Step onto the range with two-time major champion, Collin Morikawa and his coach Rick Sessinghaus as they go through a typical practice session. Known as one of the best ball strikers and iron players in the game, you’ll get an insight into how Collin and Rick work and the key aspects of his swing.
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[Music] yeah so let’s see where we’re at on down the line look at some takeaway and some plane okay and I want to get into some kind of some creativity shots some stuff that we want to work on from there perfect let’s just start with seven arm okay let’s use that white flag in the distance as kind of our Target line for now perfect just stock shots just the normal yeah stock shots we’re just going to check that takeaway that we’ve been working on a lot okay nice and wide all right let’s go one more how’d you hit that one that was pretty good pretty good yeah it was exactly what I wanted there we like that left right cut so as you hit that shot is there any swing thought or feel that go goes with that that one was pretty just keep it wide on the back swing right but then I really stayed level I think the first one was almost I was tilting back right and that’s kind of what I do when I hit my cut when it’s when it’s bad when I miss it farther right is everything’s tilting back right so the second one I kind of just want to stay a little more level exactly right over the ball so why don’t we do two things let’s reaffirm that idea of staying level Okay so we’ve talked about in the in the past where if you slide and tilt that changes the path a little bit makes it go a little more right doesn’t get on your start lines very well uh so let’s start with just a just a simple feet together drill and focal point just staying level and just rotating okay in that spot now I know we’re not going to fade off of that drill but the goal for you is again feeling that level let’s do it one more time okay nice let’s go regular stance then now how do you interpret that idea of staying level is it is it strictly head is it is it shoulders I think it’s head for me okay cuz I think even though yeah even though it’s my shoulders moving back like my head I want to stay exactly where I started over the ball okay great um so yeah so if we work in this plane right we’re I just thinking head yeah yeah okay great how that one feel feel pretty good awesome yeah so that’s so important because we know that the more you tilt the more you have to then bring your hands into the equation over release which we don’t want um another thing that goes with that is rotation right so if we keep this in a good shape and we keep this from tilting too much then we have to rotate right so let’s do on the same lines let’s do a left foot back drill here and I really want you to feel like you’re clearing out but also staying over the ball right so left foot’s back boom it’s going to help you clear out that left hip a little bit more instead of tilting okay still reaching down though this way right yeah we’re still extending down for sure the ball’s going to go left it’s going to change your p uh path to the left a little bit more but we’re staying level but we’re rotating through the shot nice great yeah so I can see that that front view is it you cleared out really nicely here without it bumping right so the more that you you bump past this the more you tilt the more you tilt the more you have to use your hands I mean it’s so much nicer on my right foot cuz you know my right foot normally goes up that one felt like I I stayed down a little better wonderful through that like the right knee going this way great so go back to regular stance with that feel though right having that instep having that knee Now cover this way more okay okay so give me some feedback on that one still felt tilty yeah like I I exactly okay cuz I was focused on doing this that I I went I I think I did the lower body but I just didn’t stay the upper body I went back this way right right got we still have to rotate it around as you come through there okay that looked clean a little heavy right but from a rotational standpoint it was better right so this was this way instead of instead of that way now as you start moving balls because you’re such a you’re great with the irons and being able to move it a little bit both ways it really shouldn’t change our basic fundamentals of staying level staying rotating coming through um so if you’re going to go to that white flag and hit your stock little fade okay I want you to see that picture of it and you’re very much into feeling that picture right right so how do you blend that that creativity with this idea of staying level uh I I think for me it’s just feeling like feeling the shot okay and I think that’s why like I can feel the cut really easily is because when I take my practice swings I can see like the shot you know like if we had a shot tracer on it I could see the cut right now and I can feel it and I think sometimes you know when I hit a straight shot I sometimes don’t see it to the end for the fade you have to see it move all the way and I think that’s why I hit those shots really good um because I can I can see the ball like that right you know and I think even for a draw even though I don’t play it as much I can still see it go all the way down and that’s for me visualizing it all the way down to the Target okay so let’s put it together though okay let’s go back from m here get your clear picture okay and in the practice swing you’re feeling it though aren’t you exactly yeah it’s not a full swing but it’s kind of it’s like as if the ball took off and then we had a shot Tracer all the way down to the Target okay great so let’s put those two things together and what’s one swing thought that you want to achieve on this um are we hitting a cut yes I I think swing thought is for me just to finish higher just if we’re going to hit a basic little cut started at that little left bunker right here and feed it back to the White Flag sounds good so you saw the shot you felt it now and we have a clear intention of what we want to do here exactly so I know you and I bounce around with having a clear intention as much as possible right we have to have a plan going into it yet there are times we have to work on the golf swing right it’s it’s now matching those two um so right now because we’re working on staying level and rotating you can still rotate and hit a great fade can’t you exactly right yep so we can have the technical side come in as long as we’re clear on what the intention is right let’s do one more with that intention how’ that one feel that was really good ever cut a couple yards but felt really good so now if we go from a feeling standpoint how do you articulate the feel of that shot yeah no I think I still didn’t rotate as well as I wanted to like I I still cuz I I felt higher but I didn’t clear out as much as I want I would want like when we did the left foot back sure like the feeling of left foot back felt different than every other swing okay let’s do one more of those then Target line stays the same the intention is left foot’s back feel that rotation coming through sounded solid yeah that one was great right A lot of it is certainly we talk about your upper body as far as not tilting but a lot of that is a related to what the lower body is doing and I thought that did a good job of getting that left hip out of the way sooner without letting it float to the left so there’s been times when you do want to cut a ball but then it becomes over cuty okay because now you have everything going this way now we’re using more arms and everything around yeah and so I still like that rotation there let’s go back I’m almost I’m almost aiming for a cut anyway when my left foot’s back right I just but you but you trust that it’s already cleared out right and then you don’t have to manipulate some of those other things so regular stance with that just a little cut correct but with the feeling as if that left foot was back right yeah so again you cleared out of the way didn’t cut as much as you want but I’m looking at again the ability for this to just rotate through without it getting this way all right so that leads kind of to when we’re looking at you’ve now been now on tour for over a year and a half and being able to look at some different shots so talk me through if you have if you’re in between clubs with this what are some of the things that you’ve done to help take off five yards or change trajectories and stuff uh like if I’m taking off yardage and I go with the bigger Club I normally hit just a little softer cut sure so I’ll choke down maybe a little bit try and get the ball up and just have it spin a little more get the cut and land it softer um but then if I’m taking the shorter club and I’m trying to get it there I’ll hit this trap shot you know JJ and I my cad like we’re always thinking trapped so we’re always you know it’s almost a little back of the stance but it’s it’s almost like a punch shot like it’s a hard really flat ball flight um that you know will skip back there to the maybe a back pin that you need and you take the shorter club uh to be smarter about it and I think that’s what we’ve all learned is that you know some of these whole locations on tour are tight there some pretty interesting situations for you be able to get into that is uh is a skill so we’re going to hit three shots with the same Club okay uh let’s start with a taking something off with a little cut okay then we’ll go stock and then we’ll go trap perfect just ch down so you certainly grip down a little bit to take some length of swing away from it was there anything else that you did to take some yardage off not really I mean it was might have slowed the Finish not you know as aggressive through it as a full swing um but it it’s the same thing it’s back to feel like it’s feeling a smoother kind of high cut ball fight right and we know your release position is going to change a little bit um type of thing okay let’s go stock shot okay good rotation through that one that was nice okay now show me the Trap because I think that’s something that you’ve developed in the last couple years um to be able to when you think trap what are you thinking about is it just hand position is there a little bit of setup stuff a little bit I mean I move it maybe half a ball to a ball back right um but then for me it’s just staying down you know thinking the half the half a second longer down the line so it’s not necessarily a stinger because we’re not trying to keep it super low right but we’re trying to either hold it you know from if it’s blowing off the right or blowing off the left trying to keep it a straighter ball flight because most of the time that’s going to not move as much um or if we’re just trying to get a couple extra yards you know it’ll turn into a trap draw and you know we’re trying to really shut down the face from a you know seven iron to a six iron almost so in this particular case a trap is going to go a little bit further than stock shot and you plan for that and you also plan for the trajectory and how that’s going to come in to a green correct yeah and it might it might not necessarily fly a lot further but it’ll take you know the angle of descent the angle that it’s Landing in will kind of come in and probably skip with uh some firm greens exactly all right so show me the Trap so definitely a little bit lower right and we’ve talked a lot about you know through the years of of punch shots and feeling like you stay down the line a little bit longer and I think that helps you you always had an unbelievable impact position with with the wrist anyways and to be able to feel like it stays there just a little bit longer exactly helps you with that yeah and like it’s weird with the Trap shot I’m not like I’m not thinking as much finish I’m thinking more through impact exactly how do I get from here and keep this angle that I start with to just stay there exactly I think with the other shots I’m thinking more up here and let everything do the work back here sure um but that one I almost think more around impact you know from hip to hip and and I think something we’ve talked about certainly with JJ also is sometimes having more choices is not always best right exactly so you’re you’re very very talented to where you can hit this shot three or four or five different ways but ultimately has to you have to be commit to the golf shot right and I think uh you guys have done a great job preparing for shots making sure you have all your numbers but ultimately it comes to you how have you made decisions on the golf course because you you can hit all three shots to the same spot yeah how do you go about making that that committed decision well I think you have to think about what’s around the green you know where the pin is is it front is it middle is it back left or right um you know 80% of the time I’m hitting that cut right and that’s a shot that coming down the stretch I I know I can hit so I’m always going to reverse to that um but sometimes you know if there’s water left I’m not going to want to start it in the water I’m going to have to hit a more neutral ball flight so I’m going to have to start out right um so you know it’s all about just looking at what’s around what’s around the green okay and if even if it sometimes the better the best shot might be a straight neutral shot if I don’t feel comfortable with it I’ll tell JJ that I just don’t want to hit that shot and he’s okay with that because sometimes you’re better off 25 30 ft than trying to get you know to 15 um knowing that what your might be is a wider angle or a wider dispersion um and I think that’s just what I do now I play my misses you know you got to know what your misses are so when I hit that cut I know my Miss is going to be right if I tilt a little bit you know we’re going to peel it off a little short right exactly and if I know it’s going to be you know an easy Chip Shot why not play that okay great so irons look great um we always have that blend of the fundamentals which we want to stay level and rotate over the ball um I’d like to work a little bit on a shot that I know we’ve been developing which is t- shots draw on the ball right perfect okay so preference is to fade it right but see yeah it’s your favorite right that’s our attitude first right exactly so um we know there’s there’s been certain holes that may not set up to you eyewise but we know there’s strategy to be able to do that um if we’re going to draw a ball right now would you prefer to draw a three-wood or a dry a driver three-wood I’ve done it all the time now okay so let’s start with that perfect off the te yeah yeah let’s go we’re we’re going to t-shot longish par four or shortest par five where there’s definitely a dog leg uh we might even have wind come from the Left Right which makes that fade even more challenging to do and throughout the years you know we certainly big advocate for you to create golf shots but it doesn’t mean we have to change a lot does it so so as you now pick a Target out there and see that ball move left uh what is your preference because we’ve talked about follow through and where you want the shaft to be what’s your preference here to hit a little drop yeah I mean I I think like we’ve always practiced I set up just slightly right at the Target have that you know the club just right around the target line um but then I like to think lower you know finish is huge for me other than that trapped shot a lot has to do with where I’m going to finish great um so I think it’s just finishing slightly lower we have a longer Club balls toed up um and it’s not like we’re looking for a hook right we’re looking for a soft a little bit right to left so you know I I think it’s it’s very doable so we can still see that shot right yep see it all the way finished kind of start it within that green and okay bring it back to the white yeah just like that good shot it’s easy as that right but you had Clarity on where you wanted to start it and where you wanted to finish it and there might be a slight setup change but we’ve always talked about you know where that release and follow through is is going to dictate a lot of how that club face is going to come through that was excellent let’s do it again and it’s not much especially with the ball going that far it’s not like we have to I’ve got to try and move it that much and I think that’s why you know the 3ws very playable when I’ve got a dog like left or winds off the left and I’ve got to hold it up oh no so what’ you feel there back to that tilt first you know the first swing so didn’t didn’t stay level over and unfortunately the Tilt makes the path go that way more but we didn’t have the club face enough to make up for it okay let’s do it again see the shot again LEL finish a little lower okay so yeah so we definitely got that club a little bit below kind of the Earline helps you release it a little bit more all right last one driver perfect we’re going to draw that okay easy stuff that’s right what’s a shot maybe we’re thinking about that we need driver with the draw um I mean I I think it’s the same thing you know I can’t always hit three-wood you know holes are getting longer um sometimes you got to carry it sometimes you got a lot of wind off your left and right you know 3-wood if if that brings more trouble in the play you’re going to have to hit driver sometimes um it definitely helps to get it out there and I think it’s the same SW swing thought you know it’s not not much different than what I did with a three-wood okay so see that shot feel it it’s like a one yard draw so it’s a draw we were successful great bounce left all right one more time let’s make some more movement on it okay how much do you want this to draw H roughly 12 yards okay I mean I think just pretty equal you know if I if I can get the shot shape of where I have the same draw as my fade okay I like that you know my fade I can aim left side of the Fairway and I know it’s going to come back to the middle if I can have that same thing with the driver I think you know we could play any course or you know have and be comfortable over any team sure sounds good commit to the [Music] shot good looking shot there easy game yeah just like that awesome so again what I want you to keep working on though is from a fundamental standpoint is keeping our level but that’s also keeping our center right we want to minimize the the Tilt that happens we did left foot back drill we’ve did feet to together drill to help that rotation as we look at shots that we want to put as menu options for you you already do a great job with the irons um I think with three- wooden driver for us to develop that that little draw as a shot you can go to when you need it uh I think is going to be crucial but that looked great and I think we’re ready to go awesome can’t wait all right hit more draws that’s right oh [Music]
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Colin’s personality is a snooze fest 💤