Phil Kenyon, Scottie Scheffler's putting coach, names the top three putters in golf history. Scheffler has improved significantly, moving from 77th to 12th in strokes gained putting on the PGA Tour.
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Scottie Schefflerâs putting coach Phil Kenyon has named the three golfers he would pick as the greatest ever players on the green.
Kenyon has worked wonders with the world number one over the last few years. Scheffler was 77th on the PGA Tour for strokes gained putting during his astonishing 2024 season.
He is currently 12th for the 2026 campaign. The one obvious weakness within Schefflerâs game has now become yet another strength.
Of course, Scheffler is still a long way off being considered one of the greatest putters the game has ever seen.
The debate over the player you would pick to make a six-foot putt for your life is a fascinating one. Plenty of golfers seemingly found a way to make sure that they made every single important putt in their career.
Unsurprisingly, Kenyon included Tiger Woods when naming his three greatest putters of all-time in an interview with Upgame Talks.
Interestingly, he also included two players who never won a major.
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âIf youâre going to put me on the spot, I can only give you a top three. So I would say that youâve got Tiger Woods in the top three because he was the best putter of the best ball-strikers. He had a good strokes gained average, but he was doing it at the highest level and did he ever miss a putt when he needed to on the last hole of a tournament? It felt like he always made them. So he would be in my top three,â he said.
Phil Kenyon has not disclosed the names of the three best putters in the provided excerpt.
Scottie Scheffler improved from 77th to 12th in strokes gained putting on the PGA Tour between the 2024 and 2026 seasons.
Phil Kenyon is Scottie Scheffler's putting coach and has significantly contributed to his improvement on the green.
In the 2024 season, Scottie Scheffler ranked 77th on the PGA Tour for strokes gained putting.
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âI would have David Howell in there. And one of the reasons I would have David Howell in there was, one, I was lucky enough to work with him for a period of time. And despite that, he was still a good putter. I had an insight into how good he was, and thatâs why I would put him in there. There was a period of time where he was gaining over one on average per round. We didnât have strokes gained in Europe at the time, but we were collecting that. And Dave was a phenomenal putter. If you ask all the people he played with, he probably didnât get the credit he deserved playing on the DP World Tour.
âThen I would say, only because of my living memory of seeing this guy compete, watching him, observing him, Iâd go Luke Donald. I think Luke Donald could sit there in the top three. A phenomenal putter.â
Kenyon was obviously reluctant to pick out any players from a much older era. It is fair to say that everyone would probably think of exactly the same shot if they were asked to remember a putt from Jack Nicklausâ career.
But Howell and Donald were clearly elite on the greens. No one played more events on the European Tour than Howell. Meanwhile, Donald went 449 holes without a single three-putt back in 2011.
Kenyon went on to suggest some other names he would consider for the list.
âObviously, youâve got to have honourable mentions to other players. I think Brad Faxon was an unbelievable putter. And in recent years, Matt Fitzpatrick, if you looked at his stats over a long period of time, is a phenomenal putter. Of late, the likes of Denny McCarthy, Sam Burns are great putters,â he said.
Burns is 10th for strokes gained putting on the PGA Tour right now, just two places ahead of Scheffler. So Scheffler is certainly getting closer to putting himself in the conversation for the best putter in the game currently.