Jim Nantz wants anyone who’s played a lot of golf to picture a 20-footer.
The green also slopes to the right, so he says you know to aim your putt left. Maybe left edge. Maybe a cup. Maybe a cup and a half.
At this point, Nantz then wants to tell you what he thinks about AimPoint.
“I can’t stand looking at it,” he said.
The longtime CBS announcer was talking on Golf Australia’s “The Thing About Golf” podcast (which you can listen to in full here), where a part of the conversation with host John Huggan centered on science in golf — and eventually Nantz’s thoughts on a newer way to align putts. What is AimPoint? You’ve likely read an article or seen the process employed. In a somewhat short description, a player typically straddles the ball’s path to the hole about halfway to the cup to determine the amount of slope, then, while standing behind the ball, the player uses their hand to find where to hit. (For your convenience, a longer description can be found at the end of this article.)
Universally, though, it looks a bit funky, or at least different, as players aren’t crouching behind the ball, as has been typical practice. Occasionally, the process can look tedious. One such moment was captured at last year’s World Golf Championships-Match Play event, where Max Homa measured a putt through AimPoint, while his opponent, Mackenzie Hughes, appeared to look impatient — to which Homa responded this way after the clip circulated online:
“Got tagged in this. Will work on speeding this process up,” Homa wrote.
On “The Thing About Golf” podcast, Nantz had this thought, though:
“Well, I’ll take the science to another level, beyond what you’re talking about with the equipment,” he told Huggan. “The AimPoint mania that we see now today, it truly drives me crazy. When you see their back’s to the hole and they’re trying to feel the break and they walk another five feet and they do it again, they go through this process, where is the feel in it, you know?
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“I know you’re trying to win, you’re trying to find a shot over the course of four days that could make the difference. But you know, to me, if you play a lot of golf and you’re standing looking at a 20-footer, you know it’s a cup outside on the left, it’s the left edge, play the cup and a half. I mean, all this, is it really making a difference? Maybe it is. But I know one thing — I can’t stand looking at it.”
Of course, that’s his opinion. Others believe in AimPoint’s benefits.
Should you be curious on how it works, GOLF’s Zephyr Melton wrote an article in 2020 entitled “The basics of AimPoint green reading, explained in 30 seconds,” and you can read it by clicking here, or scrolling below.
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Putting is arguably the most important skill in golf, and green reading is a vital component to that. The problem is, reading greens is not an easily acquired skill. It takes years of practice to become a skilled green reader, and even then it can be difficult to consistently get the right line.
In recent years, there has been a remedy for these green-reading woes in the form of the AimPoint method. It has been adopted by a number of pros, including Adam Scott, Justin Rose and Stacy Lewis, and to great success. The method has become more and more popular in recent years as it marries physics and feel to get a consistent read on the greens each and every time.
Erika Larkin recently posted a video on Instagram that explains the basics of AimPoint, and it does it all in a tight, 30-second timeframe. Watch the video and then read below for the explanation on what she’s demonstrating.
The first step in AimPoint green reading is to feel the slope of the green. Do this by straddling your ball’s path to the hole about halfway to the hole. From here, you should determine what percent slope you feel, from 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 there 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.).
So let’s say you think there is 3 percent slope in the putt. Put three fingers up with your pointer finger just outside the hole on the right (assuming your putt breaks to the left). In this case, your ring finger will be the aim point.
Then just line up your ball at the aim point and roll it at that spot. If you judged the slope correctly, your putt should track right toward the hole.
