Professional athletes tend to be private, often only allowing the public to see a glimpse of their lives. Rarely do we get to see vulnerability like PGA Tour pro Wyndham Clark’s in the second season of Netflix’s excellent golf documentary Full Swing.
The third episode focuses on how the Denver native's mental health struggles after the loss of his mother in 2013 affected his game—and how working with psychologist and performance coach Julie Elion helped propel him to victory in the 2023 U.S. Open. Clark was reluctant to start therapy, but he tells GQ it has helped change his life for the better both on and off the course.
We caught up with fifth-ranked golfer in the world (and soon-to-be Olympian) to discuss why he believed it was important to allow access to such a personal part of his story, and heard about the rest of the routine that keeps him sharp and fueled: his favorite workouts, the best cities to eat on tour, and his version of the perfect taco.
For Real-Life Diet, GQ talks to athletes, celebrities, and other high performers about their diet, exercise routines, and pursuit of wellness. Keep in mind that what works for them might not necessarily be healthy for you.
Wyndham Clark: I think it's always therapeutic for anyone to bring something to the light and to bring it out in the open and share it, because it is therapeutic to get things off your chest and mind. Sometimes transparency can be the best thing, because it relieves a lot of that stress or angst that maybe you had in your life. It’s not always the answer, but I think sometimes it can be great, and for me it's just part of my story. I hope it touches a lot of people and hopefully it helps people as well. That’s ultimately why I wanted to be part of the show. It wasn’t for my own fame or anything. But, hopefully, my story could help other people who have had similar issues to mine and I could be an inspiration for that.
One of the things that she's helped with so much is not just on-the-course stuff but off-the-course stuff, and I think that's kind of what her holistic approach is. If you have everything in order off the course—that's relationships with family and friends, personal growth both mentally and spiritually—that it will ultimately lead to you playing your best golf on the golf course. We've done a lot of work both on and off the course.
I had done some guided meditation in the past, but I hadn't done it to the consistency that I do it now. I'm kind of four to six times a week now—sometimes even every day when I'm really being proactive on it. I do the guided meditations and then the journaling—the reading is definitely a little newer for me and it has been very helpful and beneficial. It's amazing what happens when you put things down on paper. Just reading and growing your mind has really helped me a lot.
It hasn't evolved a ton, to be honest. I’ve always been very into the physical side of the game. I've always loved to work out. I grew up watching Tiger Woods, and he was kind of always the most physically fit, he talked about his training, and he hit the ball farther than everyone. So, at a young age, I always just wanted to try to be one of the more physically fit and I always saw it as a huge need in the game. It’s an advantage if you are stronger, faster, and more explosive than the next guy because you can hit it further and you can play longer. So, I haven’t changed that approach because I’ve kind of always done it.
The ultimate guy that's helped me with that is Greg Roskopf with Muscle Activation Techniques. He's the one that's really helped transform my views on all that. I think everyone just thinks, okay, I got to stretch and that's to loosen up. I think that usually makes you more vulnerable for injury and I think tons of athletes—myself included—have learned that you actually got to go and work out the muscles that you're about to use, and that actually loosens them up more than just stretching. It makes you stronger and your muscles are able to handle the stresses you're about to put on your body. So for golf, you want to make sure you're working on the glutes and core and doing rotary movement stuff and getting that kind of going and firing, so that when you go out and play, you don't have to think about those things and you're less likely to get injured.
I love anything with a trap bar. I don't always do traditional deadlifts just to protect my back a little bit. I’ll do like elevated trap bar and actually don’t throw on a ton of weight. As a golfer, I don't want to get too big and bulky but that at least it makes me feel like I'm really throwing around a bunch of weight, which is kind of fun. I like a lot of the explosive lifts. That is anything that's kind of fast-twitch. It’s either some sort of band jumps, weighted jumps, throwing med balls, or getting some of the Keiser cable machines and trying to move that as fast as you can in some sort of golf motion—things like that where it makes it feel more fun and you're getting your heart rate up, moving fast.
Instagram content
This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.
Because I need fuel, and I'm pretty strict on my diet, I don't really eat gluten. In the mornings, I will have any kind of oats. So, if that's overnight oats or oatmeal, I’ll have that with some granola, berries, or bananas. I eat kind of light in the morning and it’s just to get a little fuel for myself. I will then have a water with some electrolytes. When I'm out on the golf course, I continue to pound carbs. I’ll have a gluten-free almond butter sandwich. I'll have a protein bar and some applesauce for sugar levels. I will also sometimes throw in some jerky or some sort of mix of nuts.
Post-round, I try to reload on the stuff I just lost. That’s when I'll throw in more protein and I'll have any kind of protein afterwards with a salad and I typically try to have some starches and some grains in there as well. For dinner, because I don't eat as much in the morning, I try to load up on a big dinner. I'd say a perfect dinner would just be typically a fish with some rice and veggies. So, it’s pretty clean and boring, but it's what helps me play and feel the best.
That’s kind of the rule of thumb. You’re trying to eat almost every hole or every other hole. You want to be nibbling on something to where you're just kind of constantly giving your body fuel. I try not to have huge amounts of food at one time because I struggle sometimes with my sugar levels. If I just have small bites in small amounts, my body handles it better. We're out there trying to maintain the same energy, sugar, and mental levels — you're just trying to be very constant. I think throwing too much food or too much of something can spike all that stuff and then maybe throw you off. It’s just kind of a constant focus on making sure that you never feel hungry and keep all your levels the same.
I'm just going to go off the top and not in any order. When we play the one tournament in LA. LA has got such a good food scene. The team event in New Orleans is one of my favorites. It's a great food city. I also love when we go to San Diego because of the Mexican food. It's also fun to go down to Texas when we play—either in Houston or Dallas—because you kind of get barbecue and then they have a great mix of other foods as well.
First off, you have to start with a great corn tortilla. Obviously, when it's homemade, it is better. I like the street-style tacos, so very simple and one that kind of highlight the meat and the sauce. I love an al pastor taco with onions cilantro and then add some pineapple and a great salsa. Simple is better but you just got to have really good flavor.