Alex Miceli's AimPoint Bashing Article

[iacas]

si.com

https://www.si.com/golf/news/intrusive-aimpoint-putting-process-has-trickled-down-pros-to-kids-awful-for-golf?date=2023-04-03

Kids aged 7 to 15 having learned to putt by walking along their line and the line of other players, all in the hope they will make a putt that otherwise might not go in is, in a word, unconscionable.

With this abomination on full display, all kids that are watching Sunday are learning to do something that just looks bad and it’s bad for golf.

…

Of course, while the process of tromping on a green and hovering over the putting line doesn’t look good, it’s part of a bigger problem: slow play.

…

When a player feels the slope with their feet, not only does the process look bad, but it slows play down.

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But AimPoint is a scourge on the game of golf. It looks bad, it slows play down and there is little proof that putting success is improved by the process.

And even if there was some minute evidence that the AimPoint creates a better percentage of putting success, we should fall back on the fact that the process is un-golf-like and should be banned.

Oy.

 

[boogielicious]

I’m definitely faster with AimPoint. He’s wrong there. You know what really looks bad? Plumb-bobbing with a putter that doesn’t hang vertical. And most all putters don’t hang vertical. Also, doing reads from front, back, side is way slower. The guy is just a Get Off My Lawn curmudgeon.

[mchepp]

Un-golf-like. Whatever that means. 

[dennyjones]

28 minutes ago, boogielicious said:

The guy is just a Get Off My Lawn curmudgeon

+1

[Vinsk]

45 minutes ago, boogielicious said:

I’m definitely faster with AimPoint. He’s wrong there. You know what really looks bad? Plumb-bobbing with a putter that doesn’t hang vertical. And most all putters don’t hang vertical. Also, doing reads from front, back, side is way slower. The guy is just a Get Off My Lawn curmudgeon.

Yep. Typical stick in the mud who tries to justify an opinion with made up stats to support his asinine-ism.😃

[ChetlovesMer]

Is it possible he's talking about the older version of AimPoint and not AimPoint Express? 

I ask because I literally don't know.

The folks I know who use Aimpoint are all pretty good putters and a pleasure to play with. 

The folks I know that take forever, reading the green from every which way are sometimes pretty good putters but brutal to play with... and even worse to play behind.

 

[billchao]

1 hour ago, boogielicious said:

I’m definitely faster with AimPoint.

I’m faster and better with AimPoint. I tend to read greens too quickly even with AimPoint. Without it, I’d literally just be guessing.

[iacas]

57 minutes ago, ChetlovesMer said:

Is it possible he's talking about the older version of AimPoint and not AimPoint Express?

No. Zero percent chance of that.

57 minutes ago, ChetlovesMer said:

The folks I know that take forever, reading the green from every which way are sometimes pretty good putters but brutal to play with... and even worse to play behind.

Yeah.

They just don't often show it on TV.

[Golfingdad]

56 minutes ago, ChetlovesMer said:

Is it possible he's talking about the older version of AimPoint and not AimPoint Express? 

I ask because I literally don't know.

 

I would guess not, because the older version wasn't really that prominent on TV, I don't think?  Pros got into it en masse after Aimpoint Express was created, and I'd also guess that the thing that bothers him is the straddling of the putt line; another thing that wasn't part of the previous version.  I'm guessing that is what he thinks is "un golf like?"

I dunno ... I think "curmudgeon" is the correct call here. 🙂

[colin007]

The moustache and bow ties tell me everything I need to know about the doofus

[saevel25]

It’s probably just the few instances where they show a guy doing Aimpoint on TV and because it’s a process it looks slow. They don’t show a guy walking around their putt. Standing over the ball, backing off, getting a read from the low side.

Aimpoint is 100% better and faster than traditional green reading. Excluding the people who just take a glance and whack the putt. 

[ChetlovesMer]

30 minutes ago, saevel25 said:

Excluding the people who just take a glance and whack the putt. 

Hey! Sometimes I make them. 

[GolfLug]

Heh heh heh.. I love it when Scrooge gets riled up and can't do much about it except through toothless tantrums...😂

[klineka]

What an absurd take that isn't backed up by facts. 

If you're going to bash something that hard, at least present some facts to support your opinion.

The same person who is calling for proof that guys who use AimPoint make more putts is the same person who claims that AimPoint guys take longer than traditional green readers but offers no proof to support that. That tells me all I need to know about him.

Probably best to stop clicking on the article and giving SI even more views and ad revenue and let the article fade away into the Internet.

After a quick glance at his Twitter page doesn't look like he interacts too much on there so I'd be surprised if he gave Erik or James Hong a response.

 

I will say without a doubt AimPoint has increased how quickly I can read greens. Half the time depending on where everyone else is on/around the greens when I go up and fix my pitch mark and mark my ball I'll do a preliminary AimPoint feel with my feet which most of the time gives me the info I need. Then when I place my ball down to putt I'll get the actual aim point with my fingers, and perhaps a couple times a round at the most I'll stradle the line again if I'm uncertain. All of that certainly takes less time than me walking around the putt crouching down at multiple angles.

[DeadMan]

I skimmed the article. I agree with everybody else - it was stupid. AimPoint isn't slow - slow golfers are slow. There are some sometimes you cannot do your read while others are putting to avoid stepping in their line, but even then, it can be done quickly. Other than that, AimPoint is going to be faster than the traditional way to read a putt. 

Also, there isn't really a way to ban AimPoint. I learned AimPoint before we were allowed to step the line of our putt. While you had to be careful for that, it didn't prevent doing AimPoint. If you go back to that, it won't change the use of AimPoint. You could probably make AimPoint more difficult to do, but there's not a way to ban it outright.

[Elmer]

16 hours ago, mchepp said:

Un-golf-like. Whatever that means. 

If you saw my swing you would know what that means!

[iacas]

4 hours ago, klineka said:

After a quick glance at his Twitter page doesn't look like he interacts too much on there so I'd be surprised if he gave Erik or James Hong a response.

He won’t. Just like he didn’t reach out to Mark Sweeney.

[Vinsk]

Journalistic crop dusting.