How caddie John Ellis helped Wyndham Clark become U.S. Open champion

Some bogeys are better than others.

During Sunday’s final round of the 123^rd U.S. Open, Wyndham Clark escaped with just one dropped shot at the par-5 eighth hole after his second shot bounced left and into a dry barranca. On his first attempt to dislodge the ball from the underbrush, his club slid underneath the ball and didn’t move. He hacked at it again and this time the ball screamed over the green. At that moment, Clark said his mind started racing and it looked as if his dream of winning a major might unravel like a spool of thread. Fortunately, caddie John Ellis stepped in to set his player at ease.

“He said, ‘Hey, Dub, we’re fine. We’re just going to get this up-and-down and we’re fine,’” recalled Clark.

He did just that, closing in even-par 70 at Los Angeles Country Club’s North Course and holding on for a one-stroke victory over Rory McIlroy at the U.S. Open.

Clark, 29, and Ellis, 43, are back at it this week at TPC River Highlands for the Travelers Championship in Cromwell, Connecticut. The duo first teamed up at Oregon in 2016 after Clark transferred there from Oklahoma State for his senior year. Oregon had just won the national title and its star player, Aaron Wise, turned pro, freeing up enough financial aid for men’s head coach Casey Martin, who had recruited Clark in high school when he played in the Pacific Coast Amateur in Eugene, Oregon, to bring him on board. At the same time, Ellis’s pro career was fizzling out.

He had turned pro in 2003 after being named a two-time All-Pac-10 player at Oregon and bounced around golf’s minor leagues, winning the Canadian Tour’s Order of Merit in 2008 and twice qualifying for the U.S. Open in 2008 and 2011. Between 2004 and 2011, “Jelly,” as the other caddies call him, played in nine PGA Tour events, missing the cut in seven of them, and made just 16 Korn Ferry Tour starts between 2005 and 2015. With his playing career stalled, Ellis turned to coaching, returning to his alma mater as an assistant to Martin.

Clark, who lost his mother at age 19 and was prone to emotional outbursts on the course, was in need of a fresh start. Martin looked to Ellis to help rebuild his confidence on the course.

“I put a plan in place to get him get him back to where his talent could come out. I just kind of connected the dots,” Martin said. “At our first event, I said, ‘You’re going to be watching over this guy a lot. I want you to caddie for him and play a big role in his…