Welcome to Play Smart, a regular GOLF.com game-improvement column that will help you play smarter, better golf.
Max Homa is having himself one heck of a start to the Masters. Through 36 holes, he’s six under par and tied for the lead with Scottie Scheffler and Bryson DeChambeau. And as long as he doesn’t have a wild implosion over the weekend, he’s in line for a career-best finish at Augusta National.
One of the keys to Homa’s success (and everyone’s success at Augusta National) is the ability to hole putts on the tricky greens. Through two rounds at Augusta, Homa has averaged 1.61 putts per green in regulation, and he’s yet to record a three-putt. If you’re looking for a recipe for success at the Masters, eliminating three-putts is a good place to start.
As you’ve watched Homa navigate around Dr. Alister MacKenzie’s deceptive greens this week, you might’ve noticed his green-reading technique is a bit different than some others in the field — and that’s because he uses the AimPoint green-reading method.
How AimPoint works
When it comes to reading greens, many pros — on the PGA Tour, LPGA Tour and LIV — have turned to AimPoint in recent years. You can count Homa among them.
The first step in AimPoint is using your feet to feel the slope of the green. Pros will typically straddle their line halfway to the hole and feel with their feet which way the ground is sloping — and how much it’s sloping, on a scale of one to five.
Next you need to stand behind the ball and close one eye while lifting your hand so that your pointer finger is just outside the hole. Based on the percent slope you think is affecting your putt, put up that many fingers on your hand (i.e. one finger for one percent, two fingers for two percent, etc.).
If you feel a three percent slope with your feet, you will hold up three fingers with your pointer finger just outside the hole on the right (assuming the putt breaks right to left). In this case, your ring finger will be the aim point.
Then all that’s left to do is line up your ball at that point and hit the putt with the correct speed. If you’ve judged everything correctly, your putt should track right toward the hole.
