AimPoint had another big win today by Bo Van Pelt on the PGA tour. A final round 64 with 5 birdies on the back nine closed out the tournament for an impressive 6 shot win. That makes nearly 10 wins on the PGA and LPGA Tour in 2011. An impressive stat in my opinion. The interesting part is progression of the information and it’s correlation to the changes that happened with the long game many years ago.
It used to be the case that players had to use their eyes and experience to determine their distance from the hole. The architect would use various forms of trickery to visually deceive the player. Both for long shots and on the putting green. Over time, courses started placing yardage markers or trees or bushes to help the player with the process. Many players were skeptical and continued to use their eyes for distance estimation. Honestly, they were quite good at it as well.
In the pro game, yardage books eventually became the norm so a player would have to do less visual guessing. This process would eventually progress to the point where caddies use lasers that bounce off objects to get the exact yardage from one point to another. Also using lasers and other devices to determine yardage change caused by elevation change as well. Players have stopped using time to train their eyes on how far things are and they’re using that time saved for other things. I still think many use their eyes for short shots but I think you all know what I mean.
This exact same process is repeating itself with AimPoint. Up until recently, all players have had to learn green reading through sight and trial and error. The exact same process that was used to learn distance for the long game. Sight and trial and error. Now comes AimPoint. Based on certain inputs, we now have a very accurate idea of exactly where to aim and start the ball.
Many times, especially with good players, they prefer to use their eyes and memory to determine the read. They’ve used that process for many years with extensive practice. Along comes AimPoint saying based on these things, you should aim here. Lots of resistance enters in. Some have a hard time giving up the procedure they’ve done, and done well, for very long. They tell me, “I think this is great, but it’s not for me. I’m a feel putter.” It makes me wonder. So, I ask them how do you know how far from the pin you are you when you play. They rattle off an answer like it’s 150 to the front, plus 3 more for elevation and 12 more on to the green. 156 to carry the bunker on the right and 173 off the back. Best place to putt from is just below the hole to the left so 159.
Does that sound like a feel player to you? It sure doesn’t to me. A feel player would say maybe an 8 iron and that’s it. Players are now accustomed to getting an exact number they are trying to hit the ball based on all the measurements they’ve taken on the course. Then they get on the putting green and want to use “feel” and guess. Seems strange to me but I think I understand it. The AimPoint process is different but with the same goal in mind. It’s goal is: based on where my ball is and what the ball is rolling across where should I aim. The time saved by not doing trial and error is focused on developing the specific skills necessary for generating the correct inputs for the AimChart. It’s just a matter of time before the AimPoint process replaces the process from the past of trial and error, memory and ‘feel’. It’s coming. I believe it to be true.
The question is when do you want to adopt the new process and stop guessing?
Thanks for reading and I hope to see you at an AimPoint class in the future. A list of events can be found here –> AimPoint Classes. Please consider sharing this post through social media channels by using the buttons at the top and bottom of this post.