AimPoint Green Reading

[newtogolf]

35 minutes ago, No Mulligans said:

2+ minutes is like a Dustin Johnson eternity (or Furyk, or Spieth, etc).  I'd say a 10' Aimpoint Express read takes me 10 seconds, it looks like Adam Scott spends about 20 seconds with his read in tournament conditions.  I found this:

 

He claims he's doing Aimpoint not Aimpoint Express but no matter what it is, he's not doing it right and it doesn't work.  

[Golfingdad]

19 hours ago, Mop Bucket said:

I haven't taken a course so I have no validity in if it works or not. But I can't help but to laugh whenever I see yet another person winking at the hole while pointing a couple fingers at their line before stepping up and missing a 20 footer.

From what I've heard, there is some great things taught in aim point classes when it comes to recognizing break severity, but none of it means anything if you can't keep your ball perfectly on line.

Others have already responded, but just to add ... this (the bold) is most definitely incorrect.  You become a BETTER putter with better green reading skills, not a PERFECT putter.  So what if you miss another 20 footer?  You are SUPPOSED to miss most of your 20 footers.  But with good green reading skills - which Aimpoint or AE can help with - you can make more of them and get closer on average more often.  Even if you don't keep your ball perfectly on line.

 

4 hours ago, newtogolf said:

I play golf with a guy on Thursdays that pretends he knows Aimpoint.  On less than 10' putts he goes to the midpoint and stands on the line feeling for slope with his feet, on longer putts he breaks up the distance and reads the slope at two different points.  He's by far the slowest player / putter and one of the worst putters in the group of 16.  

I was getting tired of watching him take 2+ minutes to read his putt every time so after he three putted for about the 5th time that day I asked him where he went for training so; 1) I wanted to avoid that instructor and 2) there really isn't anyone close to where I live on Long Island that is certified to train so i was curious where he went.  

It turns out he read some article in Golf Digest on it and "picked it up" from watching the pro's.  So I then asked if he used a laser level to learn to feel the differences in slope, he said that was a waste and that he can tell by feel how much slope there is.  

I now know why he putts so bad.  

Ouch, that is painful.

I am a very lazy Aimpointer these days.  I get out my charts of fewer and fewer putts each time I play - sometimes only a couple of times per round these days.

[newtogolf]

15 minutes ago, Golfingdad said:

Others have already responded, but just to add ... this (the bold) is most definitely incorrect.  You become a BETTER putter with better green reading skills, not a PERFECT putter.  So what if you miss another 20 footer?  You are SUPPOSED to miss most of your 20 footers.  But with good green reading skills - which Aimpoint or AE can help with - you can make more of them and get closer on average more often.  Even if you don't keep your ball perfectly on line.

 

Ouch, that is painful.

I am a very lazy Aimpointer these days.  I get out my charts of fewer and fewer putts each time I play - sometimes only a couple of times per round these days.

Our guy doesn't need no stinking charts, I don't think he knows there are charts for regular Aimpoint.  

[saevel25]

13 minutes ago, Golfingdad said:

 So what if you miss another 20 footer?  You are SUPPOSED to miss most of your 20 footers.  

Exactly. 

What can hurt golfers is thinking they misread a putt when they mishit a putt. I like knowing I'm confident with my read and it helps develop hitting good start lines. 

[Golfingdad]

14 minutes ago, saevel25 said:

Exactly. 

What can hurt golfers is thinking they misread a putt when they mishit a putt. I like knowing I'm confident with my read and it helps develop hitting good start lines. 

Yup.  It snowballs.  The confidence breeds more confidence.  I had the same thing happen when I got my putter too. :)

[Ernest Jones]

On August 30, 2016 at 2:38 PM, Hacker James said:

admittedly, I really do not understand Aimpoint or Aimpoint plus. I really cannot get a feel of slope from my feet. I had a little success from the two/three finger method, but mostly just rely on my eyes and touch. I can't complain though, I rarely have any three putts. Last round was 16 putts per side.

You're kidding, right? 

[No Mulligans]

On 8/30/2016 at 11:38 AM, Hacker James said:

admittedly, I really do not understand Aimpoint or Aimpoint plus. I really cannot get a feel of slope from my feet. I had a little success from the two/three finger method, but mostly just rely on my eyes and touch. I can't complain though, I rarely have any three putts. Last round was 16 putts per side.

Saying you can't feel slope; for me that's as hard to relate to as someone saying they are unable to see colors. I know it's possible but it's hard for me to relate.

I have a friend who because he sings so out of tune says he's tone deaf.  I played him the lowest note followed by the highest note on the piano and asked him which note was lower.  He got that right 100% of the time.  He's not tone deaf he just doesn't have a very refined ear and/or has little muscular control of his vocal cords, both of which could be improved with practice.

With using my feet I can tell if there is as little as 0.5% slope in that I can tell there is a very slight slope (and can tell the direction of slope and therefore the direction of break).  Learning to judge what % of slope there is though takes practice and repetition.

And a big but, if you can already read so well then why would you need AimPoint?  Does Spieth need AimPoint?  To improve his reads I'd say no, to improve his pace of play, maybe.

But for someone like me that was often getting bad reads using my eyes, then AimPoint... well in my case it lead to improvement.

[Hacker James]

15 minutes ago, No Mulligans said:

Saying you can't feel slope; for me that's as hard to relate to as someone saying they are unable to see colors. I know it's possible but it's hard for me to relate.

I have a friend who because he sings so out of tune says he's tone deaf.  I played him the lowest note followed by the highest note on the piano and asked him which note was lower.  He got that right 100% of the time.  He's not tone deaf he just doesn't have a very refined ear and/or has little muscular control of his vocal cords, both of which could be improved with practice.

With using my feet I can tell if there is as little as 0.5% slope in that I can tell there is a very slight slope (and can tell the direction of slope and therefore the direction of break).  Learning to judge what % of slope there is though takes practice and repetition.

And a big but, if you can already read so well then why would you need AimPoint?  Does Spieth need AimPoint?  To improve his reads I'd say no, to improve his pace of play, maybe.

But for someone like me that was often getting bad reads using my eyes, then AimPoint... well in my case it lead to improvement.

all I am saying is that using a feel from my feet does not work for me, maybe I do not know what I am doing, whatever. I seem to read the break fairly well if averaging 16 putts per side or less is considered satisfactory. I seldom have more than 2 three putts per round. Mostly 2's with several 1's.  On the ones I miss, its mostly reading too little break and more often than not, breaking left and short. Aimpoint could very well work wonders, or not. And no, I am not kidding. Why would I?  Misinterpreted, probably. How many putts per side do you guys normally have?  Plumb bob is helpful but only to the extent of  using my dominant eye owing to my upper right hyper/double image vision problem.

[Golfingdad]

23 minutes ago, Hacker James said:

all I am saying is that using a feel from my feet does not work for me, maybe I do not know what I am doing, whatever. I seem to read the break fairly well if averaging 16 putts per side or less is considered satisfactory. I seldom have more than 2 three putts per round. Mostly 2's with several 1's.  On the ones I miss, its mostly reading too little break and more often than not, breaking left and short. Aimpoint could very well work wonders, or not. And no, I am not kidding. Why would I?  Misinterpreted, probably. How many putts per side do you guys normally have?  Plumb bob is helpful but only to the extent of  using my dominant eye owing to my upper right hyper/double image vision problem.

32 putts per round isn't bad but don't forget that it's a number that doesn't really mean much without qualifiers.  Specifically, GIR and proximity.

If you hit it to 10' 18 times and have 32 putts, that's not nearly as good as if you hit it to 40' on every hole and have 32 putts. :)

[Hacker James]

20 minutes ago, Golfingdad said:

32 putts per round isn't bad but don't forget that it's a number that doesn't really mean much without qualifiers.  Specifically, GIR and proximity.

If you hit it to 10' 18 times and have 32 putts, that's not nearly as good as if you hit it to 40' on every hole and have 32 putts. :)

no disagreement there.....E=MC²

[boogielicious]

13 hours ago, newtogolf said:

He claims he's doing Aimpoint not Aimpoint Express but no matter what it is, he's not doing it right and it doesn't work.  

He not doing either. I get my reads before anyone really notices. I've played with instructors who didn't notices even with AimPoint. I do mostly Express now.

[newtogolf]

3 minutes ago, boogielicious said:

He not doing either. I get my reads before anyone really notices. I've played with instructors who didn't notices even with AimPoint. I do mostly Express now.

That's the thing, people who actually know Aimpoint or AE read the slope with their feet inconspicuously where as this guy waits until it's his turn to putt and then goes into his process of "reading" the slope with his feet in a very deliberate manner in one location or two depending on length of putt.   

I'd be embarrassed if I went through the whole process he does while everyone watches and missed as many putts by a wide margin as he does but it doesn't seem to phase him.  

[Mop Bucket]

23 hours ago, Golfingdad said:

Others have already responded, but just to add ... this (the bold) is most definitely incorrect.  You become a BETTER putter with better green reading skills, not a PERFECT putter.  So what if you miss another 20 footer?  You are SUPPOSED to miss most of your 20 footers.  But with good green reading skills - which Aimpoint or AE can help with - you can make more of them and get closer on average more often.  Even if you don't keep your ball perfectly on line.

I guess that is what I was mostly referring to. Through my experience, you can only put so much emphasis into reading your mid range putts before it ultimately comes down to a good stroke and luck. But if it is enough to give you the confidence to trust your stroke and read, then I'd consider it effective.

[nevets88]

Really interested in hearing reviews about the new speed class because my distance control sucks. Have also been meaning to evaluate and probably buy Blast.

 

[deronsizemore]

On 9/12/2016 at 1:52 PM, CarlSpackler said:

The people I play with are usually amazed at the accuracy. I played a scramble earlier this year and was giving our team express reads and we were dropping putts from all over. Once they started trusting my reads, which only took a few holes, we made quite a few on the first of second putt. I joked that I was going to stop carrying my putter to the green and just bring my feet and fingers. 

This is the difficult part for me in scrambles. I try to just let everyone play their game when I'm on a scramble team, but it's hard when you KNOW everyone else is misreading a putt and simply won't listen to you. At the same time, I understand their point of view when I'm giving them a read that's way outside what they'd typically play and they're just not comfortable with it and would likely miss anyway. Had it happen more than a few times in the last couple weeks at different scrambles. One guy would always be the first to jump up and give everyone the (wrong) line and after the first guy or two misses, I'll then give them the correct line. Every. Single. Time. they under read the break of the putt (just like I used to prior to AimPoint Express). They read just a little bit of break and then try to hit it harder to keep it online which means they usually miss on the low side anyway and run it by the hole four feet.

Edited September 16, 2016 by deronsizemore

[dennyjones]

The guys I play with (about 8 different ones), believe I'm blessing the golf ball but realize the results.    I'm still learning but seeing improvement.   I'm a believer.  

[Missouri Swede]

39 minutes ago, dennyjones said:

The guys I play with (about 8 different ones), believe I'm blessing the golf ball but realize the results.

It's more of a benediction (good word), the way I see it.

 

[dennyjones]

I've been practicing the last two week almost every day (except for rain) but have come to a realization.  I'm not as young as I use to be.  I stressed some back muscles this week doing yard work and it seemed to affect my putting.   I found I'm having difficulty standing tall and relaxing and it affected my reads.  Some reads that probably were a 2, I'm reading differently because of my sore back.