Morris (Mo) Pickens

When I was 17 years old, I saw a guy on tv describing his role as a sport psychologist for the NBA’s Utah Jazz. I didn’t fully comprehend what his job was because to me it looked like he just played all day – shooting baskets and hanging out in the gym, with Karl Malone and Jim Stockton no less! I decided at that moment that was the job for me, and I have been very blessed for the past 30-some years to continue pursuing this “job”. During this time I have enjoyed helping high school golfers develop into Division I All-Americans, young professionals earn their way onto and win on the PGA Tour, and seasoned NFL players earn another start in the Pro Bowl. That is what I try to accomplish with every athlete I work with – enhancing their mental skills so that they can advance from their current playing level to successively higher levels.

What I teach all athletes is a sound philosophy of performance combined with an ability to understand their emotions, their thought processes, and their practice habits and how each of these affect performance. As a Sports Psychologist and Performance Enhancement Specialist at the Sea Island Golf Performance Center I been very fortunate to help some great students win 4 major championships (Zach Johnson 2007 Masters and 2015 British Open, Lucas Glover, 2009 US Open and Stewart Cink, 2009 British Open), 27 PGA Tour events, and two NCAA championships (Clemson University 2003 and Broc Everett, Augusta University 2018). In addition to golf, I have also counseled professional athletes in NASCAR, the NFL, and Major League Baseball, and college athletes in almost every sport.

During my “spare time” (does that even still exist?) I have published three books on the psychology of golf: Learn To Win: One Shot at a Time (2009), Learn To Win: A Major (2010), and The Winning Way in Golf and Life (2014), and it was the most recent book that lead to my connection with Coburn Ventures. A big part of what I teach is understanding how to develop and follow processes to systematically achieve results. And Pip, if you don’t know already, LOVES process. So we hit it off immediately and have been working together ever since the fall of 2015.

In addition to coaching athletes, for the last 10 years or so I have offered performance advice to a wide variety of corporations including Thornburg Investment Management, RSM, Motorola, Milliken, Coburn Ventures and others.  Whether it be educating 200 sales people how to gain trust and become a valuable resource to a client, teaching a Leadership Team how to work together more effectively, or sharing with investment professionals how to manage their emotions so they can think more clearly when making “pressure” decisions, I simply love helping people get better at their processes.

I love college football (especially Clemson), grilling anything, and spending time on the water.

Website: www.drmolearntowin.com

Mission Statement: To Glorify God by helping others passionately pursue their dreams.