Scottie Scheffler has returned to the scene of the events two years later. It was at Riviera where the last straw broke the camel’s back. It happened during the Genesis Championship of 2024. Frustrated by his performance on the greens, he angrily threw his ball into the trees during his final round and immediately after signing his card, he called his putting coach: “Phil (Kenyon), we need to find a solution.”
He had hit rock bottom. His strokes gained curve with the putter left no doubt. Since the Memorial Tournament of 2023, it started to drop, drop, and drop until it crashed to the ground at Riviera. He finished the Los Angeles tournament leaving more than four strokes on the greens compared to the rest of the players. It was more desperation than frustration, as it wasn’t a one-off. He also struggled at the Phoenix Open, wasn’t impressive at Pebble Beach, and left another world at The Sentry. He had spiralled. Was the World Number One (as he was then, prominently) putting poorly? Not at all, but certainly worse than average.
If you look at this first thin line offered by the attached image, the one showing performance on the greens over the past two years, you will clearly see what the numbers reflect. The lowest point of the curve provided by the Data Golf team is precisely at Riviera 2024. You can also check it at this link.
The phone call takes place. Scheffler and Kenyon had started seeing each other during the Ryder Cup in Italy, September 2023. That is, by early 2024, they had been working together for a short time. Scheffler explained this Wednesday, in the lead-up to the Genesis Championship, on his return to Riviera two years later, how the process was. “When we started together, there were some things in my technique that I wanted to refine. We worked very, very hard on that during the preseason. We saw some success early on. I won in the Bahamas, the first tournament where we were officially working together (we first met at the Ryder in Italy). Then I had a decent start to the year. In Phoenix, I was close to winning and missed some putts on the last nine holes that I needed to make. Then, here, the frustration from the previous week was compounded with a golf course with very difficult greens to putt on. The frustration remains.”
This is where the other thin line that changes Scheffler’s life comes into play. This one is literal. Physical. Kenyon understood that the technique was already where they wanted it and that it was time to tackle the equipment. “We went back home. I had two weeks off and we started experimenting with different putters. In the end, we opted for the ‘normal’ Spider and stopped using the line on the ball.”
This is where Scheffler understands that everything changed. Goodbye to the line, hello to comfort. “At Riviera, I was still using a blade with a line on the ball. So switching to a mallet, where I don’t have to align the ball, gave me a better image of what I wanted to see and really freed me.” It is at this point that Scottie made a confession that had never been heard before. “I was never a guy who was particularly good at, I don’t know if the word is ‘aligning,’ but I would say that generally for me ‘less is more,’ so going to that putter helped me do less. I simply focused my attention on the ball’s trajectory. For some reason, the line became more of a distraction than a help. Switching to the Spider clarified everything for me,” he describes.
The thin line of his strokes gained with the putter and the thin line of the putter.
The new putter, which by the way was recommended to him earlier by Rory McIlroy, came into action like a bull in a china shop. He won on its debut at the Arnold Palmer Invitational finishing fifth in strokes gained on the greens. He went from losing more than four strokes to gaining four just in the fourth round. An eight-stroke difference. Immediately after, he won THE PLAYERS, finished second at the Houston Open, and won the Masters Tournament. The curve has not stopped rising since then… As has been reflected in more than one report in Ten Golf, the World Number One has gone from being below average on the PGA Tour in putting performance to being in the upper echelon.
Interestingly, this week he will be able to compare for the first time the statistics he obtained at Riviera with the previous putter with those he will have this week with the spider. It will be very interesting.
