Great tip! Your explanation of the benefits of AimPoint were excellent. I use AimPoint for those exact reasons. The only thing I do differently is that I aim the line on my ball to the AimPoint target, instead of picking a blemish on the green to aim at. That seems to work better for me.
Speed trumps line for sure. Competed in a match play tournament recently and decided to concentrate on speed to eliminate pressure on second puts and not give away holes with three putts. It worked! I now take that approach all the time and reduced three putts without reducing birdies.
i have been a professional putter since 1977. i use this technique in that i look for marks or divots in the carpet.. after several practice putts i adjust my line from the mark or move my feet left or right and play the same mark with same speed.
Thank you for the vid. I agree with you on all points. I love APE. I didn’t go to one of their teaching clinics but took excellent notes before they pulled a lot of content off You Tube because people were teaching themselves. 😂 You can use Aim Point for getting the speed down by using the bend in your elbow before sighting the putt (and can titrate that as your round continues). I’m sure you know that already. A point you made that’s better than good is totally committing to your target! Because many times we humans will get over the ball to putt and think, “That can’t be right” and make an adjustment at the last second. This doesn’t work. You must trust your system and learn from that.
I learned this thing too. Many don't know that that AimPoint came about as a result of software that was developed to trace putts on TV and it was an observation that your fingers could replace % break and also that your feet can feel break better than your eyes can gauge. AimPoint has many good lessons to be learned, but in the end putting is about speed and feel, all we are doing by reading a green is increasing our odds. I also use that intermediate point, but I do this for every shot I take all the way up to driver so it was natural to do this. The main thing I use from aim point is feeling the break in my feet from the last half of the putt. I also use the shaft to line up my putts with my dominant eye. Good lesson!
I pull my putter back 3-6-9-12-18 inches and measure them going both ways. Keep your grip super loose and stroke. So if I hit a putt pulling back 6" 8 paces I know that a 12 pace putt needs 9" of stroke. Uphill add 1-2" downhill subtract 1-2" Works great on strange courses where you may be confused.
@@jmo23341 yesterday I played and a 12" pullback resulted in a 10 paces putt so 5/6 rule. If my putt is 8 paces I pull my putter back 9+ inches. When it's uphill I add a little mustard and downhill take some off. Takes lots if guesswork out
I have been using aimpoint for a month and my putting has improved. But I found out another issue with using your feet, quite by accident. I was getting measured for a pair of insoles and they put me on a machine that measures where the weight on each foot is greatest. For example my right foot had more weight on the heel. However the more interesting measurement was that I had 9% more weight on my right side than my left side. When I put the insoles on it was more evenly distributed. In order to be more accurate using your feet you have to make sure that the weight is more evenly distributed between your feet. It’ll never be perfect but the closer you get to even the better the slope reading. I still need more practice with a digital level. (I use an iPhone app) but it really has helped my green reading. Thanks.
Great explanation. I practice picking a spot on the fall line, and practice speed control. Practice at different distance, along the same line.....Just a thought
I don't know how this is going to sound, but it's remarkable that as a novice golfer and never having heard of this before, it occurred to me that I could feel the slope on the green with my feet, far more effectively than I could read it with my eyes. I really only golfed seriously this season and broke 80 for the first time and then started to do so regularly. I simply walked the line, usually to the ball slightly inside a line between the ball and the hole and then back slightly outside, so slightly different from the straddle method. Anyway, I did find that it worked much better and I turned 3 putts into a rare event! I think this goes to show you that common sense sometimes leads us to unexpected solutions!
I walk to the midway point between my ball and the hole and double it. I don't want to be slow. Also downhill putts break much more than uphill ones. Gravity has more time to pull on a downhill slow-roller.
great video - and nice, that the golfer always is the responsible actor (even in putting ;-)) by the way - do you know the "sweet spot finder" Check Go from Technasonic Electronics Inc. - if you mark your balls and put them on the putting rail exactly with the sweet spot axis 90° to the roll - perhaps the results come out better - proofing that there can be an excentric weight concentration inside some of the balls, which will pull the unmarked / uncentered placed balls unpredictable to one side - the longer the putts, the more (i didn't ran over this point before)
I guess the "biggest lesson," for me would actually be how to pick the Apex point! How do you know not to aim at that old cup? I understand the degree of slope, how many figures & distance next to the cup for the aiming point - but the real aiming point is actually the Apex - how do you target and determine the Apex aiming point?
@@misteroneputt Thanks! Just got my 36 inch PXG Mustang Putter Gen1 putter off of Ebay yesterday. Would be cool to get your input as to the different faces on the different generations of PXG putters!
If you read the line but aim at apex, you will go low as the slope between ball and apex takes ball below apex. To go over apex, your starting line has to be above apex, so you are now making 1 putt read into 2 reads. Better to ho with line.
@@Frankchiew59 that gets complicated but the short answer is you find where the second break starts Reid the break to get the ball there and then read the break from there to get towards the hole and make adjustments.
First, the AimPoint method does work. First the TV stuff is BS; originally AimPoint supplied a "perfect line" to CBS Sports for Tour broadcasts. After a while Sweeney wanted more money and CBS balked. Then ANOTHER group took over, for less money. The tail you relate here may be the "cover story" used when Sweeney tried to sue the author of the line we see on TV each week. Sweeney lost in court. End of story. (Footnote: It's said a former contractor of Sweeney went out and did this for personal reasons but that's never been verified publicly though it sounds entirely likely.) Now, as to an explanation of where AimPoint originated. Sweeney's AImPoint concept originated using a US Air Force vet's book, "Vector Putting" by H.A. Templeton, published in 1984. Sweeney took that original data and paid a Canadian professor to write a bogus technical paper claiming it was his idea. Sweeney then applied for and erroneously received a US Patent on the AimPoint concept under subterfuge. The math for determining the break amount from variously distances / slopes was originally provided by a civil engineer who does golf course site design work. Sweeney has been sued by for his claims by Templeton's heirs in the past and he aggressively sues for patent infringement anyone who challenges his product or attempted sale of anything similar. These are the true honest facts and anyone may research them as they are in the public domain.
How would you determine where the apex is? And if thats just your judgement, then how do you know if your intended line is any better than your perceived apex?
The Apex is the highest point of the putt… breaks the most from that point. If I understand that a putt breaks before the apex and allow for that in my intended start line, it’s better because my putt is always breaking towards the hole and never away from the hole.
The hardest part of this and key words if you know the percentage of slope which is near impossible not giving the tools and technology of pros im starting to use aim point and it helps but breaking down the percent is hard with no baseline simulated green to reference
How do you account for the difference in break between an uphill or a downhill putt? Because a degree of angle has a far more break going downhill than uphill.
So if it’s down hill and you will be hitting slower. You bring your fingers closer to your eye. So if you usually fully extend your arms to get your point, if you’re going downhill so you’ll be hitting it slower, maybe only extend your arm 3/4 out.
Totally agree, I like to imagine a 2d wind sock with the narrow end at the hole and the wide end parallel to direction of putt. The side nearest you is where the shortest successful putt would roll, the side furthest the longest. Can give you a surprising large oval to drop the ball through and take the pressure off.
That happens a lot and is different for different people...has to do with the way our eyes work. I've done several videos on eye alignment to help with this...got a new one coming at the end of this month on how to solve this problem.
I clicked on this video thinking that it would teach me how to use the finger method on reading greens. I still have no idea on how to do that. Any way on making a video about that? Or someone telling me how to learn that?
Practice using some lengths of 6mm laminate or similar. Each layer represents 1 degree of slope. Put them shoulder width apart on a hard surface. Close your eyes, stand with one foot on one piece, move your centre of gravity slowly from directly over one foot to the other a few times then bring it to the centre, notice how it feels in your legs knees etc. Repeat this a few times for each height and each foot. Get someone to test u by changing them for you. Do this for a few days and you'll be able to use your body like a spirit level on the course, and it's an almost instant read.
trampling the green to perform a slope reading leaving for other players a trampled putting surface should be prohibited by the R&A rather than ridiculously modifying the height of the ball drop.....
Only if people are slow. This shouldn’t add time but slow players tend to drag out everything. Personally if I ran a golf course any group who took more than 13 minutes per any hole would be immediately removed from the course with no refund and never allowed to return.
It's all bs,if you play on a public course you will suffer the rath of players behind you 😮. Besides it will slow down play. Imagine 4players doing this fistacuffs will insure.😢
Nah. I don’t actually remember but most videos we produce and shots we post take 1-2 and sometimes as many as 3 or 4 to get what we are trying to communicate but never more
Can we please stop the straddling of the putting line!!!!!!! I watch the Tour guys do this and now they are teaching the public to do it. The Tour Pro straddles his line in three places picking up and dropping his feet each time. Then his caddie does the same thing. That ends up adding 25 steps with in 8 feet of the hole. so when I am playing on a typical Saturday this adds thousands of steps near the hole screwing up the greens. We are out there to play gold not trample down the greens!!!!
Funny u mention this. I mentioned something similiar to a buddy while playing. Course rules do not allow carts near the green right....however all day during rounds u see the maintainance guys whipping around in the work carts like its their off road play ground. Just 2 days ago i saw while playing, a small suzuki jeep on the course casually driving thru. I guess its do as i say not as i do.
@@jmo23341 maintenance guys have to drive in those areas sometimes. I’m not sure if the guys at your course drive by the greens for no reason or not but one maintenance guy driving by the green will not harm the grass but 100 golfers a day will
Great tip! Your explanation of the benefits of AimPoint were excellent. I use AimPoint for those exact reasons. The only thing I do differently is that I aim the line on my ball to the AimPoint target, instead of picking a blemish on the green to aim at. That seems to work better for me.
Speed trumps line for sure. Competed in a match play tournament recently and decided to concentrate on speed to eliminate pressure on second puts and not give away holes with three putts. It worked! I now take that approach all the time and reduced three putts without reducing birdies.
You can focus on speed. Getting the line right isn’t an either/or
But he said he wants to help you make more putts. So be happy with three and more putts... no? 🥳🤡
Ok this might be an old video by now but I need to putt better to improve my game currently in 2023. You earned my subscription. 👍🏼
i have been a professional putter since 1977. i use this technique in that i look for marks or divots in the carpet.. after several practice putts i adjust my line from the mark or move my feet left or right and play the same mark with same speed.
Thank you for the vid. I agree with you on all points. I love APE. I didn’t go to one of their teaching clinics but took excellent notes before they pulled a lot of content off You Tube because people were teaching themselves. 😂 You can use Aim Point for getting the speed down by using the bend in your elbow before sighting the putt (and can titrate that as your round continues). I’m sure you know that already. A point you made that’s better than good is totally committing to your target! Because many times we humans will get over the ball to putt and think, “That can’t be right” and make an adjustment at the last second. This doesn’t work. You must trust your system and learn from that.
The hot dog shot at the end was icing on the cake. Great video. Makes this game a blast!
Too much showing off…was trying to show how close it was
I learned this thing too. Many don't know that that AimPoint came about as a result of software that was developed to trace putts on TV and it was an observation that your fingers could replace % break and also that your feet can feel break better than your eyes can gauge. AimPoint has many good lessons to be learned, but in the end putting is about speed and feel, all we are doing by reading a green is increasing our odds. I also use that intermediate point, but I do this for every shot I take all the way up to driver so it was natural to do this. The main thing I use from aim point is feeling the break in my feet from the last half of the putt. I also use the shaft to line up my putts with my dominant eye. Good lesson!
Thanks for your insights
I pull my putter back 3-6-9-12-18 inches and measure them going both ways. Keep your grip super loose and stroke. So if I hit a putt pulling back 6" 8 paces I know that a 12 pace putt needs 9" of stroke. Uphill add 1-2" downhill subtract 1-2"
Works great on strange courses where you may be confused.
Awesome tip. What about fast and slow greens? Would one do the same? Add subtract 1-2"?
@@jmo23341 yesterday I played and a 12" pullback resulted in a 10 paces putt so 5/6 rule. If my putt is 8 paces I pull my putter back 9+ inches. When it's uphill I add a little mustard and downhill take some off. Takes lots if guesswork out
I have been using aimpoint for a month and my putting has improved. But I found out another issue with using your feet, quite by accident. I was getting measured for a pair of insoles and they put me on a machine that measures where the weight on each foot is greatest. For example my right foot had more weight on the heel. However the more interesting measurement was that I had 9% more weight on my right side than my left side. When I put the insoles on it was more evenly distributed. In order to be more accurate using your feet you have to make sure that the weight is more evenly distributed between your feet. It’ll never be perfect but the closer you get to even the better the slope reading. I still need more practice with a digital level. (I use an iPhone app) but it really has helped my green reading. Thanks.
Interesting on the weight distribution and the insoles...I wasn't aware but it makes sense.
Great explanation. I practice picking a spot on the fall line, and practice speed control. Practice at different distance, along the same line.....Just a thought
I don't know how this is going to sound, but it's remarkable that as a novice golfer and never having heard of this before, it occurred to me that I could feel the slope on the green with my feet, far more effectively than I could read it with my eyes. I really only golfed seriously this season and broke 80 for the first time and then started to do so regularly. I simply walked the line, usually to the ball slightly inside a line between the ball and the hole and then back slightly outside, so slightly different from the straddle method. Anyway, I did find that it worked much better and I turned 3 putts into a rare event! I think this goes to show you that common sense sometimes leads us to unexpected solutions!
You put in the thinking work and brought out some quality content, thank you
Thank you...I was a little worried its too long...LOL
Finally! Someone showing close up's and step by step on this. Wish i would've found this video first.
It works. Shot -3 today.
I walk to the midway point between my ball and the hole and double it. I don't want to be slow. Also downhill putts break much more than uphill ones. Gravity has more time to pull on a downhill slow-roller.
great video - and nice, that the golfer always is the responsible actor (even in putting ;-))
by the way - do you know the "sweet spot finder" Check Go from Technasonic Electronics Inc. - if you mark your balls and put them on the putting rail exactly with the sweet spot axis 90° to the roll - perhaps the results come out better - proofing that there can be an excentric weight concentration inside some of the balls, which will pull the unmarked / uncentered placed balls unpredictable to one side - the longer the putts, the more (i didn't ran over this point before)
I’ve seen those used and certainly some balls are not balanced
That's my home course. Saw someone doing a video last week. Might have been you. Good content.
Possibly. I record in different places around town regularly.
Always a pleasure to learn from u!
Thank you I will try
My thoughts...putting should be simple..it's about feel..practicing direction and speed is the best way to be a good putter in my opinion.
I guess the "biggest lesson," for me would actually be how to pick the Apex point! How do you know not to aim at that old cup? I understand the degree of slope, how many figures & distance next to the cup for the aiming point - but the real aiming point is actually the Apex - how do you target and determine the Apex aiming point?
That is the weakness of a point for me you’re still have to play it by feel to find the Apex and get the ball to that point
Met you on the Revere practice green: great content!
Thanks...yes I remember you..Nice talking to you...and I just subscribed to your channel
@@misteroneputt Thanks! Just got my 36 inch PXG Mustang Putter Gen1 putter off of Ebay yesterday. Would be cool to get your input as to the different faces on the different generations of PXG putters!
@@ericzellershow hmmmm....that could be an interesting video...I may touch base with you on that
Wasting too much times 😅on something you can't be good at.Try 10putts to see how many can you make from that distance.
What kind of golf shoes are those, with the level between them, at the 58 sec mark?
If you read the line but aim at apex, you will go low as the slope between ball and apex takes ball below apex. To go over apex, your starting line has to be above apex, so you are now making 1 putt read into 2 reads. Better to ho with line.
How does aim point determine line from a double break putt?
@@Frankchiew59 that gets complicated but the short answer is you find where the second break starts Reid the break to get the ball there and then read the break from there to get towards the hole and make adjustments.
@@misteroneputt Thank u
First, the AimPoint method does work. First the TV stuff is BS; originally AimPoint supplied a "perfect line" to CBS Sports for Tour broadcasts. After a while Sweeney wanted more money and CBS balked. Then ANOTHER group took over, for less money. The tail you relate here may be the "cover story" used when Sweeney tried to sue the author of the line we see on TV each week. Sweeney lost in court. End of story. (Footnote: It's said a former contractor of Sweeney went out and did this for personal reasons but that's never been verified publicly though it sounds entirely likely.) Now, as to an explanation of where AimPoint originated. Sweeney's AImPoint concept originated using a US Air Force vet's book, "Vector Putting" by H.A. Templeton, published in 1984. Sweeney took that original data and paid a Canadian professor to write a bogus technical paper claiming it was his idea. Sweeney then applied for and erroneously received a US Patent on the AimPoint concept under subterfuge. The math for determining the break amount from variously distances / slopes was originally provided by a civil engineer who does golf course site design work. Sweeney has been sued by for his claims by Templeton's heirs in the past and he aggressively sues for patent infringement anyone who challenges his product or attempted sale of anything similar. These are the true honest facts and anyone may research them as they are in the public domain.
I love Aim point, thank you, very good!
How would you determine where the apex is? And if thats just your judgement, then how do you know if your intended line is any better than your perceived apex?
The Apex is the highest point of the putt… breaks the most from that point. If I understand that a putt breaks before the apex and allow for that in my intended start line, it’s better because my putt is always breaking towards the hole and never away from the hole.
@@misteroneputt thanks, that makes sense.
The hardest part of this and key words if you know the percentage of slope which is near impossible not giving the tools and technology of pros im starting to use aim point and it helps but breaking down the percent is hard with no baseline simulated green to reference
Exactly. It works if you have a slope book that is accurate and a caddie who knows how to use it. But feeling it with your feet is hard
how far do you stand behind the ball when you put your fingers up?
6-8 feet. Also, probably better to stand on the opposite side of the whole away from the ball and check it to.
How do you account for the difference in break between an uphill or a downhill putt? Because a degree of angle has a far more break going downhill than uphill.
That’s another issue with aim point for me. Nothing is exact
So if it’s down hill and you will be hitting slower. You bring your fingers closer to your eye. So if you usually fully extend your arms to get your point, if you’re going downhill so you’ll be hitting it slower, maybe only extend your arm 3/4 out.
Great video I believe there is 20 different lines to a braking putt and what matters the most is speed speed speed speed
Exactly
Totally agree, I like to imagine a 2d wind sock with the narrow end at the hole and the wide end parallel to direction of putt.
The side nearest you is where the shortest successful putt would roll, the side furthest the
longest.
Can give you a surprising large oval to drop the ball through and take the pressure off.
Sometimes when I pick a line crouching down and then ? I stand over the ball my line looks different
That happens a lot and is different for different people...has to do with the way our eyes work. I've done several videos on eye alignment to help with this...got a new one coming at the end of this month on how to solve this problem.
Determining slope on a green with your feet was done Way before AIM point.. Like back in 1970's. No discovery just profit off an old idea
If you want to get a feel for percentage you can always stand on a treadmill and increase the incline. It goes in percentages. Little hack.
Nice idea
I clicked on this video thinking that it would teach me how to use the finger method on reading greens. I still have no idea on how to do that. Any way on making a video about that? Or someone telling me how to learn that?
Email me and i’ll send you some help on that
Where I live we aim to make fewer putts, not more. Perhaps you mean to hole more putts...? Different countries, different golf, I suppose. 🤔
Making more means making less and a lower score. But I get your point. English language can be confusing
I can't feel the difference with my feet.
Then you shouldn't use AimPoint for green reading...not being a jerk here. Aimpoint just isn't for everyone.
Same thing here. I guess I’ll default to the plum bob method.
Practice using some lengths of 6mm laminate or similar. Each layer represents 1 degree of slope.
Put them shoulder width apart on a hard surface.
Close your eyes, stand with one foot on one piece, move your centre of gravity slowly from directly over one foot to the other a few times then bring it to the centre, notice how it feels in your legs knees etc.
Repeat this a few times for each height and each foot.
Get someone to test u by changing them for you.
Do this for a few days and you'll be able to use your body like a spirit level on the course, and it's an almost instant read.
@@alandrew2462 excellent idea. Thanks.
try and feel it more in your hips (whichever hip feels higher)
trampling the green to perform a slope reading leaving for other players a trampled putting surface should be prohibited by the R&A rather than ridiculously modifying the height of the ball drop.....
Seems like a slow play nightmare....
Only if people are slow. This shouldn’t add time but slow players tend to drag out everything. Personally if I ran a golf course any group who took more than 13 minutes per any hole would be immediately removed from the course with no refund and never allowed to return.
Have neuropathy in the ball of my feet. Does absolutely no good for me.
It's all bs,if you play on a public course you will suffer the rath of players behind you 😮. Besides it will slow down play. Imagine 4players doing this fistacuffs will insure.😢
Yes, we all hate slow play
Patten ist Gefühlssache und ein gutes Auge Aimpoint ist Quatsch
The worst time waster in golf !
Total bs. Not as bad as the time killing ,stepping. If it was worth anything the pros would all use these. IMHO
@@Starman1106 I get that you don’t like AimPoint…and the time killing we all hate. But the Pros do use this method…actually about 20% of them do.
i bet this took 5000 takes
Nah. I don’t actually remember but most videos we produce and shots we post take 1-2 and sometimes as many as 3 or 4 to get what we are trying to communicate but never more
Can we please stop the straddling of the putting line!!!!!!! I watch the Tour guys do this and now they are teaching the public to do it. The Tour Pro straddles his line in three places picking up and dropping his feet each time. Then his caddie does the same thing. That ends up adding 25 steps with in 8 feet of the hole. so when I am playing on a typical Saturday this adds thousands of steps near the hole screwing up the greens. We are out there to play gold not trample down the greens!!!!
Funny u mention this. I mentioned something similiar to a buddy while playing. Course rules do not allow carts near the green right....however all day during rounds u see the maintainance guys whipping around in the work carts like its their off road play ground. Just 2 days ago i saw while playing, a small suzuki jeep on the course casually driving thru. I guess its do as i say not as i do.
@@jmo23341 maintenance guys have to drive in those areas sometimes. I’m not sure if the guys at your course drive by the greens for no reason or not but one maintenance guy driving by the green will not harm the grass but 100 golfers a day will
@@jmo23341there allowed to go on it…..
I agree!
@@jmo23341 no.
WTF putter does he have
Read the Video description and there it is
Agree with @joefye2666
This will lead to even slower play..this might be ok for pvt club players....not public golf....
This new(-ish) idea that "works" and "doesn't work" are the only options is a plague on society.