AimPoint founder blasts major champion over “malicious” claims

The founder and inventor of AimPoint, Mark Sweeney, has hit back at “malicious” claims made by Lucas Glover last month.

Speaking on PGA Tour Radio, Glover argued that the controversial green reading method – believed to be used by more than half of tour players – should be banned.

The 2009 US Open champ said that statistically, AimPoint hasn’t helped players make more putts since its inception, while the method creates footprints near the hole and slows play.

But Sweeney has vehemently defended his creation and rubbished the claims.

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“I get it if people just don’t like it,” he told bunkered.co.uk, “that’s a personal preference, but Lucas was factually wrong when he said it’s never helped anybody, it’s insane.

“AimPoint has been on tour for 17 years, and the first tour player to use it was Scott McCarron. He went from being a very below average putter to a top 20 putter every year since then.

“Adam Scott went to number one in the world when he started using it. Lydia Ko went to number one; Stacy Lewis went to number one. There are loads of stats to show that people got better, so I don’t know where that came from. I think that was out of order, honestly.

“And it’s not my opinion, this is ShotLink data. If you know when a player started AimPoint, and you look before and afters, 90 to 95% improve.

“It was a false statement. I think it was a malicious statement. And I think he’s going to have to walk it back and retract it in the near future.”

Sweeney, who founded the technique 22 years ago, conducted a recent study to outline his understanding that players are, in fact, making huge gains on the greens.

As posted on X, a sample of 15 players – including Robert MacIntyre, Tommy Fleetwood and Collin Morikawa – have seen their average strokes gained putting ranks improve by an average of seven.

Akshay Bhatia, a two-time winner on the PGA Tour, was ranked 52nd in SG: Putting 12 months before using AimPoint, compared to 24th just 12 months after using it.

Meanwhile, Sweeney is adamant that AimPoint is neither a slow play concern nor leads to unnecessary footprints.

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“If you count the footprints and the time that a player takes to do an AimPoint read, it’s typically between ten and 20 seconds,” he said. “Anything longer would be considered a slow AimPoint read.

“You can watch golf all day long and see people taking two and three times that amount of time for six-foot putt, ten-foot putts. I’ve got side by side videos even from last week, videos of Morikawa and Aberg doing reads in ten to 15 seconds, and other players taking a minute to a minute-and-a-half.

“It’s a false criticism to claim it’s slow. All I can say is that people who do an AimPoint read and then do a traditional read are slower, but there’s no reason to do both. We don’t teach that.

“And footprints aren’t reasonable [criticism] because 99% of players would never stand on top of the hole. Our method is to walk two thirds of the way into the putt and then back. So, on a ten-foot putt, you’re walking seven feet in, and you’re still three feet away from the hole.

“I saw reads at Pebble Beach, where somebody walked 30 feet worth of distance to read a three-footer, whereas an AimPoint read would have been a foot and a half and back at two thirds total.

“So, I think it’s very unfair and people have these perceptions that are wrong. The only way to deal with that, which we’re doing now, is putting the hard stats out there.”

AimPoint made a swift return to the headlines at the weekend, when LPGA Tour star A Lim Kim caused a stir.

A viral clip on social media showed the 29-year-old using it to convert a putt no longer than 18 inches.

John Turnbull A graduate of the University of Stirling, John joined the bunkered team in 2023 as a Content Producer, with a responsibility for covering all breaking news, tour news, grassroots content and much more besides. A keen golfer, he plays the majority of his golf at Falkirk Golf Club. Top of his 'bucket list' is a round of Pebble Beach... ideally in the company of Gareth Bale.