Opinion & Analysis
Taking the eyes out of putting
Before we take the eyes out of putting, let’s take a quick eye test. Look at this picture below and answer this question: Which looks longer, A or B?
The correct answer is C!
I know you just read the question again and are screaming, “There is no C!”
That’s because like any great illusion, it’s a trick. The cards you see are EXACTLY the same. Our eyes are just lousy at seeing curves.
Which brings us to green reading in the modern game. Think about golf course architecture — specifically green construction. Courses are now built with modern capabilities, no bare hands and mules dragging soil. So what are some things that happen that upset our eyes’ ability to read greens?
No. 1 is that the architect can tilt the green away from natural drainage patterns. The old saying “it breaks toward the water” actually can be 100 percent wrong because the architect can move the dirt to make it go the other way.
When the PGA Tour was at Torrey Pines recently for the Farmers Insurance Open, I heard the announcers say too many times to count that the players need to take into account the ocean when reading the break for a putt. Lunacy! When the South Course was redone before the 2008 U.S. Open, modern equipment was brought in to move the ground around, and man determined the slopes on the greens — NOT NATURE. It would be very easy for me to build a green that broke completely away from the water, agreed?
Secondly, man-made drainage patterns allow for run off in a minimum of three directions for most greens. So you can have lots of opposite movement on greens that mess with your eyes, also going away from the natural lay of the land. So in Phoenix, putts are not necessarily biased to break toward “The Valley,” and in Palm Springs, they all don’t break toward Indio!
That is why eyesight can be so misleading. There has to be a better way to read greens that does not fool you and make you guess as to what you are seeing?
That brings me to last May when I was hanging around the putting green at The Memorial Tournament. Adam Scott had just won the previous week and made lots of putts including two in a playoff. Before each putt, he held up several fingers and then lined up and hit the putt. It was the first time I had seen Aimpoint Express. I had read about it, but now it was live fire with the No. 1 player in the world at that time. Now here I was watching it up close at The Memorial. I soaked it all in as Hunter Mahan worked the green with his caddy. Then Adam arrived and worked it.
I noticed two things immediately:
- They made lots of putts…and they made the reads quickly in doing so.
- When they missed, they were burning the edge every time.
In fact, you might already be doing Aimpoint Express and not even know it! Have you ever gotten over a putt and felt like it might break more/less than you saw? That is because your feet are feeling the incline and sending your body an adjustment to calibrate to so you stand in balance. That is exactly what Express does.
This gets me to the point of needing to bring clarity to Aimpoint Express for players confused by what they are seeing and hearing on TV. Just last week, Jerry Foltz and Judy Rankin on The Golf Channel LPGA Tour telecast from Ocala had an Aimpoint Express discussion that was full of errors that left the viewer confused and badly misinformed.
So let me give you some facts about green reading with Aimpoint Express. We are going to hit these 3 points:
- Aimpoint Express is quick.
- Aimpoint Express is NOT technical.
- The best players are using it.
Take the last point first because all you have to do is read the list of names that use Aimpoint Express: Adam Scott, Anna Nordqvist, Stacey Lewis, Ian Poulter, Zach Johnson, Hunter Mahan and Lydia Ko, the new No. 1-ranked female golfer in the world.
Also, Aimpoint Express is not technical. When you can learn it in less than an hour and immediately make putts from all over the green, that is in no way technical. Quantum Physics or String Theory is technical. Taking apart my computer and putting it back together (and having it work again) is technical!
Here is how non-technical it is.
I had a tour player recently ask me what we do about grain and if I can adjust to play more or less break if I want to with Aimpoint Express? He had been told there is no adjustment for it because it is too technical. Well, that is another false statement and goes to how not technical it is. Aimpoint Express is accurate to 95 percent of the read, while the other 5 percent of the putt is your experience and athleticism, adjusting for things like grain and how hard to strike the ball. It’s literally as easy as that!
The last comment I hear a lot is that Aimpoint takes too long. On the contrary, it’s so fast that if every player on the Ryder Cup teams last year knew how to do it, they could play the event in two days instead of three. I can get the read and have the putt on the way a lot faster with Aimpoint Express than when I read it with my eyes after walking all over the place. My eyes are nowhere near accurate enough for me to get the read quickly!
I prefer to be 95 percent accurate as opposed to just going with my best guess and reading putts with my eyes. Remember the test above, with the curved cards, if you want to trust your eyes.
Our feet are like a pair of highly sensitive levels. They are always seeking dynamic balance to keep us safe by making minute adjustments and sending that message to our brain. So they are very effective at feeling slope because they have been doing that since we started to walk in order to keep us upright and out of harm’s way.
So after learning Aimpoint Express and teaching it to my players and watching them win tournaments, I can clearly see the future of green reading. If you do not want more precision, then keep guessing with your eyes. If you want to get your read faster and make more putts, then find a certified instructor near you and check out Aimpoint Express.
As the editor-in-chief of this website and an observer of the GolfWRX forums and other online golf equipment discourse for over a decade, I’m pretty well attuned to the grunts and grumbles of a significant portion of the golf equipment purchasing spectrum. And before you accuse me of lording above all in some digital ivory tower, I’d like to offer that I worked at golf courses (public and private) for years prior to picking up my pen, so I’m well-versed in the non-degenerate golf equipment consumers out there. I touched (green)grass (retail)!
Complaints about the ills of and related to the OEMs usually follow some version of: Product cycles are too short for real innovation, tour equipment isn’t the same as retail (which is largely not true, by the way), too much is invested in marketing and not enough in R&D, top staffer X hasn’t even put the new driver in play, so it’s obviously not superior to the previous generation, prices are too high, and on and on.
Without digging into the merits of any of these claims, which I believe are mostly red herrings, I’d like to bring into view of our rangefinder what I believe to be the two primary difficulties golf equipment companies face.
One: As Terry Koehler, back when he was the CEO of Ben Hogan, told me at the time of the Ft Worth irons launch, if you can’t regularly hit the golf ball in a coin-sized area in the middle of the face, there’s not a ton that iron technology can do for you. Now, this is less true now with respect to irons than when he said it, and is less and less true by degrees as the clubs get larger (utilities, fairways, hybrids, drivers), but there remains a great deal of golf equipment truth in that statement. Think about it — which is to say, in TL;DR fashion, get lessons from a qualified instructor who will teach you about the fundamentals of repeatable impact and how the golf swing works, not just offer band-aid fixes. If you can’t repeatably deliver the golf club to the golf ball in something resembling the manner it was designed for, how can you expect to be getting the most out of the club — put another way, the maximum value from your investment?
Similarly, game improvement equipment can only improve your game if you game it. In other words, get fit for the clubs you ought to be playing rather than filling the bag with the ones you wish you could hit or used to be able to hit. Of course, don’t do this if you don’t care about performance and just want to hit a forged blade while playing off an 18 handicap. That’s absolutely fine. There were plenty of members in clubs back in the day playing Hogan Apex or Mizuno MP-32 irons who had no business doing so from a ballstriking standpoint, but they enjoyed their look, feel, and complementary qualities to their Gatsby hats and cashmere sweaters. Do what brings you a measure of joy in this maddening game.
Now, the second issue. This is not a plea for non-conforming equipment; rather, it is a statement of fact. USGA/R&A limits on every facet of golf equipment are detrimental to golf equipment manufacturers. Sure, you know this, but do you think about it as it applies to almost every element of equipment? A 500cc driver would be inherently more forgiving than a 460cc, as one with a COR measurement in excess of 0.83. 50-inch shafts. Box grooves. And on and on.
Would fewer regulations be objectively bad for the game? Would this erode its soul? Fortunately, that’s beside the point of this exercise, which is merely to point out the facts. The fact, in this case, is that equipment restrictions and regulations are the slaughterbench of an abundance of innovation in the golf equipment space. Is this for the best? Well, now I’ve asked the question twice and might as well give a partial response, I guess my answer to that would be, “It depends on what type of golf you’re playing and who you’re playing it with.”
For my part, I don’t mind embarrassing myself with vintage blades and persimmons chasing after the quasi-spiritual elevation of a well-struck shot, but that’s just me. Plenty of folks don’t give a damn if their grooves are conforming. Plenty of folks think the folks in Liberty Corner ought to add a prison to the museum for such offences. And those are just a few of the considerations for the amateur game — which doesn’t get inside the gallery ropes of the pro game…
Different strokes in the game of golf, in my humble opinion.
Anyway, I believe equipment company engineers are genuinely trying to build better equipment year over year. The marketing departments are trying to find ways to make this equipment appeal to the broadest segment of the golf market possible. All of this against (1) the backdrop of — at least for now — firm product cycles. And golfers who, with their ~15 average handicap (men), for the most part, are not striping the golf ball like Tiger in his prime and seem to have less and less time year over year to practice and improve. (2) Regulations that massively restrict what they’re able to do…
That’s the landscape as I see it and the real headwinds for golf equipment companies. No doubt, there’s more I haven’t considered, but I think the previous is a better — and better faith — point of departure when formulating any serious commentary on the golf equipment world than some of the more cynical and conspiratorial takes I hear.
Agree? Disagree? Think I’m worthy of an Adam Hadwin-esque security guard tackle? Let me know in the comments.
@golfoncbs The infamous Adam Hadwin tackle ? #golf #fyp #canada #pgatour #adamhadwin ? Ghibli-style nostalgic waltz – MaSssuguMusic
Episode #16 brings us Cliff McKinney. Cliff is the founder of Old Charlie Golf Club, a new club, and concept, to be built in the Florida panhandle. The model is quite interesting and aims to make great, private golf more affordable. We hope you enjoy the show!
Last week, I came across a reel from BBC Sport on Instagram featuring Scottie Scheffler speaking to the media ahead of The Open at Royal Portrush. In it, he shared that he often wonders what the point is of wanting to win tournaments so badly — especially when he knows, deep down, that it doesn’t lead to a truly fulfilling life.
View this post on Instagram
“Is it great to be able to win tournaments and to accomplish the things I have in the game of golf? Yeah, it brings tears to my eyes just to think about it because I’ve literally worked my entire life to be good at this sport,” Scheffler said. “To have that kind of sense of accomplishment, I think, is a pretty cool feeling. To get to live out your dreams is very special, but at the end of the day, I’m not out here to inspire the next generation of golfers. I’m not out here to inspire someone to be the best player in the world, because what’s the point?”
Ironically — or perhaps perfectly — he went on to win the claret jug.
That question — what’s the point of winning? — cuts straight to the heart of the human journey.
As someone who’s spent over two decades in the trenches of professional golf, and in deep study of the mental, emotional, and spiritual dimensions of the game, I see Scottie’s inner conflict as a sign of soul evolution in motion.
I came to golf late. I wasn’t a junior standout or college All-American. At 27, I left a steady corporate job to see if I could be on the PGA Tour starting as a 14-handicap, average-length hitter. Over the years, my journey has been defined less by trophies and more by the relentless effort to navigate the deeply inequitable and gated system of professional golf — an effort that ultimately turned inward and helped me evolve as both a golfer and a person.
One perspective that helped me make sense of this inner dissonance around competition and our culture’s tendency to overvalue winning is the idea of soul evolution.
The University of Virginia’s Division of Perceptual Studies has done extensive research on reincarnation, and Netflix’s Surviving Death (Episode 6) explores the topic, too. Whether you take it literally or metaphorically, the idea that we’re on a long arc of growth — from beginner to sage elder — offers a profound perspective.
If you accept the premise literally, then terms like “young soul” and “old soul” start to hold meaning. However, even if we set the word “soul” aside, it’s easy to see that different levels of life experience produce different worldviews.
Newer souls — or people in earlier stages of their development — may be curious and kind but still lack discernment or depth. There is a naivety, and they don’t yet question as deeply, tending to see things in black and white, partly because certainty feels safer than confronting the unknown.
As we gain more experience, we begin to experiment. We test limits. We chase extreme external goals — sometimes at the expense of health, relationships, or inner peace — still operating from hunger, ambition, and the fragility of the ego.
It’s a necessary stage, but often a turbulent and unfulfilling one.
David Duval fell off the map after reaching World No. 1. Bubba Watson had his own “Is this it?” moment with his caddie, Ted Scott, after winning the Masters.
In Aaron Rodgers: Enigma, reflecting on his 2011 Super Bowl win, Rodgers said:
“Now I’ve accomplished the only thing that I really, really wanted to do in my life. Now what? I was like, ‘Did I aim at the wrong thing? Did I spend too much time thinking about stuff that ultimately doesn’t give you true happiness?’”
Jim Carrey once said, “I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it’s not the answer.”
Eventually, though, something shifts.
We begin to see in shades of gray. Winning, dominating, accumulating—these pursuits lose their shine. The rewards feel more fleeting. Living in a constant state of fight-or-flight makes us feel alive, yes, but not happy and joyful.
Compassion begins to replace ambition. Love, presence, and gratitude become more fulfilling than status, profits, or trophies. We crave balance over burnout. Collaboration over competition. Meaning over metrics.
Interestingly, if we zoom out, we can apply this same model to nations and cultures. Countries, like people, have a collective “soul stage” made up of the individuals within them.
Take the United States, for example. I’d place it as a mid-level soul: highly competitive and deeply driven, but still learning emotional maturity. Still uncomfortable with nuance. Still believing that more is always better. Despite its global wins, the U.S. currently ranks just 23rd in happiness (as of 2025). You might liken it to a gifted teenager—bold, eager, and ambitious, but angsty and still figuring out how to live well and in balance. As much as a parent wants to protect their child, sometimes the child has to make their own mistakes to truly grow.
So when Scottie Scheffler wonders what the point of winning is, I don’t see someone losing strength.
I see someone evolving.
He’s beginning to look beyond the leaderboard. Beyond metrics of success that carry a lower vibration. And yet, in a poetic twist, Scheffler did go on to win The Open. But that only reinforces the point: even at the pinnacle, the question remains. And if more of us in the golf and sports world — and in U.S. culture at large — started asking similar questions, we might discover that the more meaningful trophy isn’t about accumulating or beating others at all costs.
It’s about awakening and evolving to something more than winning could ever promise.
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terry
Feb 27, 2015 at 11:28 am
could this be part of what’s wrong with golf. its hard enough, now course architects are changing the slopes to not match the natural tendencies… dumb.
Jerry
Feb 19, 2015 at 12:51 pm
“Feeling” the slope with your feet is only valid for about a 3 ft putt. Beyond that length the slope is rarely consistent with where the ball rests. Matter of fact, for me at least, if I can feel the slope when I stand over the ball for that 3 footer, it’s so severe that it’s real luck if ball goes in.
Jose
Mar 3, 2015 at 2:09 pm
We have found this not too be true. Your feet can tell you a lot about how the green changes over distance.
Shawn Clement and I have crafted a putting drill in the dark. Well almost in the dark. You need enough light such as a full moon or a nearby parking lot lamp so that you can still barely see the hole and ball while being totally deprived of depth perception.
You do the around the world drill at a pin position with slope using 5 balls at 5 feet. For ADHD kids we do semi circles and alternate the sides of the hole in order to maintain focus. Since you can not see the slope your senses will be hyper charged to be aware of what your feet and your inner balance mechanism are telling you. When you go up and over the falling it becomes very obvious. By the third time through the sequence you will make most if not all of the putts even though you can not see a thing.
Then do the same with a 5 ball ladder drill from 10′ to 30′ feet. With the first putt you can stills how the ball reacts near the hole. On the second putt you apply that knowledge plus what your feet are telling you is the difference between ball 1 and ball 2 and the second putt ends up much closer. By the third time through the ladder there is very little difference between the outcome of the ladder drill in the dark vs the ladder drill in the light.
However you still need your eyes. You need both senses to allow you brain to predict. This is why we teach ADHD kids to walk above the break, around the hole and stop below the hole. Then they build a picture of how the ball will roll into the hole. They walk back to the ball below the break. Then they build a picture of the ball going into the hole starting from the hole backwards from what both their feet and their eyes are telling them.
It is like a Chef sautéing vegetables. An experienced chef uses what his or her eyes, ears, and nose are telling them what is going on in the pan. If the veggies have spent a couple of days in the crisper, they are more dehydrated and will sizzle less in the pan. At that point the chef instinctively grabs for the chicken stock sooner. His brain has predicted from the sound and experiences that the veggies are about to burn sooner than the time the recipe suggests.
You need to build awareness of what your eyes, feet and inner balance mechanisms are telling you.
Your brain is a marvelous prediction machine.
pete kauffman
Feb 13, 2015 at 9:24 am
How can an amateur learn AimPoint?
Rob Strano
Feb 13, 2015 at 10:52 am
Go to the Aimpoint website and find an instructor near you and contact them.
Rob Strano
Feb 13, 2015 at 8:04 am
Thanks for all the mostly favorable comments on the article. Understand that I wrote it to help explain why you “might” miss putts, why there is another way, and to correct wrong information that so called expert golf commentators are sharing during telecasts (Yesterday Feherety said everything at Pebble breaks toward the ocean, UGH….). In this limited space I do not have the luxury of a dissertation length narrative to explain everything. Just because I did not write about the HOW does not mean anything negative mentioned in the comments is valid. It means that I chose to help you by giving you facts over falsehoods and misconceptions so that you are correctly informed. If you want more about AE here is a great article about the HOW by one of the other certified instructors:
http://www.todaysgolfer.co.uk/tips-and-tuition/tuition-features/the-art-of-green-reading/
Martin
Feb 13, 2015 at 6:25 am
I just read an article about a process I had never heard of before and I don’t know anything more about it than I did before I read the article.
Long
Feb 13, 2015 at 6:08 am
The idea of Aimpoint express is to quickly read the break and give us the weekend hackers a much better chance to 2putt from outside of 6 feet. I dont expect to make everything for mid range and long range putt. My number of 3 putt has significantly reduced since i took the aimpoint express class. And like some of you mentioned, you have to practice a lot to get better at feeling the slope with your feet. Adam has practiced every day to feel the slope and double check with a digital meter.
Tom
Feb 13, 2015 at 5:28 am
If this article was in any sort of scientific journal it would come with a massive disclaimer at the bottom of it.
Plus the question at the top of the article is ‘Which looks longer, A or B?’ not ‘which is larger, A or B?’ Therefore the answer is ‘B’ it looks larger.
Tim
Feb 13, 2015 at 4:41 am
I have tried it. Not sure I like it. feeling the break through your feet is just as difficult as seeing it with your eyes. Its also just as open to error. if you tend to favour your weight on one side or the other won’t that make a putt that curves feel straight potentially. If I was barefoot on a green I might be able to feel all the slopes, but with spiked shoes its just as much a lottery for me as using my eyes
Fred
Mar 5, 2015 at 3:12 pm
That is exactly correct Tim ! I have got to come up with a gimmick for golf. We are so easy !
Chris C
Feb 13, 2015 at 12:05 am
With all due respect, this article provided no useful information and is simply an add for Aimpoint. I am not saying that Aimpoint is worthless. I am saying that this article provided no information regarding the “secrets” of Aimpoint. Step right up people. Pay your quarter and step into into the tent to see the lizard girl from the Amazon… It’s fast; it’s not rocket science and some very good golfers know the secrets. At least the carnival barkers give some examples of what might be revealed inside the tent. With respect to Aimpoint, I would be satisfied if the author would have given a good explanation as to Scott’s use of a Vulcan mind meld grip to assess green breaks.
Andy W
Feb 12, 2015 at 5:49 pm
So “regular” Aimpoint goes to the curb, now “Express” claims get 95% good reads? Insane quick Expert Greenreading is guaranteed 100% of the time with a P&SI-EGOS; where if ever a bad read, it is pilot error. And free support to correct pilot error. No charts, no foot feeling, no fingers needed.
Anon
Feb 12, 2015 at 2:48 pm
Nice sales pitch. Your article didn’t actually present any information about aim point though. You just bragged about who uses it and name dropped the whole time. Are you afraid if you shared a little knowledge that no one would come to you for lessons? This kind of thinking kept golf instruction (and other industries) in the dark ages for the longest time!
Rob Strano
Feb 12, 2015 at 10:34 am
“When I stand over a six-footer I have a game plan,” says Adam Scott. “I know where the putt needs to go and that gives me great confidence.”
Captain Oblivious
Feb 12, 2015 at 10:15 am
Sounds interesting. I think I will pass, though. I already make an extraordinary amount of putts. If I made any more, I’m sure I would be investigated by numerous government and golfing organizations. Senate hearings, the whole deal. Thanks, but no thanks.
Steve
Feb 12, 2015 at 8:58 am
Adam Scott started using aim point when he was the number 1 player in the world, now he is number 5. Seems to be working, what a joke.
Birdeez
Feb 12, 2015 at 10:10 am
yet his putting stats have gotten better…. sometimes you drop in world ranking for other reasons, but that would take little more common sense and time from your part which you seem incapable of
Steve
Feb 12, 2015 at 1:30 pm
This article is a advertisement at best. it is a complete joke and has no merits, no proof that it works. It is some teaching pro trying to drum up buisness.
rc
Feb 11, 2015 at 10:08 pm
I’m just waiting for the comment here with the youtube link for it :0)
Rob Strano
Feb 11, 2015 at 9:39 pm
Thanks for all the comments on the article pro and con. I just got really frustrated last week at the comments during the telecasts on the LPGA and PGA Tours. Mainly this one from Ocala between between Jerry Foltz and Judy Rankin on The Golf Channel telecast.
Here is the transcript of the conversation:
Foltz: “I know Judy you get a lot of questions from viewers who look for a definition as to what it is, and it’s impossible to give you an overview that quickly but essentially it’s a modern day way to quantify what you feel with your feet a plumb-bob if you will.”
Rankin: “And if you stick with us for a few weeks we are going to make every effort to explain this in layman’s terms.”
Foltz: “You feel the slope with your feet and you learn how to judge it between a scale of 1-5 and then you stand behind the ball hold up those fingers next to the golf ball and where the outside finger is in relation to the hole that is your Aimpoint. It is a little more complicated than that.”
(Then Lydia Ko makes a super long birdie putt using Aimpoint Express!!)
Rankin: “I have to ask one more question Jerry…Does it matter which is your dominant eye because it sure did plumb-bobing?”
Foltz: “Yea, I believe it does. Yea, you just , with plumb-bobbing you are like how Karrie Webb does, and is doing, you have to basically stand perpendicular to the slope and then hold your dominant eye. The putter between your dominant eye and the outside edge of the ball. Very similar with the Aimpoint.”
Very confusing and it made my head spin listening to them and I know what I am doing. So how must the viewer feel when hearing all that?. It is OK if you do not know something to simply say “I don’t know,” instead of making stuff up. The point is to help the readers understand some correct facts against what they are hearing on telecasts and maybe see why the best players are doing it.
Richard Davis
Feb 11, 2015 at 9:34 pm
I’m blind in one eye,a good reader of greens.
I actually do it with my feet. I learned the art
of putting from a pro that played in the 1st
masters. Won’t use his name,son copied righted
everything he did or said.
(QUOTE) in real estate 3 important things to remember
Location…Location…Location
IN PUTTING POSTURE…BALANCE…FEEL
Everything starts from the ground up.
Secret
Feb 11, 2015 at 8:15 pm
Folks folks folks.
The reason why there is so much misinformation from guys like Foltz and even good Tour players is this…..: They don’t really want you to know the secret. It’s always been that way.
8thehardway
Feb 11, 2015 at 7:48 pm
So AimPoint mitigates our difficulty reading curves, it’s accurate and easy to learn…
what differentiates it from a protractor?
and why is Adam Scott holding up two fingers?
An overview would have supported your product better than the unexplained correlation with feet, fingers, photos and four paragraphs on non-natural drainage patterns.
The lack of clarity is doubly annoying because my green reading I’m bad at reading the line
Secret
Feb 11, 2015 at 8:16 pm
If you take the course, you would know, wouldn’t you? Duh
Preston
Feb 11, 2015 at 7:40 pm
I’ll save you folks some money. Here’s how it was explained to me by someone that did go to a teacher on the Aimpoint (not sure if it is correct, but I won’t spend the money on the class to verify it): The number of fingers is the amount of break. The length of your arm (distance from your eye) is the speed of the greens. This is the basic principle. First, you calibrate your arm (distance) to the speed of the green, then decide if the putt is a one finger break, 2 finger break (more break), 3 finger, etc….
Example: a huge swinger from right to left… you determine that this much elbow bend equals the speed of the green, the amount of break is 2 fingers. Hold that up to the hole in front of you. This will give you your aim point for the putt.
Secret
Feb 11, 2015 at 8:20 pm
hahahaha what a joke.
MAx
Feb 12, 2015 at 9:24 am
Thank you for the explanation.
skytrooper70
Feb 19, 2015 at 1:52 pm
The number of fingers is based upon your getting to know the degree of slope (from 1-5, with the number of fingers equaling that degree). However, you place the index finger over one-half of the cup and determine your aim point, using the outer most finger (again, from 1-5). I never took the course but saw a promo video. My first three rounds since using Aim Point had me draining longer (over 10 feet) putts on a more consistent basis or just burning edges, more consistently. This meant the dreaded 3 putts were history. The key is to get used to your feel for slope and knowing how hard to hit your putts. Personally, whether it’s a cure-all or not is irrelevant. Now, I have much more confident in my reads and that’s what counts for any golf shot–confidence.
Rob Strano
Feb 19, 2015 at 5:35 pm
“Now, I have much more confident in my reads and that’s what counts for any golf shot–confidence.” Bingo!!! This is what the tour players tell me. They say now I have a plan and feel more confident over the putt…
Cyd
Feb 11, 2015 at 5:15 pm
Anyone that listens to Jerry Foltz is asking to miss putts, cuts, greens, fairways and the broad side of a barn.
Foltz is wrong so often I don’t think he is even watching the same tournament or much less the same shot or putt that I am.
golferjack
Feb 11, 2015 at 4:57 pm
How about letting us know what Aimpoint is (I do know this is just a comment) and give us a bit of Information about how it works……..Otherwise I would like to see the Stats from the Players who use it now and how they putted before ….Then maybe I would like to invest my hard earned bucks in a lesson. Just as an extra there, I am quite happy with my putting but new things are often worth a look.
Philip
Feb 11, 2015 at 4:50 pm
I’ve learned to just trust myself “my 5 senses, yes all 5”. Works from any distance, slop, or speed of greens and can adjust immediately to changing conditions. I believe many just forgot how to listen to their senses and let that information set them up for the putt. It is almost as if someone else is making the putt for you.
It tool me a few months last season, but it was a project that is seeing results in all aspects of my game besides putting. Putting just seemed logical to approach first.
Andrew Cooper
Feb 11, 2015 at 4:26 pm
Trust your feet don’t trust your eyes? Ok try reading a green with your eyes closed and relying on your feet to feel the slope…
Rob Strano
Feb 11, 2015 at 10:01 pm
Thanks for your comment Andrew. If you love the game like I do then you have run into this situation. It is late in the day and you say to yourself, “I can squeeze in a quick 9 before dark!” But you don’t quit make it and with 3 holes to play it is hard to see the ball in the air let alone read a green. Over the summer this happened to me and using AE I made 3 in row coming in without being able to see a thing. Years ago on tour (back when it was Buy.com before Nationwide) I was finishing in the near dark, they had not called play because we were two holes from done, and it was darn tough to see. Wish I had this back then!
Andrew Cooper
Feb 12, 2015 at 3:58 am
Rob, thanks for taking the time to reply. I’m a little skeptical of AE, but obviously lots of good players, yourself included, are devotees so I don’t want to knock it. Just can’t think I’d ever trust my feet to feel a slope over what my eyes are telling me! I can relate to your experiences of playing late in the day and holing putts-maybe because we’re also not over thinking the putt too? more relaxed, lower expectations? I’ve always felt I can read greens well- I’ll hit my share of bad putts but rarely do I get fooled by a break-maybe I’ve a sense of slope coming through my feet without realizing it.
Connor
Feb 11, 2015 at 3:23 pm
I live in Seattle, WA and the nearest AimPoint certified coach wanted $600 for a 2-hour lesson.
…I’d rather 3-putt?
Rob Strano
Feb 11, 2015 at 10:47 pm
Connor thanks for your comment.
I charge my normal one hour lesson fee. Interested to know who that is and I cannot imagine they are doing many sessions at that rate.
Mike
Feb 11, 2015 at 3:12 pm
Sebastian, here are 3 Aimpoint certified instructors in Canada: Paul Horton Heritage Point Golf Club DeWinton Canada, Derek Ingram Elmhurst Golf and Country Club Winnipeg Canada, Martin Whelan Club de Golf St-Rapha L’lle-Bizard Canada.
Sebastien
Feb 11, 2015 at 2:48 pm
I wish I could learn it but are any course offered in Canada?
jeff
Feb 11, 2015 at 10:45 pm
Liam Mucklow at the Golf Lab in Toronto
snowman0157
Feb 11, 2015 at 12:04 pm
I have taken the level 1 Aimpoint class (not Express)….but actually I have started using my feet to feel the slope and then trying to just trust it with my stroke….It Works! The feet and brain are very well calibrated it seems. If this is similar to the AP Express method, then I would suggest folks try it.
Rob Strano
Feb 11, 2015 at 10:05 pm
Snowman thanks for your comment. The article is about Aimpoint Express and glad you understanding the correlation between feet and slope. In a couple of years only the stubborn will rely 100% on the old way to read a green.
Don B
Feb 11, 2015 at 11:11 am
Great article, as an Aimpointer myself I get asked all the time what it is and how it works and I am happy to offer a quick lesson or a full scale demo. Doing this doesn’t really make someone good at it, until you spend some time training your feel for slope!
So that’s where taking a class or two comes in. I have done training with Mark Sweeney and even he will tell you that without practice you will not be as accurate.
One other point that will no doubt open Pandora’s box, is Grain! Just like Rob mentions that slope doesn’t necessarily break to a body of water or like the TV folks repeatedly say about the setting sun, grain is a misunderstood property of green reading. To put it bluntly, it has little bearing on green reading because “grain is slope”. Grain is the direction in which grass grows and grass grows where water goes. Water goes with the slope!! On today’s greens that are cut much shorter than in the past, grain is negligible.
The only place grain effects a read is where the grass is longer, say fringe! And the only place grain doesn’t grow with slope is where there is no slope, on really flat spots.
Aimpoint won’t guarentee you make every putt, but it will sure help you understand how to make more and why you miss when you do. I was always a poor putter but I now feel like I can make everything. And if I dont, it’s usually not far off.
Rob Strano
Feb 11, 2015 at 10:22 pm
Thanks for your comment Don and your last sentence is dead on…
When I miss it always looks like it is going to go in but at the last roll just misses.
Really tightens down your reads.
Keep it up and make everything in 2015
frendy
Feb 11, 2015 at 11:00 am
This article should be filed under ADVERTISEMENT.
Zak Kozuchowski
Feb 11, 2015 at 11:04 am
It’s filed under opinion, and comes from one of our regular featured instructors who writes about a variety of topics.
Knobbywood
Feb 11, 2015 at 2:13 pm
This article does not tell you anything about how to use the system but it certainly tries to put the hook in our mouths so we can all go and pay for aimpoint lessons… I agree this is basically an advertisement and I don’t think it should be on golfwrx
Preston
Feb 11, 2015 at 7:32 pm
I agree, this it definitely not an opinion piece. An opinion piece would offer an opposing viewpoint, usually backed up with some facts. This is a teaser for trying to drum up business for Aimpoint teachers, which the writer just so happens to teach.
Travis
Feb 17, 2015 at 4:00 pm
I’m not sure you fully comprehend what “opinion” means.
Keith
Feb 11, 2015 at 9:18 pm
100% agree…but…AimPoint Express is legit and worth it if you can find a pro that doesn’t price gouge for a lesson.
4pillars
Feb 11, 2015 at 10:10 am
The big issue with aimpoint express is that it is so simple you don’t want to tell people how it works because you will lose big $$$$ on your expensive 2 hour classes.
The actual information on aimpoint express you could write in a ten page ebook.
Your article dosn’t in fact explain how aimpoint express works.
I’m not knocking aimpoint express as a technique – I use it myself – just the $$$$ mentality around it.
Knobbywood
Feb 11, 2015 at 2:23 pm
Bullseye! First article on this site to actually make me feel disgust… Sad as this is one of my favorite sites 🙁 and this guy one of the best writers too…
Rob Strano
Feb 11, 2015 at 10:41 pm
Knobbywood thanks for your comment and sorry you feel so strongly that way. If you read my lengthy comment above you see that my desire to write this comes from all the incorrect commentary on the telecasts. Why does everyone have a hard time saying, “I simply do not know enough to have an informed opinion?” Also, I am unaware of the big $$$ around AE. I charge the same rate as my hourly lesson fee.
Thank you for also saying I am one of the better writers. That was very kind of you. Don’t personally feel that way and am just trying to help everyone enjoy the game more and play better by sharing information from lessons at my academy.
BTW, your handle would make a great golf course name:
Knobbywood Golf Club – Pine Forest, Illinois
Dennis Corley
Feb 11, 2015 at 2:26 pm
In my opinion:
Pricing of a product or service should be about “value” not “volume”. Just because the inventor can explain the innovative process in a short and simple fashion should not make it “less valuable” or “less expensive”. In fact I think it is more valuable how the process has so simplified some complex science.
Value is set by the consumer. If the seller can help you putt significantly better with a small amount of information – how much is it worth to you? Many golfers are paying $250-$500 to get 10 more yards on a drive. I would argue that the benefits to score are more significant with AimPoint Express than a new driver.
I will also say that, like stealing someone’s music with something like Napster, stealing the Aimpoint Express methods is not “OK” just because it is easy to communicate. (I am not suggesting that you specifically are going to steal it.)
I have taken two AimPoint Express clinics. It is fast, effective, and worth the price– to me. If it is not to you, that is fine, just don’t then feel OK to steal the information.
Jesse
Feb 11, 2015 at 10:01 am
Great article there is so much disinformation about Aimpoint im glad you cleaned it all up. I’ll be taking an Aimpoint clinic this year and am excited to try it out as putting has always been the worst part of my game.
Rob Strano
Feb 11, 2015 at 10:43 pm
Thanks for the comment Jesse. It will help you tighten up your reads a lot. One of the main questions I get from players who tell me putting is the worst part of their game is how do I read a green. This will help you a bunch.
Play well in 2015 and make lot of putts!