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Aimpoint Clinic: My Personal Odyssey to Putting Enlightenment (Part IV)

Aimpoint Golf Review: Part 4 of my Aimpoint Odyssey

AimpointApril 9, 2011

I played golf this morning. I played at my home course, and my friend had me come out early… like 2nd group off early. It’s 3 of us, and these 2 guys are intent on finishing in under 3 hours. Obviously, this is bad for me and my green reading. I want to pace off the putt, find my zero, figure out my aimpoint, aim my aimpoint, take my practice swings to dial in my speed…. and these guys are playing ultra ready golf. There were a few times where at least one guy finished while I was still not on the green. Ultimately, I didn’t mind, since I knew what I was getting into, so I just had to adjust. I’m a decent speed player… I normally spend most of my time on the greens. I don’t take long at all with my full swings. So on the greens, I did my best to quickly find zero, pace off my putt. If my putt was <2% slope and inside 10 ft, and I was close to zero, I would just estimate a 1 inch aimpoint, give or take, depending on what kind of break I SAW with my eyes. If I was further, or it was a more complicated putt, I’d work as fast as possible, which meant trusting my feet quickly, find a zero quickly, pace off quickly, look at my chart quickly, one practice swing, commit. On a few holes, I was first on, so I was able to take more time. And maybe on birdie and par putts, I was a little more deliberate, but faster than I was comfortable with.

The Bottom-line

End of story? I putted pretty well. In fact, the comment from my player partner was: “Wow, you’re pretty money on those 10 footers”. I missed a 10 footer on 18, and his comment was: “First one of those you missed all day”.

And I did make about 6 7-10 footers. I lagged really well. I misread maybe 3-5 putts. As usual, my misreads was playing a break when the putt was straight. I’m still trying to figure that out… The different green shapes complicate things, and I’m not seeing the multiple straight putts around the hole. Overall, 6 weeks into this, my putting has improved immensely, and I still don’t know what I’m doing!!!! I think most of it is my focus on speed control. I make more putts because I take advantage of the capture speed concept (see part IV). But alot of it is also committing to the line, trusting the system, so that ALL I have to worry about is speed control. My confidence is high, even though I’m not 100% confident that I know the system. Weird, I know.

About GK Member michaelko:
Our resident physical therapist from Northern California and one of the original GK Staffers. He is also one of the individuals responsible for making the GK Casual Golf Events possible. Way back when it was only an idea, michaelko, was one of those individuals that made it possible with our first outing of six members at Rio Hondo Country Club, Downey CA.