Dylan Horowitz created “the Swiss Army knife of golf training aids” during COVID.
ORLANDO – Dylan Horowitz doesn’t look old enough to shave let alone order a beer yet he’s already created his own golf training aid with famed PGA golf instructor Rick Sessinghaus.
Horowitz, 20, of Stevenson Ranch, California, is a junior psychology major and the captain of the Chapman University men’s golf team in Southern California, but in his spare time he’s invented the Kavooa Pro swing training aid, a tripod-based product that can be adjusted via a patented telescoping device with rods (golf alignment sticks) to stabilize a golfer’s head and hips during the swing.
At 16, Horowitz was taking lessons from Sessinghaus, who is best-known as the instructor to two-time major winner Collin Morikawa from a young age until late last year, at Scholl Canyon Golf Course. Horowitz’s main swing flaw was his head dipping down and forward during the swing and compensating with his arms. Sessinghaus would hold a stick to his head during lessons but once COVID struck in March 2020 they began doing FaceTime lessons and Horowitz needed someone or something to monitor his head position during this period of isolation. In MacGyver fashion, he taped a pool noodle to the top of a punching bag around his height and set it up for hitting into a net at home. When courses reopened, he realized he needed something he could take to the course.
“So, I put two Star Wars lightsabers together, poked two holes at the end of it and put it on top of a tripod,” he said.
That was the original version of the Kavooa Pro, which means stable in Hebrew. Two years and several refinements later from PVC piping to 3-D printing, he has created an adjustable training aid that can address multiple flaws in the golf swing, or as he put it, “the Swiss Army knife of golf training aids.”
“When he showed me the first prototype I knew he was on to something because of its versatility,” said Sessinghaus, who has endorsed products before but never has been involved to this extent. “Seeing it evolve was fascinating. In addition to head movement, it can help with hip movement and swing plane and even putting and chipping.”
This is Horowitz’s second time attending the PGA Show and first time with a booth. His father, mother and cousin help run the business. What’s been the biggest challenge of bringing his adjustable training aid to market?
“Figuring out how to work with my mom and dad,” he said with a laugh, noting that he’s also had to learn about tariffs, distribution, margins and the intricacies of running a business.
The unit also includes a phone clip holder, allowing users to easily take videos of their swing. Kavooa Pro, which sells for $129.99, weighs just 3.5 pounds and collapses to be stowed in the side pocket of most golf bags.
“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.
A dozen years have passed, but the conversation remains vivid in the scholarly mind of Rick Sessinghaus.
The noted golf instructor in Southern California who was giving 50-60 lessons per week back then, especially to those in the junior ranks, sat down next to his wife, Kathy, in their Burbank home. After talking about how each’s day went, Sessinghaus began chatting about one of his star pupils.
Not an 18-year-old stud, mind you. Or a 16-year-old prodigy.
Dial down the years.
“I told my wife I had this kid who had the ‘it’ factor,” said Sessinghaus, a PGA Golf Professional who earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Speech Communications and a Masters and Doctorate in Applied Sports Psychology. “I told her I really believe he is going to succeed at the highest level.
“And he was 12 at the time.”
His name? Collin Morikawa.
A 16-year-old Collin Morikawa competing on the AJGA in July 2013. (AJGA photo)
Add another Masters in Prophesy to Sessinghaus’ list of degrees, for the youngster grew up to be a monster in the junior, collegiate and professional ranks.
Sessinghaus was right there at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco in August 2020 when Morikawa won the PGA Championship, his first major triumph in just his second try, which is his biggest victory of four on the PGA Tour in just 45 starts.
“I didn’t say that flippantly,” Sessinghaus said. “There are plenty of kids who can hit the ball. That’s the baseline stuff. I just told her I had a 12-year-old who askes a lot of great questions, is super competitive, has a great attitude, is curious, whose parents were supportive but not getting in the way. His parents and Collin weren’t obsessed with winning at the time.”
Instead, Morikawa was passionate about learning how the mind works and how to check a chip shot and move the ball both ways. Sessinghaus realized that when they met for the first time shortly after Morikawa blew out eight candles on his birthday cake. Yes, Morikawa was 8 and Sessinghaus was 33 when they shook hands for the first time.
An Odd Couple? Only in age. Their kinship quickly took hold as much for each other’s love for the game as for their thirst for knowledge.
“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 said. “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.’
“I could tell right away his engagement for his lessons. He was attentive, somebody who was very coachable, and would think things out. He wasn’t a huge talker, by any means, but when he talked, he had very good questions.
“He was very attentive, he wanted to learn, and he had that at a very early age.”
Collin Morikawa during his time on the Cal roster. (Photo: Eric Miller)
Morikawa was of the same mind as his much older instructor. He tapped into Sessinghaus’ ABC’s of mindset principles and appreciated him knowing the X’s and Y’s of the golf swing and being able to play the game at a high level.
“What was appealing with Rick was he was always competitive. As an 8-year-old, I was really competitive. I always wanted to compete against anyone. Rick brought that out of me even more,” Morikawa said. “At all our lessons, we always finished with a contest, whether it was putting, chipping, hitting a shot, whatever it was.
“We did that forever and ever and ever.
“As an 8-year-old you’re trying to beat Rick, who is your coach, and it just kept me wanting to become better, trying to find ways to beat him. I never made an excuse that he was older and could hit it farther. I just wanted to beat him.”
Sessinghaus, now 49 (Morikawa is 24), said he learned early on his young pupil had the makeup to understand and train for being in a flow state, otherwise known as being in the zone.
“Somebody’s DNA in flow states is someone who is completely in the present moment,” Sessinghaus said. “One of the flow triggers for focus is curiosity. What that means is if I can look at a situation in a curious way, it actually takes fear out of the equation. I just want to learn about the present moment. Some people are more wired like that than others.
A young Collin Morikawa competing on the AJGA. (AJGA photo)
“Collin had an interesting mix. He was curious yet creative. He certainly wanted to know the causes and effects of how A+B=C, but he processed it in a way that I think is best for an athlete, which is creative and athletic and not trained to be perfect. He wanted to understand the why. Once he got that answer, it was awesome. I’ve always told him if I don’t have the answer, I will find it for him. He knew I was never going to BS him.”
And Sessinghaus quickly learned Morikawa never played the victim.
“We constantly assessed a tournament not on why he won or didn’t but what did he learn. When he was 16, he played in a tournament at PGA National where they play the Honda Classic, and he came back and said, ‘Rick, I played poorly because I don’t know how to flight my irons in the wind,’” Sessinghaus said. “He said, ‘We need to learn how to flight my irons.’ He wasn’t the victim because it was windy. He took ownership. He never made excuses. That was different.”
The connection grew by the day and remains as strong as ever. And both are continuing journeys to better places.
“The best thing Rick brings to me is his thirst for knowledge, his quest to learn new things and get better,” Morikawa said. “Yes, we’re trying to get better at what we are great at, but Rick is looking for things we’re not great at and try to get better in those areas, whether it deals with the mental process or the golf swing. We’re always trying to gain an advantage.
“I just want to observe and learn and know as much as possible with what’s going on around me. Whether I love the topic or not, if I’m in that situation, I want to learn about it. I want to know how something works; I want to know the history of something. That’s just kind of how my brain works.
“I’m a pretty observant person. So is Rick. So it’s a perfect match.”
