AimPoint putting: How does it work?
We tried AimPoint for 138 days to see if it could save our putting.
Putting is one of the most difficult skills in the game of golf and also one of the most important. So, to see if we could fix our putting woes, we tried using a method called AimPoint.
Fans of Justin Rose or Adam Scott may be familiar with the style, and since its introduction, it has become widely popular amongst pros around the world.
But how does it work?
AimPoint is a simple alignment method that involves using both your feet and your hands to figure out the exact line a putt should be hit on in order for it to find the target.
The first step involves standing between your ball and the hole and feeling the weight in your feet.
When standing on the line of your putt, you should be able to feel a slight difference in weight between your two feet. If you feel more weight on your left foot, that means that the slope is moving from right to left, so the ball will fall left. Similarly, if you feel more weight in your right foot, the ball will move from left to right, taking the slope right.
Sounds relatively simple right?
We are going to try and throw some numbers into the equation, so this is where it can get a bit tricky.
When judging the break in a putt, the slope will often be between one and five degrees of severity.
So, the key aim is to determine where the slope lands on the spectrum between one and five.
This part of the method will take some time to calibrate as you hit more and more putts by measuring the slope with your feet, you will gradually understand how severe each slope is. Alternatively, if you want to speed up this process, you can get a spirit level out on the practice green to better appreciate how each degree of slope feels.
Once you have done so, you can use a handy trick involving your fingers to assess the correct starting line for your putt.
As a rule of thumb, one finger outside the hole equals almost exactly one degree of slope. So, if you bring your hand up in front of you in line with the hole and put one finger up on either the left or right side of the hole, depending on which way the ball will fall, that should give you an accurate start line for one degree of slope.
Hold two fingers up, and that will be two degrees of slope. This trick works up to five degrees of slope with five fingers, and if you're faced with more break than that, good luck.
Once you have selected your correct start line using both your hands and feet, all you need to do is set the ball out on that line with the right weight, and you should see it break in the right direction back to the hole.
This method takes time to calibrate fully, and we highly recommend putting it to the test on your nearest putting green before utilising it on the course.
Check out the video below to see how GolfMagic Equipment Editor Alex Lodge and Cobra's Everyday Golfer Nick Rees got on with the method.
