One of the hardest things to do in pro golf is to win a golf tournament, but that just leads to another tricky dilemma: managing expectations after you’ve checked off one or two of those life-changing victories.
That’s one thing sports psychologist Julie Elion helps several players on Tour with, including Wyndham Clark, whom she worked with when he won the 2023 U.S. Open and, more recently, last week’s CJ Cup Byron Nelson.
Elion joined the latest episode of GOLF’s Subpar podcast to discuss her work with Clark and the power of a strong mental game in golf. (Her new book, “Mastering Your Mental Game,” will be available next week.)
Subpar co-host Colt Knost brought up names like Ben Griffin and J.J. Spaun during the interview. Both players had big 2025s but now had to live up to lofty expectations this season. How do players manage that? She said it’s not that different from Clark after he won the U.S. Open.
“From my point of view, [Clark’s] world got so big and complicated, but in great ways too — sponsors and chit-chat and media,” Elion said. “So it was helping him manage that. But I don’t think it’s always so easy to manage.”
Spaun has recently admitted it’s been a struggle to manage expectations. After winning the 2025 U.S. Open at Oakmont and earning a Ryder Cup spot in the fall, Spaun missed four cuts in seven events to begin this season. But he turned it around by winning the Valero Texas Open before the Masters.
“I was riding on so much confidence and so much self belief right after the U.S. Open … then when I had kind of like this physical end to the season and now it’s like a new start, like I’ve put way too much pressure on myself that I needed to be [one of the best players] in the world that tees it up every week that needs to show up and needs to play well and needs to contend,” Spaun said after his victory in Texas. “That’s an uncomfortable position for me because I’ve never been there, but it was more of like the complete opposite mindset that I had last year, where last year I kind of accepted playing with nothing to lose. I felt like that helped me free up myself mentally.”
He said at the Texas Open he was able to get back to what worked before, understand he didn’t need his best to win, accepted the outcomes and moved on.
“I think the biggest lesson for me this week was learning that like I don’t have to be perfect to win golf tournaments,” Spaun said. “I don’t think I was perfect at the U.S. Open, I don’t think I was perfect when I won here in 2022. But I’m proud that I was able to hit the shots that I wanted to hit when the moment needed it. That proved to me that like wherever I feel like my golf swing is or wherever mentally, if I’m not confident in being able to hit certain shots, that I pulled it off today and down the stretch when it mattered. That’s all that matters.”
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: golf.com
