and the fame and all that stuff I’ve come a long ways that’s for sure when I met you for the first time we’re in Idaho you’re playing golf with Mark Wahlberg I was just a guy driving by you were so kind it was like three or four minutes but I just thought to myself he just won the US Open he’s in Idaho he’s golfing with Mark Wahlberg it just seem like a whirlwind do those days ever get normal when you’re just out there with your your buddy and your boss at Municipal yeah well that was really fun because it was one of the first times I got to really hang with Mark and so it was really fun you know being a partner with Mark in Municipal and you know him kind of really trusting in um Harry who runs the company and trusting Harry and then um realizing their vision and saying you know what we’re going to take a chance on this Windom who’s 30th in the world but upand cominging player has a lot of upside and and that was two years ago and then fast forward now we’re top five player in the world and and so it was it was pretty amazing so I’m really thankful for for Mark doing that and and now they’re really wanting me to help build the golf line which is really cool so you know we’re working on coming out with an amazing Golf Apparel line and you know he’s got the whole gym fitness and the athleisure stuff and they’re kind of leaning into me on the golf stuff which is which is really neat you know not many people get to do that and it’s it’s kind of fun growing a brand it’s really open the floodgates in terms of business for you I know that you’ve got other brands not just Municipal um a little birdie told me that you brought me a gift which like the sweetest thing ever yeah so I’m actually wearing them right now it’s um so this is cool it’s a Scottdale based company it’s a wmp so I partnered with them to make golf specific kind of trendy cool glasses and so we got pair so this is you know Green inspired with golf and and here they named them the Windom it’s the Fairway collection Bro you’ve got your own glasses new yeah I know I got glasses it’s pretty sick it’s pretty sick so still humbling right yeah it is it is so wanted to give you some I think they’re pretty uh how we feel about pretty good yeah he looks I think you look good look what’s up everybody yeah let’s keep walking I love this early on in your pro career you described it as almost like a black that cloud was over you because you weren’t winning can you take me back there a little bit and describe the frustration you were going through so as I came out of college um and was a pro I thought I was going to just right away have success and I didn’t it would just eat at me more and more and more and so as I finally broke through last year just even the first win it was like this huge weight was just lifted off my shoulders victory for Windam Clark as he wins the Wells Fargo Championship I felt like okay now I can really go and enjoy and play golf cuz that was my biggest rle to be honest when did you start being nicer to yourself it started right as I worked with Julie that’s one of our biggest things we first worked with was selft talk and replacing negative thoughts and negative selft talk with positive ones and I know it in the moment maybe it doesn’t fully help you but as you start training your brain you fast forward you know months weeks later and you find yourself you have the negative thought and right away you go nah that’s not right and then you’re instantly out of that negative and you’re right back in positive would love to know a little more uh about your golf game and we can walk over there but this is just uh one more question what are the perks of dating a cheerleader well I don’t know if this is a perk but I’ve danced more in my life than ever she’s cheerer but she’s a really good dancer she’s right over there by the way yeah I know yeah so faces well we we we take dance lessons so we Ballroom Ballroom ballroom dance lessons yeah stop it how was that going well I have to be honest we were doing it pretty like religiously once twice a week we haven’t done it in a while we’ve traveled a lot but um we ran into our dance instructor actually out and she’s like when you come back can’t miss that you’re winning golf tournaments and not dancing I know but that we do we dance a lot I love it yeah all right let’s go on a walk oh good I feel like I’ve heard so many incredible stories about Mom whether it’s been a podcast or an interview you’ve done and I’d love to ask you a few more questions about her she got you really into the game of golf I know she would leave notes on your golf bag what did the notes say and do you still have those notes you know when you’re little that’s kind of embarrassing because kids prob make funny right yeah and then now you know I fast forward and I would look give anything to just have a note for my mom um but what it was always some positive note so my mom was um very successful in her business as a national sales director for Mary Kay and so she led thousands of women and um she was actually one of the best at what she did and she took that in a lot into parenting and she was so positive and so motivational and so she would leave like a positive little note and then it would always say love you Mommy and she would like Kiss it with her lips and now I’d find it my lunch payoff find my golf bag but sometimes that’s embarrassing when you pull out your lunch at school in fifth grade and it says love you Mommy and you’re like oh gosh you don’t hide that but she was I mean it was amazing how great she was so she there’s so many great stories I could tell you on on her you really felt her presence last year at the US Open in La why was that so my mom coming out of college went to uh LA to try to make it as someone in film or actress or Sports Anchor and in that time she met my dad they got married they lived there for 3 years and I would hear tons of people saying oh W this and that and and and I’d always hear the one person that had something to do with my mom so they’d say hey Windom come over here come over here and i’ be like normally wouldn’t do that but I would go over there and they’re like hey I knew your mom like oh that’s cool and then they’d show me pictures of them knowing my mom back in her 20s and 30s when she was living in LA and so I was like wow that’s pretty neat well that happened almost every every single day and people just showing me photos or saying they knew my mom and how much she meant to them and how amazing she was and then obviously then I go and have the one of the best weeks of my life and so it was just kind of this really cool feeling and moment that I was like I really felt so much of my mom’s presence that week that was really cool She always told you to play Big probably had a different meaning back then now when you think about that phrase and that saying what does that look like in your life that’s definitely transitioned a little bit but but the the craziest thing is my mom told it to me when she was I mean really on her deathbed she said she goes you’re going to be one of the best players in the world and you’re going to do amazing things in golf and I just know it she goes but what I don’t want you to do is do it for yourself I want you to play Big play for something greater than yourself and you have a platform to really Inspire young people people your age and do amazing things and she literally said those exact words and then I found myself winning tour events and winning majors and now a top player in the world and and she’s right I had to battle the mental side and I went through so much adversity and I’ve and I really believe that that stuff I can help people and inspire people not just with my golf but really with the stuff that really matters which is you know being a great person being a great dad you know handling adversity and being positive and your faith and all those things so you’re doing that man you’re doing it you’re playing big I appreciate your time so much I was you know messing with you in the beginning because I know these days are precious so to give me a few hours to come on swing by just means the world and it’s been fun getting to know you more thank you so much for your time it’s been fun man appreciate you let’s do a quick facial uh before we go cuz I know your girlfriend’s here you cool you cool with that yeah let’s go do it you seem caught off guard no one’s ever asked you to do that after an interview no I’ve never had that happen welcome to swing by all right wind just want to say thank you for uh being here thought it would be nice to end everything with a nice facial think you should end all your segments like this yeah you feel relaxed yeah probably one of your more favorite interviews top top it’s like yeah top five for sure top five okay what was one no this has got to be number one for sure thanks man great spending time everyone treats me to a spa day we got you thanks for watching Everybody we’ll catch you next time on swing by thanks Windom yeah thanks for having me this is nice yeah we could do it again soon whatever you need let’s do next week appreciate it see you there that does it for this edition of swing by appreciate you watching for more watch right here or you can subscribe right here