“I’ve always struggled a little bit with anxiety” — Luke Clanton reveals ‘weird’ meditation method that helped him battle it

In an interview with Golf.com, Luke Clanton revealed he struggles with anxiety much like most high-level athletes. The interviewer, Claire Rogers, posted a clip of the interview on her X (formerly known as Twitter) handle.

Clanton revealed that he stumbled upon a YouTube video one day where he discovered a "weird" method to calm down his nerves. He shared his experience working with dark meditation.

Noting that as human beings have a tendency to "rush into everything," he uses the dark meditation to wind down and ground himself. In the meditation, Clanton tries to visualize all kinds of golf shots he might hit out on the golf course—the bad and the good shots.

Luke Clanton stated that the time taken to complete the whole process varies. If he has played a golf course before, the meditation takes him less time. Reflecting on his experience, the PGA Tour sensation said (via X @kclairerogers):

"I've always kind of struggled a little bit with anxiety and kind of overthinking certain things...I found some audios I was listening to, and I was like, I'm gonna turn off all the lights. The first two or three times I did it, I was a little bit terrified—no doubt—because I lost my surroundings. I didn’t know where to go...But it’s not like your typical meditation, right? It’s a little bit different. Yeah. I keep my eyes open in the dark, so it makes you hallucinate in a way. But you try to almost picture what golf shots you're going to hit...So you’ve got to be careful you don’t fall asleep—because you don’t know if you’re awake or not. I love it. I think it’s definitely a little bit weird, but I’ve been so used to it."

The young golfer tried the meditation for the first time in 2024 as an amateur player. Luke Clanton stuck with the practice and reaped great results from it as a professional on the PGA Tour.

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What happened the first time Luke Clanton did the meditation?

Luke Clanton tried the dark meditation for the first time at the 2024 RSM Classic. As it was his first season on the PGA Tour, he was very nervous heading into the event at Sea Island Golf Club in Georgia.

The tournament saw the now 21-year-old's best finish on the circuit to date. In the Golf.com interview, the Florida State University alum revealed that knowing what shots he could expect on the golf course took out his anxiety and let him play to his potential.

Having played the event as an amateur, the rising professional golfer tied for second place at the 2024 RSM Classic with Nico Echavarria and Daniel Berger.

Having totaled 15 under par through 72 holes, he finished one stroke behind winner Maverick McNealy.