The Most Low-Profile, High-Profile Swing Coach In Golf

Denis Pugh's Unique touch molds winners like Francesco Molinari

- John Huggan

Look closely and you’ll spot him. Not front and centre. But Denis Pugh will be there on the range at a professional golf tournament, most likely standing quietly nearby as Francesco Molinari hits shots. Pugh might step forward now and then and offer a few words to the 2018 Open champion he calls “my best work.” But there will be no preening or posturing for any watching cameras. It will be all business—quiet and efficient. That has forever been the way of things for Pugh, who is perhaps the most low-profile, high-profile swing coach in the world of golf today. Which is odd. A glance at Pugh’s history reveals a number of well-known names and, even more significant, a variety of swings and personalities that have graced the international game during the past three decades. In addition to Molinari, Pugh, 64, has at various times guided the likes of Frank Nobilo, Colin Montgomerie, Ross Fisher, Peter O’Malley, Greg Turner, Wayne Riley, Mike Harwood and Peter Fowler to success around the globe.

Surprisingly, as far as Pugh’s coaching is concerned, O’Malley’s is the name that is perhaps the most significant on that list. In a more than 30-year professional career, the Australian is most famous for three things: playing the last five holes on the King’s Course at Gleneagles in seven under par to win the 1992 Scottish Open, defeating Tiger Woods in the first round at the 2002 World Match Play Championship, and ball-striking that is legendary for its quality and consistency.

“No one in the history of golf has missed more 10-foot birdie putts than Pom [O’Malley’s nickname],” his friend and compatriot Mike Clayton once said, simultaneously paying tribute to O’Malley’s teeto-green play and revealing the fatal flaw in his game.