“I can easily see this blowing up on tour and eventually with the average golfer too. Even without using the charts, the ideas from the class are now in my head with every read. And not in a bad way, I feel much more confident that I made the right read.” – (GolfSpy Dave)
Will AimPoint Revolutionize The Putting Industry?
Written By: GolfSpy Dave
If you have watched any golf in the past few years on TV I am sure that you have noticed the aiming graphic that is used to show where the player should aim and what path a ball that is going in the hole should take.
What you have also likely noticed is that when the ball goes off that digital path, it doesn’t go into the hole. This is usually followed by the tour pro making some kind of hand gesture right or left, showing how the ball should have moved based upon the line they saw.
The cliché of “seeing is believing” is not always the case with putting. We have all had putts that we read right to left break to the right. Putting has the mystical aura of “feel” associated with it, and with some good reason. Think about your long vs. short putts. Many of us will line it up and just have a “feel” for how hard to hit it and on flat putts we are pretty good at this. What gets to be an issue though is using “feel” to judge breaks on putts and where we should be aiming. Why were you high or low on that last uphill left to right putt? Why did the putt that you read as one cup left go dead straight? Perhaps what we saw or felt was the correct line on those putts was not correct. Feel definitely helps in judging distance for our putts, but maybe we need something more precise for figuring out where the putt should actually be aimed.
What if instead of relying only on feel, you could also use science to read the break? What if aiming by feel could be replaced by aiming with math, physics, and three-dimensional geometry? Even better, what if the math was already done for you? Enter AimPoint. That line on TV is not Johnny Miller going all John Madden with the telestrator. That line is based upon science and is the product of AimPoint developer Mark Sweeny’s research and innovation. The line on TV and the line you can read on your course are not based upon feel, but science. If you putt on that line at the correct speed, the ball goes in. Period.
This sounded pretty good to me. Knowing that I could use the same system that is used on TV on any green I play was a strong motivator to sign up for a Level 1 AimPoint class one Sunday last February. I looked through the AimPoint website and the more I read, the more it sounded like something I could learn and use. So, armed with my trusty Byron twisty I headed out to the course for the class.
Aimpoint – Putting Drills
I apologize in advance for the lack of exciting photos associated with this review. I was so engrossed in the class that stopping to shoot pictures didn’t really cross my mind. There were ten students in the class with two instructors, Tim Tucker and Peter Brown. After some brief introductions, Tim and Pete had us head over to part of the green that had been taped off with a large rectangle. We were told to go to a pile of balls and make putts with the ball stopping in the rectangle. Although this was a class about reading greens, the system still requires you to hit an accurate putt at the correct pace for it to work.
Key Point #1:
The AimPoint calculations are based upon the speed that would have your ball stop 10” past the hole. If you can’t control speed, line becomes a secondary issue.
So this drill was introduced as a way to practice pace and to develop a consistent speed. Next we paired up and moved to lengths of elastic string that had been tied to knitting needles and sunk into the green. We were told to putt the ball down the line. The other person was watching to see if we actually lined up the putter square to the string line. That way we could know if our putt was off line because of aiming or the stroke itself. Another good putting drill to take with me.
Key Point #2:
Reading the correct line is important, but so too is aiming correctly at that line and actually sending the ball down that line.
So although this is a green reading class and not a putting class, right away we were given two simple drills to make us better putters.
Class Day – AimPoint System and Aiming Drills
The green reading started with the simple concept of uphill and downhill putts. On a simple planar green there will be two putts that are straight: one uphill and one downhill. As you move away from those straight putts, putts will break. The further away, the more break. Made sense to me so far.
Key Point #3:
Every hole has two straight putts, one uphill and one downhill.
Our next drill was to walk around holes and feel with our feet where the transitions from uphill to downhill and downhill to uphill occur. If you can pinpoint the transition point, you have found the straight put, or what is called the “zero line”. So the group of us walked in circles around the holes and stopped once we felt the transition. After marking that spot with a tee, we rolled balls at the hole to see if we were correct in our read. This is a skill that must be practiced. On the steeper slopes I found locating the transition point a bit easier than on the more flat holes. After a few holes, I could tell when I was close. With more practice I think that I will improve in this area. Getting close is huge though because putts to the right of the zero line break left and putts to the right of the zero line break left.
Key Point #4:
Putts to the right of the zero line break left and putts to the right of the zero line break left.
Yes I did repeat myself here, but even without the AimPoint system, this was a huge help for me. If I can get a good estimate of the zero line, I should always at least play the correct direction of break. No more read left, ball goes right.
From here we were issued the AimPoint charts. This is where the math comes into play. You measure how far your ball is from the hole (pace it off), estimate the angle of the ball location from the zero line, estimate the stimp and slope of the green, and then read the correct break number off the chart. Stimp can be acquired from the starter at the course or is easy to estimate if you are 8 (slow), 10 (medium), or 12 (fast). There are four different slope reads on the chart ranging from flat (1%) to severe (4%). You estimate the slope and you have your number. This estimation is also something that will be improved with practice.
Key Point #5:
Trust the chart.
If it says that your 10’ putt needs to be aimed 4” left. Aim 4” left. While I practiced with the chart, the break often seemed less than I would have played had I been going with my eye. Granted, I may just be bad at reading greens with my eyes. However when I went with the reads on the charts, I got close if I miss-hit the putt or made it if I stroked it well. It still comes down to the monkey holding the club, but now this monkey knows exactly where to point the stick.
Although the charts are only calibrated out to 20’ distances, it is easy to calculate the break on longer putts. They even showed us how to find the (sometimes snaking) zero line of a 60’ putt and how the chart could be used to tell break. One of the putts we hit was 60’ with a chart reading of 20” of break. There is no way that I would have read it that low. Hitting a ball though, 20” was the right read.
At the end of the 2.5 hour class, I walked away with my aim charts, a Level 1 student workbook, and a feeling of confidence that my green reading will improve if I practice and use the AimPoint system. The cost of this course was $200, which honestly seemed a bit steep to me at first. Two and a half hours of swing instruction from your local golf pro would cost you about the same though. Having taken the class, I feel that what I spent was a bargain. This is a skill set that I can use for every round of golf I play in the future.
AimPoint: Reflections and “Rating”
After the class, I had lunch with Tim and Pete and some interesting points came up. First of all, there has been a significant increase in the number of tour pros using the AimPoint system. Some seem reluctant to learn the system, fearing that they will lose their “feel” for reading greens. That seems like a good thing. AimPoint trained caddy to tour pro after reading the chart, “Play it 14” left.” Pro aims 14” left and it goes in. Tim told me some great stories about how the game of golf has changed over the years. One innovation came when Jack Nicklaus would go out during a practice round and mark off distances to objects on the course. That way he knew that if a tree by his ball is 145 yards out, he hits the iron that goes 145 yards. Many of the players were using more of a “This feels like a 6 iron mentality” until Jack showed them the value in knowing exact yardage. A similar revelation came later in wedge play. Mapping out exact distances of wedge shots at 50%, 75%, and 100% swings allowed Tom Watson to throw darts at greens well before others were doing the same. All other areas of the game are very data centered, but green reading is still viewed as being only about feel. I think that more and more people will see the science of AimPoint and experience how using this system improves reads and lowers scores. A few years from now we may joke about how we putted before AimPoint.
Conclusion
Go to the AimPoint website, locate an instructor in your area, and take a class. You will be happy you did. Tim mentioned to me that they will be launching 3-day AimPoint clinics at twelve locations across the US this year. This would be amazing to attend. Instruction in the morning and practice on the course in the afternoon would truly cement in those skills. After three days, you would leave a far better putter with a great handle on the AimPoint system.
I could break this review down into a 100 point based scoring system as I have done in the other reviews, but taking a class doesn’t really lend itself to that scale. For this review I will leave the scoring to you, but think about these questions. How would you score a class that makes you a better green reader in every future round you play? How would you score the value of that skill? How would you rate a class that allowed you to never have to guess at a read again?
That is what I believe AimPoint has done for me. And this class was only Level 1…
Loading ...
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Excellent article! I like the blend of info and humor. And I learned something: I spent this whole time thinking AimPoint was just a cool addtive to my TV viewing experience… dead wrong! Very few reviews make me want to say “You know what, I think I want to try “. This one, however, did.
Thanks for this article!
Thanks for the positive feedback. Feel free to ask any questions here or in the AimPoint thread in the Forum.
Awesome article, I have been interested in Aimpoint for some time now!
Thanks for the positive feedback. Feel free to ask any questions here or in the Forum thread.
I seem to be missing something. I agree–if I take something wholly flat, such as a large plywood sheet with a hole in the middle, and tilt it 1 degree, there will be two “straight” putts to the hole, one at the highest point and one at the lowest point. I get that, as well as the “to the right of those points” a putt will break left, and vica-versa.
What I don’t get is this appears to assume the the green is wholly flat except for the tilt between the place where a ball is and the hole is–my plywood example. But real greens aren’t like that. If my ball is 20 feet from the hole, it might be exactly at the lowest point of a 40 foot circle with the hole at the center (a 20 foot radius). But, unlike my piece of plywood, there is no reason to think that the green is “flat” between my ball and the hole. It might have some right undulation, or some left undulation, or both. Discovering where my ball is relative to the high and low points of this 40 foot circle is a useful start, but the non-flat nature of a green within that 20 foot radius would seem to mean that I can’t take this first impression “to the bank.” I might be the the right of the lowest point of this circle and still find that the ball will break right, not left, because of what happens to the green within the intervening 20 feet.
Please help me understand what I’m missing.
Hi Tom
You are not missing anything, you are just describing what would be a more advanced read. You are absolutely right that green topography can include all kinds of variation. The class I took and reviewed above just covered the basics. The subsequent classes get into how to use the charts for crowns and saddles. I am not trying to duck your question at all, it’s is just that as you can tell from the review, I am new to this too. I think that when I take the next classes, I can better answer your question. Meanwhile , I will try and get one of the instructors to come and respond to your question.
Dave
Hi Tom, that’s a great question. All greens have curves to them and are not perfectly planar like a sheet of plywood, but the same pricinciples still apply about the straight putt. It’s not intuitive, but the straight putt will be on or very close to the inflection still even if the green curves, because the ball will double-break towards the hole and the two breaks will cancel each other. In some situations the straight putt will be off of the inflection, but the advanced class shows how to handle that situation easily.
I was wondering when this application might be availablefor android?
You’ve got the same mistatement in items 3 and 4. “Putts to the right of the zero line break left and putts to the right of the zero line break left.”
If you’re below the hole, putts to the right of the zero line break left and putts to the left of the zero line break right. Conversely…….
If you are ABOVE the hole, putts to the right of the zero line break right, and putts to the left of the zero line break left.
Hi Brad
It was actually not a mistake, but written that way on purpose to emphasize the the consistency of the reads. However, I was just thinking about the read below when I wrote it and should have made that more clear…
I get your point about the upper zero line. For a putt to the right of the zero line, the read would be to the left of the hole, with the ball rolling to the right.
I do my best having only taken my first class three weeks ago.
Last year I took the same class and was immediately impressed with the results. My average putts per round went from 30 to 27 in just 4 weeks of playing and practicing (which also reduced my handicap). It is a phenominal education of how to read greens and I still haven’t lost the feel either. At this time of the year when things are dead in the south, it can’t teach you how to putt from off the green – hence the feel part.
A few things about this that were eluded to a little and may answer a few questions. Not all greens are basic – given – so the more undulating greens may have multiple low points and high points (zero lines or zero points). It takes practice and further education, as you stated, to know how to utilize the chart for such type putts. The gentlemen we took the class from made themselves availble via email with all future questions we had – which was a help. Also, consider this…if you are concerned about sinking more 40 and 50 foot putts, you might be starting your improvement efforts in the wrong area of your game (I am a prime example of that).
I strongly advise doing this if you are to the point where putting is your focus!
Great Review Dave. This has really peaked my interest
Thanks!
Dear Dave,
I like your “what it was like” approach to the lesson. I’ve studied systems like the aimpoint approach for twenty years now, and would like to point out a couple of problems. The main one is the idea of using a chart to read putts is not golf. It is generally illegal to use a chart or similar “artificial device” to decide how to play a shot. The only allowed exception in the Rules is a “yardage book”, which cannot contain any information about the contour or elevation of the course and is limited to “yardage only”. The second big problem is the level of touch required for the charts is not realistic or representative of more than a tiny few number of golfers. The 10″ (actually 6-12″ past the hole) was borrowed by aimpoint without reflection or analysis from a physics paper, which in turn borrowed it from another physics paper. These physics papers on putting in golf are always “fun physics” sorts of efforts, not all that serious about the subject. Real golfers cannot perform at that level and can only force-fit their games into the aimpoint charts without really learning how touch works. There are other problems as well, since the chart aims cannot be calculated without making untrue assumptions to simplify the green, such as the assumption that the green is perfectly flat although tilted out of level and that all balls are started with perfect true roll and no skid at all off the putter face every time. You can get the full benefit of the system intuitively if you simply predict what a putt with YOUR touch started straight at the hole across the REAL green will actually do, by predicting HOW LOW the breaking ball started straight really will pass below the hole. Just aim that high and putt straight with that same touch. All the fancy physics isn’t that useful or good.
Dave,
Thanks for the great review and discussions.
I’ve attended the Aimpoint courses, used the charts and iphone app. These are good products for simplifying the putting process. Particularly with regard to the concept of a zero break line (first discussed by H.A. Templeton). However, the assumptions plugged into the formulations must be considered and not taken at face value. As noted above, the ball does not start rolling off the putter face, it skids-rolls for the first 10-20% of the putt distance. Aimpoint calculations do not include this phase resulting in a lower estimation of green friction and over estimation of ball speed at the hole.
Also, using 6-12″ past the hole as a measure of optimal terminal velocity at the hole is not always accurate. The optimal terminal velocity depends on multiple variables not considered in Aimpoint courses: golfers’ ability to aim, golfers’ ability to control speed at hole, condition of the greens (time of day), strategy (aggressive match play vs. conservative stroke play). Therefore, the distance past the hole used would represent an average most useful for all golfers. But, I think better players on better greens should be rolling the ball at faster terminal velocities.
Finally, knowing the break requires knowing the average green speed, putt length, average green slope, and angle between ball-hole line and 12:00 position. It’s not always easy to obtain these with high accuracy. Remember GIGO (garbage in – garbage out).
Training aids that provide accurate feedback will offer the golfer the best chance of improving putting skills. Aimpoint classes which teach aim, speed, and physics concepts regarding the green do go a long way to improving a golfer’s putting skill. However, there is always the opportunity for improvement.
Keeping in mind that this is a training aid, it should be used only in this way. My only problem with someone using Aimpoint concepts during a round of golf is that they may hold up play pacing off distances and trying to calculate where to putt. Why is this a concern for me? Usually these people do all this calculation stuff and then miss the shot anyway .