Instruction
Q&A with Mark Sweeney, Inventor of Aimpoint
The enigma of “reading greens” has puzzled many players over the years. What was once considered just an art — either you could do it or you couldn’t — has now been made into a science. With the invention of AimPoint by Mark Sweeney, anyone young or old can now read greens with the precision of a Tour caddie.
As someone who’s taught green reading to many golfers, it has never ceased to amaze me how differently some of my students read greens. That’s where AimPoint comes in. It’s a system based on quantifiable numbers that allows all golfers to “see” the correct line. In this Q&A, I’m glad to bring you a brilliant mind and a game changer on the greens, Mark Sweeney.
Tom Stickney: Tell me how Aimpoint was invented?
Mark Sweeney: Aimpoint began as a very complex software program that was designed to accurately predict break on any green, and over about 10 years it evolved into the Express Read that you see now. The first product was actually an app for Palm Pilots in 2004 prior to it being used on Golf Channel.
TS: Is this a system that anyone can use? I have noticed the newer versions are much simpler than the earlier ones.
MS: The Express Read is the fouth version of reads that we have taught, and it was specifically designed for children under 10 years old to be a single-factor read. It can be used by anyone because there are no angles and calculations of any kind; it’s simply assigning a slope value of typically 1-3 for any putt. When you use your fingers to see the Aimpoint, you actually get a mathematically correct read.
TS: You have many top tour professionals using your system. How does this make you feel?
MS: Tour pros using Aimpoint is a nice validation that the read works and is reliable, something that I always knew but was difficult to convey to people who haven’t used it.
TS: Can reading greens really be broken down into a science? Or is there still some art to it using your system?
MS: The read is definitely a blend, much like getting a yardage. It isn’t as simple as just laser-ing it. Club selection always depends on lie, wind, shot shape, etc. Green reading is the same; there are feel variables like how hard you want to hit it, but the majority of break is dictated by the amount of side slope in the putt.
TS: What was the most amazing thing you have learned about reading greens since inventing Aimpoint?
MS: The most amazing thing I learned is how much geometry there is behind how putts break on a green, more than you would ever see or discover simply by putting. The computer can show you every break on the green simultaneously and those always look like macro-geometric patterns, nothing random.
TS: Is this system really necessary if you play the same course day in and day out?
MS: I think so. I used to play the same course every week and my green reading was still terrible. (With Aimpoint) I can generally get better reads on a golf course than the local players. Every time the angles and green speeds change all the breaks will change and it’s almost impossible to learn them all by experience.
TS: What is the best green reading tip you can give to the average players?
MS: Green reading is actually very simple if you focus on the amount of side-slope in the putt. When they first see Aimpoint reads, most people can’t believe how much break there actually is until they learn to trust it. After learning breaks, they spend most of their time learning speed control.
TS: What is the answer you give to the people that say your system is too complex or too technical?
MS: The original system using zero lines were highly complex and impractical. The chart system is the most accurate read, but is still too technical for most people. There is nothing technical whatsoever about the Express Read; it was designed for second-grade aged kids.
TS: What is your greatest player success story?
MS: For pros, I would say Lydia Ko. She fully committed to learning and using Aimpoint and finished first in both putting categories last year. Her putting consistency while using it has been very strong, especially inside 10 feet. On the amateur side, I have loads of players who have improved as much as five putts per round after learning Aimpoint and reached new scoring and handicap levels.
TS: Thank you for your time, Mark!
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Instruction
Clement: Laid-off or perfect fade? Across-the-line or perfect draw?
Some call the image on the left laid off, but if you are hitting a fade, this could be a perfect backswing for it! Same for across the line for a draw! Stop racking your brain with perceived mistakes and simply match backswing to shot shape!
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Instruction
The Wedge Guy: The easiest-to-learn golf basic
My golf learning began with this simple fact – if you don’t have a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, it is practically impossible for your body to execute a fundamentally sound golf swing. I’m still a big believer that the golf swing is much easier to execute if you begin with the proper hold on the club.
As you might imagine, I come into contact with hundreds of golfers of all skill levels. And it is very rare to see a good player with a bad hold on the golf club. There are some exceptions, for sure, but they are very few and very far between, and they typically have beat so many balls with their poor grip that they’ve found a way to work around it.
The reality of biophysics is that the body moves only in certain ways – and the particulars of the way you hold the golf club can totally prevent a sound swing motion that allows the club to release properly through the impact zone. The wonderful thing is that anyone can learn how to put a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, and you can practice it anywhere your hands are not otherwise engaged, like watching TV or just sitting and relaxing.
Whether you prefer an overlap, interlock or full-finger (not baseball!) grip on the club, the same fundamentals apply. Here are the major grip faults I see most often, in the order of the frequency:
Mis-aligned hands
By this I mean that the palms of the two hands are not parallel to each other. Too many golfers have a weak left hand and strong right, or vice versa. The easiest way to learn how to hold the club with your palms aligned properly is to grip a plain wooden ruler or yardstick. It forces the hands to align properly and shows you how that feels. If you grip and re-grip a yardstick several times, then grip a club, you’ll see that the learning curve is almost immediate.
The position of the grip in the upper/left hand
I also observe many golfers who have the butt of the grip too far into the heel pad of the upper hand (the left hand for right-handed players). It’s amazing how much easier it is to release the club through the ball if even 1/4-1/2″ of the butt is beyond the left heel pad. Try this yourself to see what I mean. Swing the club freely with just your left hand and notice the difference in its release from when you hold it at the end of the grip, versus gripping down even a half inch.
To help you really understand how this works, go to the range and hit shots with your five-iron gripped down a full inch to make the club the same length as your seven-iron. You will probably see an amazing shot shape difference, and likely not see as much distance loss as you would expect.
Too much lower (right) hand on the club
It seems like almost all golfers of 8-10 handicap or higher have the club too far into the palm of the lower hand, because that feels “good” if you are trying to control the path of the clubhead to the ball. But the golf swing is not an effort to hit at the ball – it is a swing of the club. The proper hold on the club has the grip underneath the pad at the base of the fingers. This will likely feel “weak” to you — like you cannot control the club like that. EXACTLY. You should not be trying to control the club with your lower/master hand.
Gripping too tightly
Nearly all golfers hold the club too tightly, which tenses up the forearms and prevents a proper release of the club through impact. In order for the club to move back and through properly, you must feel that the club is controlled by the last three fingers of the upper hand, and the middle two fingers of the lower hand. If you engage your thumbs and forefingers in “holding” the club, the result will almost always be a grip that is too tight. Try this for yourself. Hold the club in your upper hand only, and squeeze firmly with just the last three fingers, with the forefinger and thumb off the club entirely. You have good control, but your forearms are not tense. Then begin to squeeze down with your thumb and forefinger and observe the tensing of the entire forearm. This is the way we are made, so the key to preventing tenseness in the arms is to hold the club very lightly with the “pinchers” — the thumbs and forefingers.
So, those are what I believe are the four fundamentals of a good grip. Anyone can learn them in their home or office very quickly. There is no easier way to improve your ball striking consistency and add distance than giving more attention to the way you hold the golf club.
More from the Wedge Guy
- The Wedge Guy: Golf mastery begins with your wedge game
- The Wedge Guy: Why golf is 20 times harder than brain surgery
- The Wedge Guy: Musings on the golf ball rollback
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Instruction
Clement: Stop ripping off your swing with this drill!
Not the dreaded headcover under the armpit drill! As if your body is defective and can’t function by itself! Have you seen how incredible the human machine is with all the incredible feats of agility all kinds of athletes are accomplishing? You think your body is so defective (the good Lord is laughing his head off at you) that it needs a headcover tucked under the armpit so you can swing like T-Rex?
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Fat Perez
Apr 16, 2017 at 4:19 am
I’m holding up 1 fing’a
Braxton strong
Apr 14, 2017 at 11:37 am
Uh.. How about Justin Rose who almost won the masters???I started using aimpoint express and its not perfect but I feel much more confident putting which has led to more holed putts
JIm
Apr 14, 2017 at 10:27 am
Having Adam Scott be your poster boy for AimPoint is not good. He is a horrendous putter by tour standards and I saw a stat that he missed 50% of his putts at the Masters from 5-10ft.
george
Apr 14, 2017 at 11:19 am
I remember a time Adam Scott won the Masters. Good times then.
A good read does not lead to a good putt (I have to know). Since he isn’t putting with his broomstick anymore, he’s not a great putter anymore. Just proves to me that banning the broomstick technique he used was the right thing to do. It’s just too easy.
Richie Hunt
Apr 14, 2017 at 12:10 pm
Adam Scott went from 150th in Strokes Gained – Putting to 54th when he started using AimPoint. He struggled in 2015 due to trying to change from an anchored stroke to a non-anchored stroke but is now 78th in Strokes Gained – Putting.
Joe
Apr 14, 2017 at 2:50 pm
And yet he’s 100 places better in his Total Putting ranking, for the year, then when he was using a long putter and not using Aimpoint.
Connor
Apr 14, 2017 at 4:24 pm
A very invalid statement. Since we’re talking “tour standards”, why don’t we discuss how far from “tour standard” Augusta’s greens are? A downhill, 7ft slider that breaks a foot and a half and is on a surface that is stimping at 13-14 is different than many “tour standard” surfaces on tour.
yttihS
Apr 15, 2017 at 3:17 am
Bingo. That’s why you saw Scott and Rose miss those silly shortish putts with the aim point. They didn’t compute the speed enough to their fingers
Desmond
Apr 18, 2017 at 4:37 pm
There is more to the express read that slope – you also calibrate for speed before, and during the round if the greens are getting softer or harder.