“Phil is also a guy that doesn’t have a big ego. He just wants what’s best for his players.” That was Scottie Scheffler. He had just slipped on the green jacket, the second time in the last three years. Phil here refers not to Mickelson but to Phil Kenyon, the hotshot putting coach (or a wizard, whichever way you want to put it). 

Kenyon has been hailed as one of the best putting coaches out there, by the best of the PGA Tour and DP World Tour. “He’s definitely the most knowledgeable person I’ve ever talked to about putting,” Max Homa, one of his ‘pupils,’ told PGA Tour. The Englishman is certainly one whose reputation precedes his name.

But, like many, Kenyon also wanted to be a golfer, not a coach. The Open Championship captured his imagination. He graduated with a master’s degree in sports science. However, Kenyon realized that he couldn’t keep up with the demands of professional golf. Hence, a segue into coaching. That’s when he also started working with Harold Swash, a family friend.

The affable Brit, a member of Hillside, had coached Nick Faldo, Lee Westwood, and Darren Clarke, among others. In the 1970s, Britain’s Putting Doctor, as he was also known, established the Harold Swash Putting School of Excellence, which is now headed by Kenyon himself. 

From Swash he learned the most valuable lesson that he now imparts on Scheffler and the like. “Whatever techniques you’re working on, fundamentally you’ve got to master three skills. Those skills are your ability to control the starting direction of the ball, your ability to control the speed, and your ability to predict the break.”

Now, Kenyon is an unassuming character. A humble man who doesn’t like the spotlight on himself. Perhaps that’s another reason why pros throng around him. In fact, his schedule was so hectic last year that he couldn’t attend enough seminars and webinars, resulting in a downgrading of his PGA status. 

Who are Phil Kenyon’s most notable ‘students’?

Scottie Scheffler might be the most famous of his clients, but seven of them are now inside the top 40 in the world golf ranking. Keegan Bradley, Max Homa, and Scheffler’s President Cup partner, Russell Henley, are a few. His resume includes coaching 10 major champions, 22 Ryder Cuppers, and 46 Tour winners. Kenyon had worked with Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose, Padraig Harrington, Lee Westwood, and Henrik Stenson, among other European icons. 

Interestingly, the Englishman is never to shy away from technology and experimentation. The latter is how he convinced Scottie Scheffler to use a new putting grip as well. Call it a claw grip or a saw grip; Scheffler said Phil Kenyon likes to keep things simple and to the point. “I think Phil calls it a claw, but he really doesn’t even say that; he just says, “I want you to try a little bit, and he points his hand like that, and wherever my hand felt good, that’s where we settled. Not trying to think too much about it, trying to keep things simple,” the world no. 1 said from the Bahamas.

Kenyon uses SAM PuttLab and Quintic Ball Roll among the latest innovations in golf technology to help his clients. Last year, Scottie Scheffler ranked 162nd in Strokes Gained: Putting. This year, he is 77th. Not the best putter on Tour, but definitely a massive improvement. Therein lies the secret to Phil Kenyon’s fame.