With the debate over slow play raging, former U.S. Open champion Lucas Glover recently made a bold suggestion to help: ban the AimPoint putting technique. Now the inventor of the green-reading process popular among pros is hitting back at Glover to defend his creation.
On a late January episode of the “The Lucas Glover Show” on Sirius XM PGA Tour Radio, Glover said AimPoint “needs to be banned” due to its effects on slow play.
But he also claimed without evidence that statistics show the green-reading process —which requires a player to straddle his putting line at multiple points on the green — does not help pros improve their putting.
It’s those comments that AimPoint inventor and founder Mark Sweeney took issue with during an interview with bunkered.co.uk.
“It was a false statement. I think it was a malicious statement,” Sweeney told bunkered.co.uk. “And I think [Glover is] going to have to walk it back and retract it in the near future.”
Sweeney said that while he understood some people don’t like AimPoint, Glover’s critiques were simply incorrect based on data.
“Lucas was factually wrong when he said it’s never helped anybody, it’s insane,” Sweeney said.
Sweeney then reeled off a list of specific players who have benefitted from adopting AimPoint in the 17 years since it debuted on Tour. Those players include Adam Scott, Lydia Ko, Stacy Lewis and Scott McCarron.
“And it’s not my opinion, this is ShotLink data,” Sweeney argued. “If you know when a player started AimPoint, and you look before and after, 90 to 95% improve.”
Sweeney also hit back at Glover’s argument that AimPoint slows the game down, a point Collin Morikawa made recently as well.
“It’s a false criticism to claim it’s slow. All I can say is that people who do an AimPoint read and then do a traditional read are slower, but there’s no reason to do both. We don’t teach that,” Sweeney said.
For a full breakdown of what AimPoint is and how it works, check out Adam Scott’s explanation of the controversial technique here.
