Summary:
- Scottie Scheffler began working with putting coach Phil Kenyon in September 2023 to fix his struggling short game.
- Kenyon improved Scheffler’s green reading, grip, and convinced him to switch to a mallet putter.
- Within a year, Scheffler scooped up seven PGA Tour wins, a second Masters, and Olympic gold.
When Scottie Scheffler called Phil Kenyon in September 2023, he couldn’t have known just how much it would change his game.
At the time, he was still the world’s top-ranked player and already a major champion, but something was clearly missing. His ball-striking remained as sharp as ever, but his putting was a glaring weakness, and it was starting to drag him down.
By the numbers, it was brutal. On the PGA Tour, most players drain about 90% of their putts from four feet.
Scheffler was only making 80%, while his ranking with the putter had plummeted outside the top 150, which made his confidence on the greens slip, and the questions about his short game to keep pouring one week after the next.
That’s where Kenyon came in.
Kenyon’s Impact
Known as one of the best putting coaches in the game, Kenyon immediately made an impact.
Less than a year later, Scheffler had climbed into the top 15 in putting and was enjoying one of the greatest seasons of his career: seven PGA Tour wins, another Masters title, and Olympic gold. He’s now coming into this week’s Open Championship riding a remarkable streak, with three wins and seven other top-10s in his last 10 starts.
Kenyon told BBC Sport, reflecting on Scheffler’s Masters win in April 2024,
That was a particular high for Scottie after some lows and a lot of discussion about his putting. And for him to putt so well fairly early on in my role working with him, that was a highlight for me.
Kenyon helped Scheffler improve his green reading and even convinced him to switch to a mallet putter to improve alignment. That change paid off almost instantly.
After struggling at the Genesis Invitational, Scheffler confided to a friend at home: “I don’t think I’m doing well”. But in his next event, with the mallet in the bag, he won four of his next five tournaments.
Kenyon: “Different Players Provide Different Challenges”
For Kenyon, it’s just another chapter in a career spent quietly shaping champions. The Southport native learned the craft under Harold Swash, Britain’s legendary “putting doctor” and has since coached players to every major and even Olympic gold.
He’s worked with everyone from Justin Rose and Matt Fitzpatrick to Rory McIlroy, and says even that experience taught him lessons he applied to Scheffler.
Different players provide different challenges. All the best players I’ve worked with are questioning and probing — you’re working together to find the right solutions for them.
For Scheffler, those solutions turned his biggest weakness into yet another strength.