“I had to do it” - Collin Morikawa opens up about split with long-time coach Rick Sessinghaus
Collin Morikawa is at the Albany Golf Club in The Bahamas playing in the 2023 Hero World Challenge. He is paired alongside Jason Day for the first round of the Tiger Woods hosted tournament.
Before the unofficial PGA Tour event, the 26-year-old American was seen alongside Max Homa on Tuesday playing in a nine hole match. Interestingly, both of them come from California.
On Tuesday, Collin Morikawa spoke to the media and opened up about the split with his long-time coach Rick Sessinghaus.
As quoted by Golf.com, he said:
"We've been working for just over 18 years, which wasn't easy. 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?"
Collin Morikawa said that he felt it was time to make a change, especially after analyzing his performance over the last two years. He has now joined forces with Mark Blackburn this fall season.
"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, so I brought on Mark Blackburn," Morikawa said.
Collin Morikawa with his coach Mark Blackburn recorded a victory in their very first tournament together. The California-born golfer won the 2023 Zozo Championship, which was his first win on the PGA Tour since the 2021 Open Championship.
"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 added.
How has Collin Morikawa performed in the 2022-23 season on the PGA Tour?
The 26-year-old American made 25 starts this season and has missed the cut in six starts. He recorded 12 top-25 finishes which included seven top-10 finishes this season.
His only win came in the PGA Tour fall season event, the 2023 Zozo Championship, where he defeated Eric Cole and Beau Hossler by a huge margin of six strokes.
Below is the leaderboard standings of Collin Morikawa in the 2022-23 season on the PGA Tour:
- ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP - T45
- THE CJ CUP - T29
- World Wide Technology Championship - T15
- Hero World Challenge - 6
- Sentry Tournament of Champions - 2
- Farmers Insurance Open - 3
- WM Phoenix Open - Missed the Cut
- The Genesis Invitational - T6
- Arnold Palmer Invitational - Missed the Cut
- THE PLAYERS Championship - T13
- Masters Tournament - T10
- RBC Heritage - T31
- Zurich Classic of New Orleans - Missed the Cut
- Wells Fargo Championship - Missed the Cut
- PGA Championship - T26
- Charles Schwab Challenge - T29
- The Memorial Tournament - Withdrawn
- U.S. Open - T14
- Travelers Championship - Missed the Cut
- Rocket Mortgage Classic - T2
- The Open - Missed the Cut
- FedEx St. Jude Championship - T13
- BMW Championship - T25
- TOUR Championship - T6
- ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP - 1
Collin Morikawa has earned $7,573,198 as official prize money in the 2022-23 season on the PGA Tour.