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

Aimpoint Golf Review:  Part 5 of my Aimpoint Odyssey

AimpointApril 15-17, 2011

ROAD TRIP!!! This weekend, I played in Temecula, California. And I was excited to try Aimpoint on some new greens. Little did I know, I had NO IDEA what I was in for. In fact, it turns out, I had NO IDEA what I was doing!

I played CrossCreek, Journey at Pechanga, and Temecula Creek Inn. Three beautiful courses in great shape. They all had one thing in common: their greens are not easy to read. It turns out that practically every green I encountered had multiple shapes and undulations. By shapes, the 3 basic green shapes are planar, crowns, and saddles. I can read these features pretty decent. To review an example, crowns are when 2 sides of the green are lower than the hole, so as you walk around the hole, you go up, down, up, down, and you can find 4 zero lines or straight putts. You just find the zero line closest to your ball and make the read off of that. But when the putt goes over crown, through a saddle, then banks hard left, and… watch out for that shoulder… and am I on the wrong tier??? I had no idea how to read that.

By about my 40th hole, I walked a half arc around the hole at about 5 ft, and I noticed that I went up and down like 4 or 5 times! What the heck? So at first glance I found a straight putt, but really, it was the wrong straight putt to work off of. I had to find the closer straight putt, which I did.. and made the 7 footer. Quite enlightening, but I was lost nonetheless. At least I knew why I was lost.

Anyways, it was a bit disappointing. I was prepared to make awesome reads and impress my friends. I was talking nonstop about Aimpoint all weekend long, but it seemed like a lot of nonsense after my performance. My friends thought it was great in theory, but they could do just as good their way. I’m not giving up by any means… it only makes me more determined to master this, because I am still completely sold on the idea of Aimpoint.

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.