What Phil Kenyon said about Scottie Scheffler at the WM Phoenix Open which really surprised Smylie Kaufman

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If you were desperate to criticise Scottie Scheffler for anything he did during the 2024 season, you would have no choice but to resort to the fact that he was largely average with the putter.

Scottie Scheffler had one of the all-time great years in 2024, winning nine times worldwide, including at the Masters and the Olympic Games. It really felt as if you could count on one hand the number of poor iron shots the 28-year-old hit throughout the entire season.

Where Scheffler was perhaps vulnerable at times was on the green. He was first or second in most strokes gained categories, while he was 17th around the green. But he was down in 77th for strokes gained with the putter.

It is frightening to think what would have happened had Scheffler’s putting statistics been anywhere near as impressive as the rest of his game. But the early signs suggest that he has taken a step forward in recent months.

What Phil Kenyon said about Scottie Scheffler which surprised Smylie Kaufman

Scheffler won the Hero World Challenge in December by six shots as he debuted a saw grip he used on certain putts throughout the week. And he is currently ranked 29th on the PGA Tour for strokes gained putting following his first two events of 2025.

The ominous news for all of his rivals is that it appears that Scheffler has all of the tools to become a world-class putter. Speaking on The Smylie Show, Smylie Kaufman shared what his putting coach Phil Kenyon told him about Scheffler’s capabilities at the WM Phoenix Open.

“Talking with him on the side of the putting green, we talked a little bit about how nervous he was on the Thursday of the Hero World Challenge where he used this saw grip for the first time because in the year prior, Scottie was like, ‘hey, what do you think about this grip? This grip?’ Trying to try different things, and Phil really felt like the only grip change he needed to do was go to the saw, because he had too much radial in his right hand in his putting stroke,” he said.

“He said, very similar to his golf swing, a lot of tendencies that Scottie does really well in his golf swing, he had in his putting stroke. He said there was a way in which his right hand would get too radial. Everything he would line up, because for a while in the years past, he was using the line of his golf ball to line everything up. And he had a tendency to line up everything too far to the right. And eventually, they came to an agreement, ‘alright, we’re not using the line of the ball’, and the Spider’s where he finally found something he can line up very straight.

“And the thing that kind of surprised me a little bit is he’s like, ‘dude, his intuition in green reading is unbelievable, just incredible’. ‘Hey, what’s this 10-footer do?’ Pop a ball down, like where does it need to roll over? It’s like perfect every time. He sees and reads greens really well. I think for a long time, we were like, oh, he’s not a green-reader. Making this change, he’s cleaned up his putting stroke.”

The part of Scheffler’s game which has completely dropped off in the first two events of 2025

As anyone who has played the game of golf knows, it always seems to be the way that as soon as one part of the game improves, another drops off. Putting it all together at the same time is the biggest challenge for any amateur.

And Scheffler does not appear to be immune to that same problem at the start of 2025. He is 17th for strokes gained tee to green, while he is fourth for approach.

However, he is down in 163rd around the greens. And it was noticeable how he seemed to hit a number of loose chip shots around TPC Scottsdale this past week.

Of course, it would be no surprise to see Scheffler win before too long. But the expectations for Scheffler have completely changed after 2024. His 41 on the back nine on Sunday in Phoenix is a lot more concerning than it would be coming from anyone else who had just seen their hopes of winning all but dashed.

It seems ridiculously unfair to say but it already feels as if Scheffler may soon come under some pressure to prove that his 2024 season was not an anomaly.