Tag: Mark Blackburn

Max Homa makes coaching change: ‘Tired of throwing mud at the wall’

“It’s just a tough year. Time for a change.”

MONTREAL – Max Homa is tired of throwing mud at the wall.

It was a frustrating season for Homa, who failed to make it back to Atlanta and the Tour Championship. It began with great promise after he went to South Africa in November and won the Nedbank Golf Challenge. Then he was chasing his first major championship into the back nine on Sunday at the Masters until he made a disastrous double bogey at No. 12. The rest of the season? Fairly pedestrian with just one top-10 finish since that has seen him tumbling down the world rankings from No. 7 to currently 25th.

“It was bizarre,” Homa said in describing his play. “Kind of just started last off-season. I wasn’t swinging the club well, and I just felt like I was throwing mud at the wall all year and could not find anything that would stick.”

In an effort to rediscover his mojo, Homa has parted ways with instructor Mark Blackburn. When asked about who he’s working with now, Homa said, “I’ve been solo…. I have a buddy I’ve sent videos to and we’ve chatted about my golf swing. Joe has taken a big role in checking ball positions and distance to the ball and things like that.”

Homa confirmed he made the decision after the FedEx St. Jude Championship.

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“It’s just a tough year. Time for a change. It’s unfortunate, I love Mark. He’s basically a part of my family. He’s just been an amazing human being,” Homa said on Wednesday during a media session ahead of the Presidents Cup. “But at times, the communication gets hard. I think everyone in here has gone through that at some point. It’s one of those things, more for me I need a break and sometimes I don’t do a great job of taking ownership of my own golf swing so kind of putting the ball in my court a bit, and you know, trying to figure it out myself. I mean, as much as a coach can be brilliant, a genius like Mark, I know my golf swing better than anybody, and I can see it and feel it. Just trying to take some ownership like that.”

Homa’s decision continues a growing trend that effectively began with Tiger Woods, to take great ownership of their golf swing. Justin Thomas, Tony Finau and Adam Scott are among other top players who have decided to go solo rather than having a coach who travels to tournaments and works on their swing.

Homa played in the 50-man field BMW Championship and finished T-33 and missed the cut at the Procore Championship two weeks ago.

“I did a bunch of setup changes, and just got to like work through that,” said Homa, who is on the bench Thursday for the four-ball session.

Homa hopes he can turn a new leaf and regain the magic that made him a consistent winner over the last several years and a player who seemed on the verge of a major championship breakthrough.

“Probably spent too much time throwing mud and not enough time trying to figure out how to get the ball in the hole,” he said.

Collin Morikawa shakes things up, parts ways with longtime coach

“I had to do it, I just felt like it was time to make a change at some point.”

NASSAU, Bahamas – When Collin Morikawa won the Zozo Championship in Japan last month, he was coy about the fixes to his putting stroke that helped him shoot a final-round 63 and coast to a six-stroke win, snapping a two-year streak without a victory. It turns out he also buried the lede.

“Right before the Ryder Cup, I let go of my long-time coach, Rick Sessinghaus for, we’ve been working for just over 18 years, which wasn’t easy,” Morikawa shared for the first time publicly Tuesday during a press conference ahead of the 2023 Hero World Challenge, a 20-man unofficial event held at the Albany Club. “He’s more than just a coach, he’s one of my really good friends. He’s someone I’ve always looked up to, someone that’s been there for every step of my life essentially, not just in golf but just kind of living life, right?

“It wasn’t easy, and sometimes things happen like that. But 18 years is a long time. Not many relationships that I can say with a lot of people that I’ve had relationships for 18 years, and real relationships where I’m talking to them every week, right? So that wasn’t easy at all.”

After Morikawa won the 2020 PGA Championship at Harding Park, the PGA of America was quick to celebrate the special bond as part of an advertising campaign. Sessinghaus is a longtime teacher in Southern California and heads up the FlowCode Golf Academy in Burbank. He began working with Morikawa at age 8.

“I was on the right side of the driving range at Scholl Canyon Golf Course when his dad walked over to me and asked if I’d work with his son,” Sessinghaus once told Golfweek. “Collin was with him and he had this big smile on his face and his cute little golf bag. And after two swings, I said, ‘You bet I will work with him.’”

But Morikawa also noted it was time.

“I had to do it, I just felt like it was time to make a change at some point. What I saw kind of over the past two years wasn’t to my expectations and standards and goals what I wanted,” he said.

Morikawa, 26, won two majors and reached No. 2 in the world in short order but he struggled to produce his once reliable fade that allowed him to take the left side of the course out of play. He began working with short-game coach Stephen Sweeney late last year to remedy shortcomings in his putting and chipping and it paid quick dividends.

He raced out to a big lead at the Sentry Tournament of Champions in January but couldn’t finish the deal as Jon Rahm blew past him with a 63 on Sunday. He also lost a playoff to Rickie Fowler at the Rocket Mortgage Classic in July. Despite going 27 months without a win, he finished in the top 30 this season in the FedEx Cup and represented Team USA in the Ryder Cup in September.

Morikawa said he began working with noted instructor Mark Blackburn, the 2020 PGA of America Coach of the Year, whose stable includes Max Homa and Justin Rose, before the win at the Zozo.

“Obviously, there’s no better way to start, but this is just the tip of the iceberg for us to kind of dig in and really know what we’re going to do,” Morikawa said.

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How does Justin Rose treat his body like a temple? He bought his own gym on wheels with hot and cold plunges, steam room and infrared saunas that travels the PGA Tour

“It’s made a massive difference, I think.”

PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — Justin Rose treats his body like a temple.

The 42-year-old Rose has battled nagging back injuries in recent years, including having to pull out of the British Open at St. Andrews in July. It has led him to take extreme measures to keep his body healthy enough to perform at the highest level.

But Rose isn’t just eating a salad instead of a burger and fries. He purchased his own traveling gym that travels from tournament to tournament and allows him to work out and recover. It’s no stretch to say that it played an integral role in his victory two weeks ago at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, his 11th career PGA Tour victory and 23rd title worldwide. It also snapped a winless drought that had stretched back to the 2019 Farmers Insurance Open

“It’s made a massive difference, I think,” Rose said. “It’s a stripped-down RV with hot and cold plunges, steamed shower and infrared sauna and all those other modalities. It’s a place for me to go. It has a coffee machine and all the creature comforts.”

Rose has returned to living full-time in London with his family and his kids are attending schools there. But this isn’t a RV that he lives in on the road as other players such as Jason Day and more recently Jordan Spieth do. Rose believes he’s the only player on Tour with his own gym on wheels, something he invested in and began using on Tour in June 2021.

“I realize there are certain things I’ve done in my life that don’t make my professional career easier so how do I combat that?” he said. “Those are steps I’ve taken to continue to fight the curve. The RV has everything to do with health and wellness. I’m not getting any younger.”

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Cold, blustery conditions forced the Pebble Beach tournament into a Monday finish. When play was suspended, Rose retreated to his personal gym.

“The ice bath after a 50-degree day is less appealing,” he said. “There are days when I feel a little banged up.”

In addition to monitoring his health and wellness on the road, Rose has benefited from the wisdom of swing instructor Mark Blackburn. They started working together in November when Rose became fed up with a run of middling performances far below his standards.

“I figured there had to be something I’m missing,” said Rose, who worked with Sean Foley for the bulk of his career, including when he won the 2013 U.S. Open, 2016 Olympic gold medal and won the 2018 FedEx Cup as World No. 1. “I was very aware that I didn’t want to be a player that goes from coach to coach to coach. The most important thing is he’s given me clear boundaries in which to operate. … My brain likes to know the whys and the hows and he does that through metrics and through some technology and makes it very believable for me. He hasn’t tried to change my pattern so much as re-introduce some things that have worked well for me in the past.”

“All I’ve done is given him a pattern that works based on his body designed to protect his back,” Blackburn said. “He was just a little lost and I’ve given him some clarity. Here’s what you’re doing, here’s what you need to do to fix it and holding him to task.”

As for Rose’s one-of-a-kind gym, Blackburn said, “He’s taking care of himself, his body and where it needs to be. That’s huge.”

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