Collin Morikawa hits back at major champion over controversial claim

Lucas Glover caused a stir two weeks ago when he called for the AimPoint green-reading method to be outlawed from the game. 

“Statistically, [AimPoint] hasn’t helped anybody make more putts since its inception on the PGA Tour,” Glover recently on his eponymous show for PGA Tour SiriusXM Radio.

The former US Open champion added: “It’s also kind of rude to be up near the hole, stomping around figuring out where the break is in your feet. It needs to be banned. It takes forever.”

Those comments, of course, were never going to sit well with the AimPoint hardcores.

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The technique, which sees players very deliberately use their feet to work out the tilt of the green, has risen to prominence in recent years, and for Glover, that has come at the detriment of slow play.

Collin Morikawa is one of those that believes AimPoint has helped him on the greens.

“I have nothing against Lucas, but if we’re banning AimPoint, I think we should ban long putters as well,” he said in Tuesday’s press conference ahead of the Genesis Invitational.

“I don’t know. I guess no one has said it, right?”

Morikawa’s sly response drew laughs from the media centre at Torrey Pines. He was then asked if he had issues with the long putter used by the likes of Glover and Adam Scott.

“I’m just throwing shade back,” he replied. “I’m protecting my AimPoint guys, right? There’s guys that long putt and have AimPoint. I don’t have any beef. I don’t have anything wrong with putting like that, I just had to protect my AimPoint guys.”

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Glover noted banning AimPoint as one of eight ways to fix the pace of play issue, but Morikawa suggested that the technique is far from the crux of that perennial problem.

“AimPoint does take longer if you’re not doing it properly, right, if you’re not doing it when other players are reading their putts,” the two-time major champion added.

“I think there’s a respect issue. I think some players might get a little bit too close to the hole and I get that. When you get too close to the hole when someone else is putting, yeah, like I don’t want my line and my putt to go over someone else’s foot and their marks.

“I mean, are you going to tell other players not to walk around the hole when we’re picking up putts?”

Morikawa continued: “Does it slow down play? I think some players maybe do it in the wrong spots. And sometimes, look, I’ll admit it, maybe I can’t get in when I want to so it adds a couple more seconds.

“But I know that, and I’m aware of that. I think players need to be aware if they’re slow or not, right? Like let people know who is slow and do something about it, right?”

Ben Parsons joined bunkered as a Content Producer in 2023 and is the man to come to for all of the latest news, across both the professional and amateur games. Formerly of The Mirror and Press Association, he is a member at Halifax Golf Club and is a long-suffering fan of both Manchester United and the Wales rugby team.