The Golf & Mental Skills Coach Who Knows the Leaderboard Matters

The greatest golf shot Rick Sessinghaus says he ever hit wasn’t a powerful drive or precise putt.

It was when he put a ball in the water on the 72nd hole of his college walk-on tryout, costing him a spot on the Cal State Northridge team.

“When it mattered most, I choked,” Sessinghaus said.

The disappointment of that final hole, however, became a critical catalyst for deeper introspection and the inspiration for Sessinghaus’ life’s work.

Sessinghaus has served as the mental skills coach for two-time Major winner and world No. 8 golfer Collin Morikawa for more than two decades. He’s also penned the book, “Golf: The Ultimate Mind Game,” and works with CEOs and other executives to cultivate peak performance habits.

“I just wanted to figure out why I choked in that moment and what I could help my current and future clients with so that they didn’t crumble when the pressure was on,” he said.

Best of 7 spoke to Sessinghaus about the shortcomings of only being process-oriented, why “Forget about it” is poor advice, and the challenges of coaching someone who's already near the top.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Dr. Sessinghaus, why is curiosity such an important quality in your eyes?

Where I really coach curiosity with athletes is they tend to have such high expectations and high standards that when they have a result that doesn't match what they wanted, their first reaction is usually critical and judgmental. “That was bad. I am bad. I can't believe how horrible I played.”

I get that in an initial reaction, but if I stay in that loop too long, (I’m) probably going to make the same mistake again. I think back to my own point of choking on that shot back in the day. I didn't want to do that again, and I had to be honest with myself, of what created that.

Asking better questions is part of curiosity. Why did my heart start pumping so much? Why was I starting to think about hitting it in the water? Why did that ball go short? To me, those are better questions than just saying, ‘”That's a bad golf shot,” or “You're horrible,” or “You choked.”

I know you don’t like the advice “Forget about it.” Why?

I think it's impossible, especially if I put energy to it. If I've hit a bad shot, slam the club, and say, “You suck, Rick. Now, forget about it,” it's too late. I've put so much emotion into it, I've imprinted the memory anyway, so the next time I have that same club, I'm probably going to remember the shot because there was an emotional attachment.

I get the concept, “Hey, just forget about it and move on,” but I think in reality with the type of players I play with it’s unrealistic. It also dilutes that there's so much to learn from the shot. If I've hit my first three drives and I've hooked them to the left, but I say, “Just forget about it,” I'm going to keep hooking it all day long.

I want to look for patterns as quickly as possible. “Forget about it” is for those who don't want to address the emotional side of it. But I think it's a little bit of a cop out for me personally.

How do you get golfers you work with to commit to a larger process and not just be result-based?

I have a different slant on this. There are a lot of mental game coaches and coaches in general who make a very general statement. “It's not about the outcome. It's only about the process.” I challenge that a little bit, because the outcome dictates the process you need. If you said, “Rick, I need you to break 100 tomorrow on the golf course,” I could do that with one eye closed… But if somebody says you need to shoot 72 or better, my processes are going to be a lot different, so I work in reverse.

I want somebody to be clear intentionally of the outcome that he or she wants to go toward, and then we reverse-engineer who needs to show up in order to do that. What state do you need to be in in order to win a tournament or shoot a certain score? “Well, I’m not supposed to think about score and stare at the leaderboard.” Collin is constantly looking at leaderboards. It's a data point. It actually helps him focus. It gets his juices flowing. He goes, “Great. I'm in the mix.”

It sounds like you believe process and result need to constantly feed each other.

Most people are told it's not about the outcome, but unfortunately, they are reminded that the outcome is occurring every time you put in your little score. People don't know how to react to that, so their relationship with outcome is the problem, not the outcome (itself).

I want to reverse-engineer what's the best process that's going to help me lead to that. “I want to be committed and confident on a golf shot.” O.K., how are we going to do that? Are we going to use visualization? Are we going to remember past grade shots? Are we going to prepare with guided meditation ahead of time?

I’ve had a lot of people who focus on process, and their processes are awful. They're still tight on the golf course, they're still uncommitted, they're doing the same routine over and over again because they were told that it's about the process. I go, “Yeah, your process is awful, though.”

I get a little into that, because people want to generalize that it's not about the outcome. And I'm going, it is about the outcome. Can we just admit it? Then can we get into the processes in the training that are going to give you the best opportunity?

I’m curious — you’ve been with Collin now for more than two decades. How do you as a coach continue to provide meaningful feedback to him when he already knows you so well?

When he won Pebble Beach this year, we were referencing things that happened when he was a junior and when he was in college and when he turned pro. So we're referencing past history to get him in a different state. I may say something, “You remember when you did this?” It changes a focal point there.

As a coach, I need to learn to read him the best I can — know when to ask questions, know when to push, and I think I have a pretty good understanding of that. I think what Collin has done a great job with as he's gotten older is he's been very honest with his communication. When you're a 12-year-old, you're probably not going to push back at a coach.

But he’s now 29, and he's won seven times, two-time major, he feels more comfortable to challenge me. I think that's a good thing. What shifts is that I need to still be strong as a coach in my beliefs. And I've always told him, if I don't know something, if I don't have the answer, I will go get it. I think he's trusted me on that.

I think there’s real humility to that. What’s the toughest part about coaching an athlete who’s already near the top?

I think the biggest thing is the high standards. When you're a 16-year-old, and your goal is to break par and you do it, you're ecstatic. Now, you're one of the best players in the world and if you shoot par, that's a horrible day on the course. That’s very general what I just said, but the nuances within that — he has mentioned a lot in media in the last year or so, and I believe he quoted himself as being crazy — is his high standards with equipment, his high standards with his golf swing, his high standards with his training… If you don't see the results, it can be frustrating.

He's somebody who works really hard ,and he wants to uncover anything that can help him. I think as a coach, when you work with an elite athlete, it’s understanding they're never going to be satisfied. How do I grow as a coach? I have to be a better coach, and I have to seek out the best in certain industries. 

It's pushing me, which I love, by the way, but it can be stressful. If somebody's not playing well, the whole world sees that, “Hey, he hasn't won in three years. Oh my God, what's wrong with him?” Then he wins, and now everything's great. Dealing with expectations of the media and social media and all this other kind of stuff adds to the challenge.

Several important thoughts there. Do you have any go-to coaching sayings?

Whenever I talk about the mental side, I have people define what the mental game is for them. I define it as, “Performance is state dependent.” So what state you are in mentally, emotionally, physically will now affect your performance.

I think a lot of people with their golf swing think it needs to have certain positions and be geometrically sound. I get that. But if I'm stressed, if I'm tight, if I'm afraid to get it to ball to the right, it will affect the motor pattern.

Within that, now I'm stealing some flow stuff, but “Flow follows focus.” The only way to be in a flow state is to be in the present moment. It's the only way. If we start with that and coach somebody to pay attention to the present moment and what's relevant, you're way ahead of everybody else.

What I learned…

I found Dr. Sessingaus’ perspective on reverse-engineering “process” to be particularly insightful.

“Trust the process” isn’t actually sage advice if the process has holes in it from the onset. Instead, using tangible evidence and data points to work backward and examine what might’ve clicked (or gone awry) allows us to uncover what’s worth replicating.

I also appreciated Dr. Sessinghaus’ take on “Forget about it.” Mistakes and failure can be painful and embarrassing, but glossing over an undesired result just because it hurts might be a squandered opportunity.

Conversely, rumination isn’t productive either, but the right amount of curiosity and introspection can lead to significant growth and improvement.